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Finance and economics: Property taxes: Home bias
財經：房產稅：本土偏好
A taxing problem for foreign buyers.
外籍買家的房產稅難題。
Even in hot markets like Vancouver, property sales normally slow in the summer.
即使溫哥華的房地產市場是如此炙手可熱，夏季往往也是其銷售淡季。
But for Sonia Prasad and other estate agents, the last days of July were a blur of hurried sales and paperwork as buyers and sellers rushed to complete transactions before an August 2nd deadline.
但對索尼婭·普拉薩德和其他房地產代理人來說，7月的最后幾天充斥著大量倉促交易和各類購房文件，因為買家跟賣家都急于在8月2日（最后的期限日）前完成交易。
On July 25th the provincial government of British Columbia decreed that, after that date, foreign buyers must pay a new 15% tax on any residential purchase.
7月25日，加拿大卑詩省政府頒布法令規定，8月2日之后，外籍買家在溫哥華購買任何住宅都必須多繳15%的房屋購置稅。
The tax is aimed at stopping these buyers from pushing up prices in Canada’s most expensive residential-property market.
這一稅收政策旨在阻止外籍買家推高加拿大最貴的房地產市場的價格。
Ms Prasad’s last-minute buyers included a couple from China who were purchasing a C$400,000 ($305,000) condominium in the suburb of New Westminster for their son, a student starting college in September.
趕在最后期限前買房的人中有一對來自中國的夫婦，他們正想在新威斯敏斯特郊區給九月份即將上大學的兒子購買一套價值40萬加元（30.5萬美元）的公寓。
The extra $60,000 they would have had to pay might have killed the deal, MS Prasad says.
普拉薩德說，必須上繳的額外的6萬美元可能會致使他們放棄交易。
Indeed, the tax seems likely to have prompted some foreign buyers to walk away from deals agreed, but not completed, before the deadline.
的確，新政策似乎可能會促使一些外籍買家在截止日期前放棄已經談好但還沒完成的交易。
Governments at all levels, from municipal to federal, have been under pressure over the past two years to curtail foreign ownership in Vancouver.
過去兩年來，加拿大從市政府到聯邦政府的各級政府在縮減溫哥華房地產外資問題上面臨壓力。
Michael de Jong, the finance minister of British Columbia, says foreign nationals invested more than C$1 billion in the province’s properties in the five weeks between June 10th and July 14th.
卑詩省財政廳長麥德莊稱，在6月10日至7月14日這五個星期里，外籍公民在卑詩省房地產行業的投資就超過了10億加元。
More than C$860 million of that was spent in metropolitan Vancouver.
其中有超過8.6億加元的投資是注入到大都市溫哥華中。
Back in 2011 the median price of a detached home in Vancouver was C$933,000; now it is C$1.56m.
2011年，溫哥華獨棟房屋的中位數價格為93.3萬加元，而現在是156萬加元。
Household median incomes in the city have been rising only gently, from C$69,000 in 2011 to C$76,000 by 2014.
這幾年加拿大城市居民家庭收入中值卻上升平緩，從2011年的6.9萬加元升到2014年的7.6萬加元。
Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Dominion Lending in Toronto, says Vancouver’s inflated prices are higher than anywhere else in the country.
多倫多主要放貸機構多美連放貸中心的首席經濟師雪利·庫伯稱，溫哥華的物價比加拿大其他任何地方都要高。
“When everyone is screaming about affordability, the government has to look like it’s doing something,” she says.
她說：“當所有人都在叫喊負擔過重時，政府必須看起來要有所作為。”
Other jurisdictions have also implemented policies and surcharges to reduce foreign ownership in their residential markets.
其他地方也已實施一些政策和附加要求來減少房地產市場中外籍買家的數量。
In December Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board started to charge application fees for foreign buyers.
去年12月，澳大利亞外國投資審查委員會開始向外籍買家征收申請費。
Hong Kong, the most expensive real-estate marketing in the world, has added a 15% surcharge on home purchases from non-permanent residents.
香港的不動產市場交易價格是世界上最昂貴的，非香港永久居民購買房產需上繳15%的附加費。
Britain has raised the stamp duty on homes worth more than ￡1.5m, the kind of properties bought by rich foreigners.
英國對價值超過150萬英鎊的房屋交易增加了印花稅，這類房產通常是國外的富人購買的。
To some, however, British Columbia’s move was poorly thought out.
從某種意義上來說，卑詩省的這一舉措欠缺考慮。
Under the Canada China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement which took force in October 2014, foreign investors must be treated as favorably as locals, says Barry Appleton, a trade lawyer.
貿易律師巴里·阿普爾頓說，2014年10月生效的加拿大-中國外資促進與保護協議規定，必須像對待本國人一樣，優惠對待外籍投資者。
The new tax, which targets all foreigners and not just Chinese buyers, will also violate the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, he alleges.
他認為，這項針對所有外籍買家、而非只是中國買家的新稅政策也違反了北美自由貿易協議的條款。
This policy could end up being settled in the courts.
這項政策有可能要在法庭上解決。
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