Yue Xiaowu is the vice president of China Association of Land Appraisers and Land Registration Agents, and has worked in the Ministry of Land and Resources for 20 years. According to the data of the Ministry of Finance, in 2020, the revenue from the transfer of state-owned land by local governments exceeded 8.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%. In the first four months of this year, the income from land transfer was 2 1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35%.
Yue Xiaowu believes that because the real estate industry is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, every major adjustment of upstream and downstream industries, including land, has its heat. "Some people speculate that local governments no longer have the motivation to sell land, and the logic of the local real estate market has undergone tremendous changes. This speculation is unfounded."
The cashier has changed.
According to the notice of the Ministry of Finance, from July 1 day, the income from the transfer of state-owned land use rights will be collected by the tax system, and it will be piloted in seven provinces and cities including Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Qingdao and Yunnan, and the collection and transfer will be fully implemented from June 1 day, 2022.
A person from the Financial Planning Department of the Planning and Natural Resources Bureau of a city in the east told the Economic Observer that two months ago, his city had launched an internal investigation on the transfer work, but no red-headed documents were issued. The Financial Planning Department and other relevant offices learned about the pilot through the Internet.
"We think this is just a change in workflow." According to a person from the financial department, before, land transfer was generally listed by the self-discipline department, and the land acquisition unit paid the deposit to the deposit account of the self-discipline department. After the transaction, the land acquisition unit shall pay the land transfer fee to the local treasury within a certain period of time.
According to the new regulations, after July 1, the land transfer payment account was changed from "local treasury" to "tax department", and other processes remained unchanged.
People in the financial sector said that the biggest impact of the new regulations is that the "cashier" who remits land transfer fees has changed. "It turns out that the payment of land transfer fees is a cooperation between the land authorities, the Municipal Finance Bureau and the Municipal Treasury. After the transfer, it will be docked with the tax authorities. "
The financial planning department believes that the new regulations are conducive to the tax authorities to obtain first-hand data on non-tax revenue such as land transfer fees. "It used to be the' small pot cooking' of local government departments, but it was not visible to others. Now it is handed over to the tax department, which is directly under the central government. It is equivalent to the central and local governments participating in land transfer, and the tax department can know the land sales in various places at the first time."
Non-tax reform
In Yue Xiaowu's view, the transfer of land transfer fees from local governments to tax departments is part of the reform of non-tax revenue.
Government revenue sources include tax revenue, non-tax revenue and social security fund income, among which land transfer fees belong to government fund income among non-tax revenue.
Yue Xiaowu explained that it is one of the goals of this round of institutional reform to hand over the land use price to the tax authorities, and its main purpose is to improve the efficiency of collection and management and strengthen the standardization of non-tax revenue management.
2065438+February 2008, the Third Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee explicitly merged provincial and sub-provincial national tax and local tax agencies to undertake the duties of tax and non-tax revenue collection and management within its jurisdiction.
2065438+On July 20, 2008, the General Office of the Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Reform Plan for the Collection and Management System of National Taxation and Local Taxation, which once again made it clear that the non-tax revenue items that are legally reserved and suitable for transfer will be transferred in batches and gradually promoted.
The changes in the transfer department are not only aimed at land transfer fees, but also a number of non-tax revenues have been collected and transferred to the tax authorities for unified collection.
From June 20 19 to June 20 19, social insurance premiums such as five insurances and one gold were paid by the original labor department and social security department to the tax authorities for collection. It turns out that social security often appears in arrears and deferred payment. After handing it over to the tax department, it is a rigid means, and the tax department is a vertical department, so the overall effect and efficiency are better.
Since the beginning of this year, nearly 20 non-tax revenues have been collected by the tax authorities, such as compensation fees for soil and water conservation, support funds for local reservoir resettlement, income from the transfer of emission rights, and relocation fees for air defense basements.
On May 2 this year, 12, land idle fees and urban garbage disposal fees have also been handed over to the tax authorities for unified collection.
Limited influence
According to the notice of the Ministry of Finance, the transfer of land transfer fee, first, does not change the nature of land transfer fee, and is still the transfer price of land use right charged by the government as the land owner.
Yue Xiaowu introduced that the legal basis for establishing the land transfer system, such as the Constitution, the Land Management Law and the Urban Real Estate Management Law, has not been adjusted.
