Abstract: Ever since the property tax pilot was launched five years ago, the existing empirical studies have mainly focused on the equity, adequacy as well as the correction function of the property tax, with a lack of related research on the payment capacity measurement. This paper calculates the family payment capacity for the forthcoming property tax on the basis of China Household Finance Survey Data and comes up with some meaningful findings. First, there are always a certain number of low-income families that cannot afford to pay for taxes under any collection program. It seems to be an incompatible choice dilemma between the adequacy function and family affordability of the property tax. It's suggested in this paper that the property tax can hardly serve as the main local tax from both the adequacy and the rationality perspectives. China should instead cast highlight on its core function of adjusting domestic assets inequity and draw lessons from foreign experience such as “circuit breakers” mechanism to give tax relief to ensure affordable property tax burden, which is the key to the success of property tax reform.

Key words: Property Tax, Main Local Tax, Affordability, Choice Dilemma

摘要： 房产税试点已经过去五年有余,已有的实证研究主要集中于房产税公平性、充分性和矫正性职能方面,对于涉及到税种可操作性的支付能力问题仍然缺乏论证。本文利用中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据测算了城镇家庭房产税支付能力,发现在各种税率设计和扣减面积的征收方案下,均存在一定比例的低收入家庭无力支付税款。房产税充当地方主体税种的充分性和保证一般家庭税款支付能力的可操作性之间存在不可兼得的选择困境。本文通过分析认为,房产税无论是从充分性上还是合理性上都无法成为地方主体税种,调节财产分配公平才是其唯一的核心功能。在放弃房产税地方主体税种定位的前提下,借鉴国外“断路”机制等经验,加大税收减免力度、保证税收负担合理是下一步房产税改革取得成功的关键所在。

关键词: 房产税, 地方主体税种, 支付能力, 选择困境