房地产税的职能定位与方案选择——基于国家治理的视角

Function Orientation and Scheme Selection of the Real Estate Tax——From the Perspective of National Governance

本文从国家治理视角出发分政府内部治理、社会公共治理、市场治理三个方面系统分析了房地产税的三重职能定位和四套征收方案,得出如下结论:其一,从政府内部治理角度,房地产税并不适宜充当地方主体税种,如果照搬国外经验给予房地产税过高的规模设定,会同时削弱中央政府的财政支配份额和宏观调控能力,背离了“分税制”改革的初衷,未来推出房地产税的同时必须辅以房地产税收体系的结构性减税。其二,从社会公共治理角度,由于中国极高的房价收入比,将出现部分单套房家庭“收不抵税”的情况,无支付能力家庭往往是中低收入阶层,从而损及房地产税公平职能,未来应当将保证单套房家庭的税款支付能力作为房地产税设计的首要问题。其三,从市场治理角度,由于中国极高的房价租金比,部分多套房持有者无法实现“以租养税”而被迫将多余住房出售,未来如何保证房地产税的平稳开征、避免房价大起大落是必须考虑的经济难题。其四,房地产税的推出要处理好长期和短期的关系,引入断路器机制必须立足长期,在个人所得税改革到位之前不具备可行性基础,要在短期内尽快推出房地产税,首套房免税方案将是唯一的理想选择。

This paper precisely probes into the widely discussed three functions and four schemes of real estate tax from the perspective of national governance risk including intra-government governance,public governance as well as market governance,and draws the following conclusions:First,from the perspective of intra-government governance risk,real estate tax is not a desirable choice to be the main local tax.It will weaken the central government's fiscal dominant share and macro-control ability to make high-scale setting for real estate tax,thus deviating from the reform of tax sharing system in 1994.So,it will be necessary to introduce structural tax cuts of real estate tax system as a supplement.Second,from the perspective of social governance risk,some single-suite family with relatively limited earnings cannot afford the tax due for high price-to-income ratio,which will do harm to the redistribution effect of real estate tax.We should give priority to the pay-off ability of single-suite family in the forthcoming tax design.Third,from the perspective of market governance risk,because of the high price-to-rent ratio,part of the multi-suite holders cannot afford the tax with potential rent and is going to sell off excess housing.The problem that how to ensure the smooth introduction of real estate tax and to avoid drastic price change must be fully considered.Fourth,the introduction of circuit breaker mechanism must be based on the reform of the personal income tax in the long run,while the first-suite-duty-free scheme is feasible as soon as possible and acts as the only choice in the short term.