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Q: Who pays the taxes for the apartment you rent, you or your landlord?
I'm amazed by something that I fail to understand and that my Chinese wife can't argue with the office in charge of collecting the property taxes.
Since she is from another province, she needs to renew her Shanghai resident permit. In order to do that, she needs to go to the community tax office with the rental contract. Howeve, the office claims that our landlord hasn't paid the taxes so we need to pay them for him. Then the office can renew my wife's resident permit.
Is there any such law in China? Is it normal that Chinese citizen needs to pay the taxes of their landlord? What Chinese law is applicable in that situation?
Because I want to go to argue with this office and make a complain, but it's better if I have all the aces in my hand.
The whole rental thing in China seems laboriously complicated. For example, my employer has rented and paid for my apartment for one year. The actual landlord now gets off having to pay for any maintenance work that needs done -- that's to be covered by either myself or the school. Until it happens, I just won't know. I pay for utilities, which are forwarded to my employer and then deducted from my wages (pre-tax, hopefully). The landlord is a nice guy and despite having no need to help me out when things go wrong, feels he has an obligation to because I'm a foreigner. How the whole thing actually works is a mystery.
The landlord is responsible to pay the real estate tax on the apartment, and get the tax receipt or "fapiao" unless your contract says otherwise. But be aware since there are different types of taxes, one is on the real estate itself, and there is another one on the rent you pay the landlord.
It is my guess that whomever is sitting as tax collector is counting on you having a need in order to get the taxes paid. Talk to the landlord and either he pays the taxes, or negotiate with him that you will pay it and deduct it from the rent. If you do pay, insure you get a proper receipt, please.
The laws differ depending on where you live in China, which officer you speak with and whether or not that officer had a fight with their spouse that morning.
In other words, laws mean nothing. The word of the officer carries much more weight.
Property taxes should (most likely) be paid by the landlord. However, it gets tricky when the landlord is renting out the apartment since if they are renting the place, they need to register the apartment as a rental and thereby pay taxes on the rental fee.
And once a property is deamed "a rental property", it can not be reverted to a residence and the landlord is on the hook for taxes whether or not someone is actually paying rent.
This is why landlords are very hesitant to giving out fapiaos. Also, there are 2 types of fapiaos. 1 is for a rental apartment (which owners do not want to give out) and the other is a sort of hotel fapiao. Most owners don't know about these things, but savvy realtors do know.
If you need a fapaio, make sure you tell the realtor before they show you any apartments. It will save a lot of time and headaches in the long run.
The main reason that I'm asking is mainly because :
a) my wife is from Anhui province and in order to renew her Shanghainese resident permit, she needs to prove that she is living here by showing the rental contract to this tax office who can then issue a paper for her. In exchange, we would need to pay the taxes for our landlord.
b) in order for me and my son to renew our resident permit, since we are not working, my wife also needs to provide a copy of her resident permit.
It seems that either way, we're f*****.
Xpat.John:
If the government officers say you need to pay the tax, and your landlord won't pay it, then unfortunately, you are screwed. You will have to pay the tax if you want to get the needed permits.
:(
MrTibbles:
Just show them your rental agreement. Are they asking to see rental fapiaos? If not, then the rental agreement will do just fine. If they are, just go to a realtor - they'll issue you fapiaos for 5% of what your rent is. IE, pay 250rmb for a 5000rmb fapiao. If you need a lot, then they will often cut you a deal. Haggle with them - "I need a year of fapiao for XXXXXrmb". My wife just did the same thing and she just needed to show the rental contract to show that she actually does live here.
Tax? On rent?? I'm confused!
Let's face it, the chances of a landlord actually paying tax on their rental apartment is almost nil! It's all cash in hand stuff!
Do you need to prove you've been there for a while? Or, that you're going to be there for a while?? If not, then the value on the fapiao won't matter (if they don't need to sight the rental agreement... and, even if they do, if your landlord is accommodating, have a fake one done up with 'adjusted' figures...). That way, the cost of the fapiao from the realtor, and the total in tax, will also be 'adjusted' (nudge nudge, wink wink).
I wish I knew earlier that real estate agents wil give out fapiaos!!! (maybe, just maybe, I can still get them for the last 6 months....)
