Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Time for a Property Tax in China
Due 23 March 2012. Thoughts?? Isn't it amazing that a country like China DOESN'T have a property tax?
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Welcome. This is a blog dedicated to the students enrolled in the CSHS AP Economics classes. Click on the title of the article, read, and click comment.
I think that China does need some form of property tax to give rights to the residents of its country. With well over 1 billion people residing in this one country, it would be difficult to enforce this tax policy. Still, without a property tax policy policy, China is noticing "weak local-government finances and even more social unrest." This is due to the local governments not wanting to upset China's urban middle class by taxing them more, since they have ownership of their residences. Since China leans communist, they do not believe in owning property. People are counted more as equals there so everyone shares resources etc. As shown by the graph, property taxes are only a small proportion of China's tax revenue, while Japan and the United States (more industrialized countries) are receiving benefits from their property tax policies. Overall, China needs to create a property tax policy to stimulate even more growth for itself.
ReplyDeleteIt is understandable why China does not levy property tax because the government and the people are not very used to the idea of "property ownership". As we all know, China was a Communist country in which all the properties were owned by the government thus there wouldn't be any sort of property tax. However, China has been exposed to the ideology of capitalism and learn a lot from those developed capitalist countries like the US. People becomes more and more familiar with property ownership. There isn't a developed way of collecting property tax, unlike the income tax, which is being deducted from the pay check automatically. With such a high amount of people as well as the properties, it is kind of hard to collect property tax. I think collecting property taxes is very important and necessary. At the same time, China should borrow the deductible method the US has to be fair and not to put too much burden on the shoulders of the poor people.
ReplyDeleteIt's not surprising that China doesn't have property tax because they actually don't have many taxes which mean a lower tax revenue for them. Also since China is a communist country, government would own most of the land. I think it would be a good idea for China to start selling property ownership. It will help them raise tax revenue by collecting property taxes. Showing from the graph, China's revenue from property taxes are low compared to the other countries.
ReplyDeleteAmerican politicians are encouraging China to start taxing their people on the property. The problem we have is that America is a capitalist country while China is a communist country. Here, people are eligible to own houses and claim it “theirs”. In China, the government owns everything, therefore the people do not own their house. I feel the people will protest against property taxes since they already do pay a high amount of other taxes the government requires. Instead of just taxing citizens based on the land and property they know they do not own, the government should ease up on the communism and start selling bits of land for people to actually have a reason to pay more taxes.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that China doesn't have a property tax came as somewhat of a surprise to me; however, it makes sense. Being that China was a communist nation for quite long they believed in the government owning everything. Also, I think China should move toward developing a property tax and allowing citizen to actually own things. China needs to move along with the rest of the world in that they need to adopt the modern practices that provide constituents with the rights that they need. Property taxes will not only give the citizens rights, it will also generate revenue for the country.
ReplyDeleteWith such a high population I was really surprised that China didnt have a property tax. But that could be part of the problem, with over one billion citizens, it would be harder to enforce the tax. But I suppose this does make sense since in China the government owns a good majority of the land.
ReplyDeleteIf the government issued some kind of property tax, they could levy the heavy burden of public spending they've been doing recently. It is definitely surprising to hear they didn't have one in the first place seeing as how there are so many people. It would seem as if people would continue to buy houses regardless of a property tax because the space is limited. However, as the article had mentioned, most people would probably be angered because they own multiple homes already. They aren't used to taking control of their belongings because the government has been taking care of it for them.
ReplyDeleteI dont think it is that surprising that China doesn't have a property tax because they are a communist country. This means that the government would want to have control over their property along with everything else. I do think that it is a good idea for them to enforce a tax though because of their extremely high population. This would help raise their overall revenue even if there are some downsides at first.
ReplyDeleteI think it's surprising that China does not have a property tax since the country has such a huge population. This would help with the debt public spending has been creating and would help its economy. However because of the large population, there will be a problem trying to make everyone pay their share.
ReplyDeleteProperty ownership is a very Western (maybe just American) idea. China's economy is massive -- We're talking a good percentage of the human population on earth, all under a single government. The implementation of a property tax would be a long and taxing (no pun intended) process. This would change the ideas of property ownership in China as well.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless,the potential for increasing revenue is huge here, considering the population. Local governments would be able to collect tax revenue that would directly benefit tax payers locally.
This is a significant shift from the norm for China, but it will likely be for the best.
After asking my wife from China her opinion on this topic, she said "I don't think there isn't a corrupt government in any city that wouldn't just steal the money."
ReplyDeleteSo, there's a native perspective.