Landlord Information Became Optional in Personal Deduction Declaration

Recently it was found out that the latest update of the Income Tax App had made Landlord Information an optional field to fill in when taxpayers declare the housing rent special deduction.

Previous news reports  that many landlords had refused to provide the tenants with deduction informations, in fear of information disclosure. Now, the problem was solved when the blank was made optional. In fact, commissioner of the State Taxation Administration Wang Jun had clearly stressed in a recent enlarged meeting of the Party committee that taxation authorities should be resolute in avoiding “over-taxing”, in implementing tax relief policies, and in improving service quality, so as to protect national tax security and provide financial support for national development.

The reporter found that previously when taxpayers logged into the Income Tax App and went into the housing deduction declaring page, when they select “natural person” in the landlord type option, the App required them to fill in the name and ID card number of the landlord; when they select instead “organization”, the App still required the filling in of the name of the organization.

Now, after the update of the App, when “natural person” was selected as the landlord type, the filling in of the blanks for the landlord’s name and ID number has become optional; while at the same time, when “organization” was selected, the name of the organization has also become an optional filling field.

Experts had suggested that previously landlords had tended to resist provide related information or require in exchange an increase in the rent, for reasons like fearing of the disclosure of private information or avoiding retroactive tax collecting of the rent. Many internet users had also reported on social medias that they had attempted to ask for personal information of the landlord but were refused. The landlords usually persuaded the tenants to refrain from declaring housing deduction as it might generate additional tax. Some landlords even threatened the tenants that the tenants would be asked to check out immediately if they declared the deduction. As a result, many tenants had given up the deduction. This update, however, will effectively dispel the landlords’ concerns while protect the taxpayers who rent a housing so that they could fully enjoy the deduction policy.