以量能課稅原則檢驗自用住宅房屋稅

Examination of house tax for residence for own use using the ability-to-pay principle of taxation

雖目前法律未有量能課稅原則之明文，惟司法院大法官釋字已肯認判決量能課稅原則為我國稅法原則。民國103年6月4日修正房屋稅條例，將非自住之住家用房屋稅率提高，擴大自用住宅與非自用住宅稅率的差距，修法理由敘明欲藉由提高房屋持有成本，抑制房產炒作並保障自住權益。惟房屋稅條例就開徵住宅房屋稅之理由及稅率決定理由未有說明，是否導致稅捐侵蝕財產本體之疑慮，是否忽略憲法及量能課稅原則對於生存權及財產權之保障，均值得探討，另「住家用房屋供自住及公益出租人出租使用認定標準」似存有不正當差別對待之疑慮，為此本文以量能課稅原則之角度出發檢討103年新修定之房屋稅條例及自用住宅認定標準。

Though current laws do not expressly provide ability-to-pay principal of taxation，J.Y. Interpretation has already recognized ability-to-pay principal of taxation as the principal of taxation in our county. House Tax Act was amended on 4th June 2014. For a house used for non-residential purposes， the house tax was increased， to expand the gap of house tax between residence for own use and not for own use. The reason of the amendment was to curb speculative real estate investing and to secure the rights of owning a house for residential purposes. Nevertheless，no explanation on the reason of imposing house tax and determining the rate under House Tax Act was provided. It is worth exploring whether this adjustment would lead to taxes offsetting property， and whether the right to life and the property rights protected in the Constitution and the ability-to-pay principal of taxation have been ignored. In addition， a doubt of discrepancy seems to exist in “the standard of approval for houses defined as for use for residential purposes by owners and leased for public welfare purposes by a landlord registered with the local government as a charity”. For the purpose of the above，this study starts from the perspective of the ability-to-pay principal of taxation，and reviews the amendments in 2014 of House Tax Act and the standard of approval for residence for own use.