Towards Local Property Tax as an Institution

Abstract

Up to now, we have deliberated on the various aspects of the local property tax (LPT) in theories of public finance and on the practice of this tax in two pilot metropolitans in China. In this brief final chapter we summarize our key points as policy recommendations for the Chinese government to consider in its next round of policy formulation and implementation. In a nutshell, we believe that the LPT should be installed not merely as a tax to increase government revenue or as a means to control housing price; it should be fully employed as a fiscal and budgetary institution that will contribute to mitigating multifarious socioeconomic problems in the processes of high economic growth, fast urbanization, and widening income disparity, which have been increasingly apparent in China in the past two decades.