Second, the ownership and use of land transfer fees have not changed; Land supply activities such as land transfer are still organized and implemented by the natural resources departments of cities and counties in accordance with the plan and plan; The mechanism and path to determine the land price remain unchanged, and it is still determined through bidding, auction, listing agreement transfer or allocation; Land transfer contracts and other land use agreements are still signed by the natural resources departments of cities and counties according to the results of land supply and land users; The real estate registration process and standards have not changed.
That is to say, in addition to changing the collection process, the revenue and expenditure of land transfer are still in accordance with the current policy: the full amount is included in the budget management of local government funds, the full amount of income is paid into the local treasury, and the expenditure is arranged through the budget of local government funds.
According to sources in the financial planning department, the State Council, the Ministry of Finance and other documents have made it clear that the land transfer fee collection and management department is the financial department, which is collected by the finance (treasury) at all levels, and the natural resources department only temporarily collects the deposit, and then it needs to be deposited in the municipal treasury.
Land transfer fees are not the income of natural resources departments, but it is their responsibility to collect them poorly. People in the financial planning department said that due to the restrictions of collection means and measures, the natural resources department can only call for payment through supervision, arbitration or litigation, and the land transfer income belongs to unpaid, missed, deferred and exempted.
After the transfer, the tax department has a strong collection effort and rich means and measures, which can improve the efficiency of collection and management.
In the past, land transfer fees were collected by the financial and natural resources departments of cities and counties. These two departments are government departments, which are prone to the phenomenon that land transfer fees are moved, delayed or reduced.
According to the financial planner, there are two main ways to move. One is the 20% deposit before the auction, which will be used for other purposes before being turned over to the state treasury. Under the background of centralized land supply, the deposit for each land supply in first-and second-tier cities is calculated at10 billion yuan.
Second, the land transfer fees in some cities are not directly remitted to the local treasury, but transferred to the local finance department or the natural resources department, and then paid by the latter. Local authorities have a certain space to take advantage of the time difference of payment. "But this is not in line with the provisions of the central document, and first-tier cities dare not do so."
According to a developer in the Yangtze River Delta, it is impossible to directly return the land transfer fee, but the transfer fee can be returned to the first-class land development enterprise, which is the same parent company as the land acquisition enterprise, thus achieving the purpose of reducing the land transfer fee.
Yue Xiaowu believes that the reform of non-tax revenue transfer is not specifically aimed at the real estate market, has not changed the land supply and transaction price, and has little impact on the supply and demand changes in the land market and the real estate market. Since then, standardizing the collection and management of transfer fees will increase the financial pressure of enterprises that reduce or exempt deferred transfer fees, and will also increase the pressure on government platform companies that rely on land injection or take land first and then return the transfer fees to the government.
Have a heated discussion about sth
Zhu Daolin, president of Beijing Land Institute, said that regarding the revenue and expenditure management of land transfer income, the Notice of General Office of the State Council on Standardizing the Revenue and Expenditure Management of State-owned Land Use Right Transfer issued in 2006 (Guo Ban Fa [2006]100) clearly required that the financial department should be responsible for the collection and management, which should be fully included in the budget and implemented the management of "two lines of revenue and expenditure". This policy should further standardize and clarify the management of land transfer revenue and expenditure.
Judging from the financial "four accounts", the largest is the general public budget revenue, which exceeds 18 trillion yuan; Secondly, the government fund budget, in which the land transfer income accounts for more than 80%, and the local government's state-owned land use right transfer income exceeds 8 trillion yuan in 2020. "Before the transfer of land transfer fees, we must first make two lines of revenue and expenditure, first carry out land acquisition, demolition and resettlement, three links or five links and one leveling, and then allocate land. This part of the first-level development funds generally accounts for more than 75% of the land transfer income and needs to be paid by the government. " Therefore, Yue Xiaowu reminded that we can't just look at the indicator of selling 8 trillion yuan of land a year. Only the net income of land transfer after deducting the cost compensation fee is the financial resources available to the government.
The ownership and use of land transfer fees have not changed, so the degree of local dependence on land finance has not been directly affected by changes in the collection department.
The above-mentioned financial planner holds a negative attitude towards the statement that the tax authorities transfer tax collection to pave the way for levying real estate tax: "Real estate tax is a tax charged on the secondary market, while land transfer fees are the price charged on the primary market. The two are not in one dimension. "