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The House and Land Transactions Income Tax was implemented on January 1, 2016 after the regarding legislation in 2015. Meanwhile, the luxury tax on real estate was suspended. The main purpose of this new tax law is to constrain the unexpected surge in house prices and price manipulation. At the stage of planning and promoting the new tax law, it has caused a big impact on the domestic real estate market. Moreover, the new tax system has greatly changed the taxation of buyers and sellers, and directly affected the motives and behaviors of real-estate consumers from various counties and cities. This study uses doctrinal analysis and in-depth interviews with practitioners in real-estate-related industries, aiming to explore the fluctuations in the real estate market in Yilan after the promotionof the property and land tax in 2015 from the central and local government. Specifically, the study may concern the impact of the new tax law on real estate prices and transaction volume, as well as the perception and reaction of individual stakeholders to this tax reform. By analyzing the application of the new real estate tax law based on the doctrinal analysis and these in-depth interviews, the study provides the following findings: (1) TheHouse and Land Transactions Income Tax has significantly improved the housing prices of the most counties and the six special municipalities. However, the new tax law has no significant impact on the housing prices of Yilan county —the increase in housing costs, the compression of profit margins, and the short-term distance between urban and rural areas have made the new tax system less effective in urban areas than that in the metropolitan area. (2) After the implementation of the new tax system, the real-estate market has been sluggish in the national transaction volume. As for the average decline of 50% of the average transaction volume, the transaction volume in Yilan area is also reduced by 20% to 30%. (3) The increase of tax cost, the decrease of investment return rate, the long sales period of the object, and the increase of risk may contribute to a the decline of the construction industry. Some housing agencies may even close down. Therefore, the negative impact was obvious. (4) The new tax system did succeed in constraining short-term behaviors of flipping properties and helping moderate prices. However, due to the sharp decline in transaction volume it is hard to say that the new tax law may have significantly positive effect on the overall government tax revenue. |