Recently, the official WeChat account of the Shenzhen Real Estate Registration Center issued a notice stating that according to the Stamp Duty Law of the People's Republic of China, rights and licenses are no longer taxable documents. Real estate certificates issued to real estate rights holders will no longer charge a 5-yuan per-piece decal.

For a while, the news of "Shenzhen saves 5 yuan per apartment" became a hot search topic. Some people ridiculed Shenzhen for "making a big move" to stimulate the property market, while some serious netizens complained that "the stimulus is too small."

Shi Zhengwen, director of the Fiscal and Taxation Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told China Business News that in fact, the 5 yuan stamp tax on real estate certificates and other items will be canceled starting from July 1. This was already determined when the stamp tax law was passed in June last year. , so this has nothing to do with the property market stimulus policy. And not only in Shenzhen, but also in all places across the country, stamp duty of 5 yuan will no longer be charged on real estate certificates. This actually considers reducing the payment burden of relevant market entities and government collection costs.

Currently, when ordinary people apply for a real estate title certificate, they need to pay a stamp tax of 5 yuan. This basis is based on the current "Interim Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Stamp Duty", which clarifies that rights and licenses need to pay stamp tax, and a decal of 5 yuan per piece is required. Rights and licenses include house property rights certificates, industrial and commercial business licenses, trademark registration certificates, patent certificates, land use certificates, etc.

In recent years, in order to promote legal taxation, stamp tax legislation has been launched. In June last year, the "Stamp Duty Law of the People's Republic of China" was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and implemented on July 1 this year. There are some changes in the Stamp Duty Act, one of which is the elimination of the tax items of rights and licenses.

Shi Zhengwen said that after the Stamp Duty Law is implemented on July 1, rights and licenses will be canceled according to tax items, so the 5 yuan stamp tax will no longer be charged nationwide, including real estate title certificates. Perhaps due to insufficient publicity of the tax law, this decision, which was originally issued in June last year, was not known to the public until recently.

So why was stamp duty previously charged on real estate certificates, etc., but the Stamp Duty Law abolished this charge?

Shi Zhengwen said that stamp duty originated in the Netherlands with the purpose of raising fiscal revenue. Since the tax burden of stamp duty is very light, but the tax objects include contracts, vouchers, etc. in large quantities, government decals are private to some extent. Contracts, etc. increase credit, so they are easily accepted by the public and have also been promoted to other countries including China. This time, China has canceled the stamp tax on rights and licenses. On the one hand, it is to reduce the burden on market entities. On the other hand, because this type of stamp duty is small in scale, but its collection and administration is cumbersome and costly, it has been cancelled. In fact, many countries have canceled most of the tax items of stamp duty, and only retain tax items such as property rights transfer and securities transactions.

Wang Huayu, deputy director of the Fiscal and Taxation Law Research Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told China Business News that since the Stamp Duty Law has canceled the tax items of rights and licenses, the 5-yuan stamp tax on land title certificates and other items will be canceled nationwide.

“The reason for its cancellation is, first, to comply with the trend of tax reduction and burden reduction policies and reduce the tax burden on taxpayers. The tax rate of the Stamp Duty Law has been overall lower than the tax rate of the previous interim regulations; second, it is to promote the government’s reform of delegating power, delegating regulation and optimizing services. To reduce unnecessary government intervention in the market, the government can charge administrative fees such as production fees based on the fee-filling principle when issuing rights and licenses, without the need for additional taxes," Wang Huayu said.

He believes that the cancellation of rights and licenses according to tax items also shows that stamp tax returns to the essential attributes of tax on specific transactions (writing taxable certificates and conducting securities transactions). Currently, stamp tax items are all for specific transactions. Market transactions (including specific contracts, property rights transfer documents, business accounting books and securities transactions) are taxed. Only those that meet this nature need to be taxed.

Of course, starting from July 1, not only real estate certificates will no longer charge a stamp tax of 5 yuan, but industrial and commercial business licenses, trademark registration certificates, patent certificates, etc. will also no longer charge a stamp tax of 5 yuan.

For example, the State Intellectual Property Office recently issued an announcement stating that it will terminate the stamp tax collection business from July 1, 2022.