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Finance and economics: Property taxes: Home bias
财经：房产税：本土偏好
A taxing problem for foreign buyers.
外籍买家的房产税难题。
Even in hot markets like Vancouver, property sales normally slow in the summer.
即使温哥华的房地产市场是如此炙手可热，夏季往往也是其销售淡季。
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.
但对索尼娅·普拉萨德和其他房地产代理人来说，7月的最后几天充斥着大量仓促交易和各类购房文件，因为买家跟卖家都急于在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，加拿大卑诗省政府颁布法令规定，8月2日之后，外籍买家在温哥华购买任何住宅都必须多缴15%的房屋购置税。
The tax is aimed at stopping these buyers from pushing up prices in Canada’s most expensive residential-property market.
这一税收政策旨在阻止外籍买家推高加拿大最贵的房地产市场的价格。
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.
赶在最后期限前买房的人中有一对来自中国的夫妇，他们正想在新威斯敏斯特郊区给九月份即将上大学的儿子购买一套价值40万加元（30.5万美元）的公寓。
The extra $60,000 they would have had to pay might have killed the deal, MS Prasad says.
普拉萨德说，必须上缴的额外的6万美元可能会致使他们放弃交易。
Indeed, the tax seems likely to have prompted some foreign buyers to walk away from deals agreed, but not completed, before the deadline.
的确，新政策似乎可能会促使一些外籍买家在截止日期前放弃已经谈好但还没完成的交易。
Governments at all levels, from municipal to federal, have been under pressure over the past two years to curtail foreign ownership in Vancouver.
过去两年来，加拿大从市政府到联邦政府的各级政府在缩减温哥华房地产外资问题上面临压力。
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.
卑诗省财政厅长麦德庄称，在6月10日至7月14日这五个星期里，外籍公民在卑诗省房地产行业的投资就超过了10亿加元。
More than C$860 million of that was spent in metropolitan Vancouver.
其中有超过8.6亿加元的投资是注入到大都市温哥华中。
Back in 2011 the median price of a detached home in Vancouver was C$933,000; now it is C$1.56m.
2011年，温哥华独栋房屋的中位数价格为93.3万加元，而现在是156万加元。
Household median incomes in the city have been rising only gently, from C$69,000 in 2011 to C$76,000 by 2014.
这几年加拿大城市居民家庭收入中值却上升平缓，从2011年的6.9万加元升到2014年的7.6万加元。
Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Dominion Lending in Toronto, says Vancouver’s inflated prices are higher than anywhere else in the country.
多伦多主要放贷机构多美连放贷中心的首席经济师雪利·库伯称，温哥华的物价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.
她说：“当所有人都在叫喊负担过重时，政府必须看起来要有所作为。”
Other jurisdictions have also implemented policies and surcharges to reduce foreign ownership in their residential markets.
其他地方也已实施一些政策和附加要求来减少房地产市场中外籍买家的数量。
In December Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board started to charge application fees for foreign buyers.
去年12月，澳大利亚外国投资审查委员会开始向外籍买家征收申请费。
Hong Kong, the most expensive real-estate marketing in the world, has added a 15% surcharge on home purchases from non-permanent residents.
香港的不动产市场交易价格是世界上最昂贵的，非香港永久居民购买房产需上缴15%的附加费。
Britain has raised the stamp duty on homes worth more than ￡1.5m, the kind of properties bought by rich foreigners.
英国对价值超过150万英镑的房屋交易增加了印花税，这类房产通常是国外的富人购买的。
To some, however, British Columbia’s move was poorly thought out.
从某种意义上来说，卑诗省的这一举措欠缺考虑。
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.
贸易律师巴里·阿普尔顿说，2014年10月生效的加拿大-中国外资促进与保护协议规定，必须像对待本国人一样，优惠对待外籍投资者。
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.
他认为，这项针对所有外籍买家、而非只是中国买家的新税政策也违反了北美自由贸易协议的条款。
This policy could end up being settled in the courts.
这项政策有可能要在法庭上解决。
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