Good news for personal income taxpayers

Some government departments are reportedly busy drafting detailed rules on the deduction of housing mortgage interest or rent from the taxable income of individuals. Guangming Daily comments:

The news has raised people's hopes that the government would ease their financial burden soon. The sky-high housing prices and very high housing rents are the two major causes of people's anxiety. They have also lowered young people's pioneering spirit and taken a toll on their creativity.

It is good that the government has decided to ease people's financial burden by expediting the drafting of tax rules.

Statistics show that Chinese families' leverage ratio, that is, equity capital's share in total assets, jumped from 11 percent in 2006 to more than 50 percent last year. Which means Chinese families, from having high savings, have been burdened with heavy debts in a span of just 12 years.

While government-subsidized housing is still not accessible to most needy families, some people simply cannot afford to buy a house. Some are buried in lifelong debt to buy a property even as a few accumulate huge wealth by speculating on the red-hot realty market.

To correct the situation, the authorities have to make the rules fairer, well-targeted and inclusive, in order to strike the right balance between the need to ensure the healthy development of the housing market and meeting the expectations of different groups of people, and between controlling risks and improving people's livelihoods.

The most important social group is the middle-income group class, which is also the main driving force behind social progress. It is therefore necessary for the government to heed the plea of the middle-income group to ease the financial burden. In this regard, the recent personal income tax reform is a good beginning.