房地产管理中部和东欧新兴民主国家房地产税的发展文献翻译.docx

1、房地产管理中部和东欧新兴民主国家房地产税的发展文献翻译原文：The development of property taxation in the new democracies of Central and Eastern EuropeThe main purpose of this paper is to investigate issues relating to the role of land and building taxes as a mechanism to provide an autonomous revenue source for the newly establis

2、hed local authorities. As Malme and Youngman (1997) suggest, there is a need to seek funds for strengthening local government, with countries needing to adjust their tax systems to account for emerging private markets within land and buildings. Real estate taxes have been designated as local revenue

3、 sources in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, Rumania, and the Russian Federation. However, it should be recognised that the levels of revenue currently being raised from property-based taxes is very

4、small and there is only a limited potential to increase the yield. Bertaud and Renaud (1994) suggest that many countries have instigated property valuation/taxation systems for the purely opportunistic aim of increasing local revenues, they argue that due to its immovable nature, land is simply seen

5、 as an easy target for fund raising. However, this rather generalistic statement needs to be placed in perspective. Real property taxation is a legitimate source of potential revenue for various tiers of government. As Kelly (1994) suggests, property taxation is perhaps the most universally-used rev

6、enue source for local governments throughout the world. It is therefore of little surprise that the new democracies have been investigating and implementing various types of property-based taxes.The implementation of a landed property tax from almost rst principles requires the consideration of seve

7、ral diverse but interrelated factors. Kelly (1994) has suggested, and rightly so, that if property tax reform is to be successful it must be comprehensive in application and not just focus on any one element. This paper takes the debate on property tax reform to the level which demonstrates the inte

8、gral relationships of the key components of local government finance, the role of local authorities, land information systems, application of cadastres, the property market, valuation and assessment. The paper then looks at the experiences of two countries, namely, Armenia and the Czech Republic in

9、their endearvours to undertake comprehensive property tax reform.Local government structuresThe arrangement of the public sector in any country is highly influence by the countrys past development, historic traditions religious and ethnic differences, customs, and by economic and political circumsta

10、nces Most countries in transition have already introduced a programme of decentralization which has shifted the responsibility from central government to local government, and as a result has given the local governments a fairly wide discretion in terms of fiscal responsibilities resulting in reduce

11、d intergovernmental transfers (Alm and Buckley, 1994). As Bird and Wallich (1994) comment, political decentralisation in all countries of the region has been paralleled to some extent by the decentralisation of fiscal responsibilities. Generally speaking, countries tend to assign more expenditure fu

12、nctions to local governments than can be finance from the revenue sources allocated to those governments. This mismatch of functions and finance is often referred to as “vertical imbalance”, with the result that local government becomes more dependent on higher levels of central government grant. Th

13、is is clearly a problem with several of the transition countries, where the centre is divesting itself to local government of certain responsibilities, i.e. moving the problem downward. As Wallich (1992) commented it was pushing the decit down in an attempt to shift the burden of responsibility, bot

14、h in terms of service provision and bearing the cost of such provision. Some form of local government had existed in most of the transition economies under the socialist regime (Kelly, 1994). However, the scal system was in essence unitary in practice, with local governments having a role which was

15、essentially no more than an administrative unit of the centre and having little, if any, independent scal or legislative responsibilities.Revenue base optionsHollis (1993) suggests that the design of the system of local government nance should reect the extent to which a country wishes to have a cen

16、tralised or localist local government. In simple terms, if a country wants a centralised form of local government it should be largely centrally funded by grants and a share of state taxes. On the other hand, if a localist form of government is desired, it should be funded through autonomous locally

17、-based revenue sources. As local government begins to mature, it is important to recognise the relationship between local government and central government and how this is supported through an efcient system of nancing. Within the development of a nance system, a number of factors need to be taken i

18、nto account, including the extent to which the systems are readily understood by central government, local government and the electorate; the need to promote efciency through systems that do not distort personal economic decision making; the need for the system to generate sufficient income to fund

19、its share of local government expenditure; the extent to which the system is administratively practical; the need for the system to be fair and equitable between both individuals and regions and the need for stability to enable local authorities to plan the use of resources over time.The priority of

20、 all the countries in transition has been to establish an effective local government revenue structure capable of sustaining the newly-formed local governments (Bird and Wallich, 1994). To give credibility to their status as autonomous entities with electorate responsibilities, local governments nee

21、d to have a strong source of discretionary revenues. As Kelly (1994) contends, from an international perspective there is a wide diversity in the structure and effectiveness of local revenue systems. However, theory and practice would indicate that property taxes and user charges represent the main

22、sources for a stable source of locallyderived revenues (Bahl and Linn, 1992). Land information systems.Over the last couple of decades, the term land information system (LIS) (see Figure 1) has increasingly been used worldwide to describe the management of spatial data of all forms in a context of g

23、overnment administration. There is a clear need for the new democracies to establish a LIS which would integrate an efcient land market system, land registration and a land transfer system.Land policy, in essence relates to the equitable distribution of a basic resource, i.e. land, and would permit

24、a greater transparency in the land administration process. Land policy should ideally emanate from political agreement arrived at through an open democratic process. The resulting policy should then provide a general framework within which land laws and regulations are formulated. The LIS would supp

25、ort and assist the eventual implementation of these policies. While land tenure can be dened as the processes and relationships associated with land and building rights (Williamson, 1994), this includes the nature of existing land rights, the balance between state and private rights and the land all

26、ocation and reallocation system. Clearly, this aspect is of fundamental importance and is of direct relevance within the context of property taxation. One of the major challenges facing the newly-created democracies is the area of land administration and land reform. In addition they have been faced

27、 with the problem of how to begin the processes of establishing property markets and to maintain the momentum of reform. Cadastral reform Cadastral systems in one form or another have been created in most developed and developing countries during the last couple of centuries. The concept of a cadast

28、ral system in any country reects the historical, cultural and legal framework of that country or jurisdiction. They have represented the central component in establishing a land tenure system, and land ownership system, in supporting land markets and supporting efcient land administration in general

29、. A widely accepted denition of cadastre, according to Williamson (1994, p.3), is:A cadastre is a complete and up-to-date ofcial register or inventory of land parcels in any state or jurisdiction containing information about the parcels regarding ownership, valuation, location area, land use and usu

30、ally buildings or structures thereon. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there is a great urgency from the newly-independent countries to promote the privatisation of land ownership within a framework of land reform. In July 1991, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (HABITAT) publ

31、ished the statement, “Future Cooperation with Transition Countries of Central and Eastern Europe” from which the following extract is taken (1991, p. 51):Taxation on property, however, can be a signicant source of income for public authorities with which to nance their own operations and to provide

32、essential services. Apart from the philosophical obstacles to the acceptance of the principles of the private ownership of land and housing which still linger on in some countries, the practical obstacles to the establishment of a transparent system of property ownership are many; beginning with the

33、 establishment of a system of property registry and the ceding (or sale) of communal land to individuals. A property tax system must be able to identify and link taxable subjects (taxpayers) and taxable objects. Generally speaking, the tax system can be organised in two broad ways: first, by registering property as declared by taxable subjects, i.