财税与公共管理学院知识库

不动产投资信托基金 (Real Estate Investment Trusts)，通过发行收益凭证向投资者募集资金，由投资机构进行不动产投资，并将投资收益分配给投资者的信托基金。能够将不动产证券化，具有较强流动性、稳定收益等良好特征，能够使个人或者机构投资者直接投资于不动产领域，也能为不动产领域提供融资渠道。不动产投资信托基金有助于贯彻落实我国防风险、去杠杆、稳投资、补短板部署决策，随着住房领域“房住不炒”，加快构建房地产领域新模式，以及现代化基础设施体系的建设，促进基础设施高质量发展。国内外研究经验表明，税收政策是影响REITs发展的重要因素，税收负担过重会降低REITs行业发展的积极性，但是过低的税收负担不但有违税收公平原则，还会造成国家税款流失，因此只有较为合理的税负水平才能促进REITs高质量发展。

2021年6月首批9只基础设施公募REITs产品在国内进行试点，至今已形成千亿市场的规模。财政部和税务总局也专门针对基础设施领域REITs发布了相关的税收政策，但是与国外成熟REITs市场相比，我国在REITs发展和税收制度配套建设方面还存在不足，基础设施REITs高质量发展还存在进步空间。因此，本文从REITs产品入手，了解公募REITs上市发行的步骤，对涉及到的具体税负问题进行分析和梳理，并针对问题提出完善税收制度的建议。

本文选用案例分析法，选择上海证券交易所上市发行的国金铁建重庆渝遂高速REITs为研究案例。首先对REITs的概念、内容进行介绍，为后续研究奠定理论基础；然后通过对基础设施公募REITs产品的研究确定其交易架构，为设立、运营和退出三个阶段，并从理论角度对REITs涉及到的税收问题进行分析梳理；再根据公开披露数据对国金铁建重庆渝遂高速REITs三个阶段所缴纳的税额进行具体的测算，通过测算出来的加过总结分析我国当前有关REITs税收制度存在的问题。通过分析发现，在REITs设立环节，资产重组行为税负较重、资产划转适用范围不明确；财政部和税务总局发布的2022年三号文也只是针对设立环节、资产划转和股权转让环节的企业所得税进行了规定，对于增值税、土地增值税等缺乏针对性规定，最终会增加原始权益人设立REITs的成本。在运营环节，存在增值税的重复征税、征税实体不明确、管理费用的增值税发票风险等问题，会降低REITs的收益率。对于退出环节，目前尚没有基础设施公募REITs退出的情形，只能依据现行税收政策进行估计。

文章最后针对以上问题提出相应的政策建议，本文认为合理的税负水平是促进我国基础设施REITs发展的重要因素。首先需要对我国公募REITs税收制度进行优化，还是从公募REITs框架入手，对设立环节、运营环节以及加强税收监管三个方面提出对策建议。对于设立环节，可以对有所重组类型，只要是真实重组行为，尽可能放宽政策范围，但对于具备纳税能力的非原始权益人参与战略配售的情况不可递延纳税，以此明确资产划转范围；允许项目公司第一年申请增值税进项税退税，对转让项目公司股权不征或者延迟征收土地增值税。对于运营环节，首先通过“导管理论”穿透REITs架构，避免同一笔收入在多个层面多次征税；明确征税实体有助于简化纳税层次。最后改进税收征管制度并制定反避税政策，避免逃避纳税义务。

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are trust funds that raise funds from investors by issuing income certificates. These funds are used by investment institutions to invest in real estate and distribute the investment returns to the investors. REITs enable the securitization of real estate, offering strong liquidity and stable returns, which are desirable characteristics. They allow individual or institutional investors to directly invest in the real estate sector and provide financing channels for it. REITs contribute to the implementation of China's decisions to prevent risks, deleveraging, stable investment, and filling gaps. They support the construction of a new model in the real estate sector in line with the "housing is for living, not for speculation" policy, as well as the development of a modern infrastructure system, promoting high-quality development of infrastructure.

Domestic and international research experience indicates that tax policy is a significant factor affecting the development of REITs. Excessive tax burdens can reduce the enthusiasm for the industry's development, while too low a tax burden not only violates the principle of tax fairness but also leads to a loss of national tax revenue. Therefore, only a reasonable tax system can promote the high-quality development of REITs.

In June 2021, the first batch of nine infrastructure public REITs products was piloted in China, forming a market scale of a hundred billion. The Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration have also issued specific tax policies for the infrastructure REITs sector. However, compared to mature REITs markets abroad, China still has deficiencies in the development of REITs and the construction of supporting tax systems, and there is room for improvement in the high-quality development of infrastructure REITs. Therefore, this article starts with the REITs product itself, understanding the steps for the listing and issuance of public REITs, analyzing and sorting out the specific tax issues involved, and proposing suggestions for improving the tax system.

This article uses case study methodology, selecting the Guojin Tiejian Chongqing-Yusui Expressway REITs listed and issued on the Shanghai Stock Exchange as a research case. It first introduces the concept and content of REITs to lay a theoretical foundation for subsequent research. Then, through the study of infrastructure public REITs products, it determines that their transaction structure is divided into three stages: establishment, operation, and exit, and analyzes and sorts out the tax issues involved in REITs from a theoretical perspective. Based on publicly disclosed data, the article then conducts a specific calculation of the taxes paid by the Guojin Tiejian Chongqing-Yusui Expressway REITs during these three stages, summarizing and analyzing the problems with China's current REITs tax system.

The analysis reveals that during the establishment phase of REITs, the tax burden is heavy in the asset restructuring phase, and the scope of application for asset transfer is unclear. The No. 3 document issued by the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration in 2022 only stipulates the corporate income tax for the establishment phase, asset transfer, and equity transfer, lacking targeted provisions for value-added tax (VAT) and land value-added tax, which ultimately increases the cost for the original equity holders to establish REITs. In the operation phase, there are issues such as double taxation of VAT, unclear tax entities, and risks of VAT invoices for management fees, which reduce the yield of REITs. For the exit phase, there have been no cases of infrastructure public REITs exiting, making it impossible to conduct a specific analysis.

The paper concludes with corresponding policy recommendations for the aforementioned issues, arguing that a reasonable level of taxation is a crucial determinant in promoting the development of infrastructure REITs in China. Firstly, it is necessary to optimize the tax system for public REITs in China, starting from the public REITs framework and proposing countermeasures and suggestions for three aspects: the establishment phase, the operational phase, and strengthening tax supervision. For the establishment phase, it is suggested to relax the policy scope as much as possible for restructuring types, as long as the restructuring activities are genuine, but deferral of tax payment should not be allowed for non-original equity holders with tax-paying capacity participating in strategic allotments, thereby clarifying the scope of asset transfers; allowing project companies to apply for a value-added tax (VAT) input tax refund in the first year, and not imposing or deferring the collection of land value tax on the transfer of project company equity. For the operational phase, the "conduit theory" should be applied to view the REITs structure transparently, to prevent the same income from being taxed multiple times at different levels; clarifying the tax-paying entity will help simplify the tax hierarchy. Finally, the tax collection and management system should be improved, and anti-avoidance policies should be formulated to prevent evasion of tax obligations.