People line up at an office to register for marriage or divorce in Shanghai. Divorce is soaring as couples seek to evade a new tax on second home sales imposed earlier this year.
Around the world, divorce can make people poorer, as they sell their property.
In Beijing, couples are divorcing — to become richer, by selling their property.
Applications for divorce in the capital soared by 41 percent in the first three quarters of 2013 over the same period last year, the city’s civil affairs bureau said Tuesday.
Applications for divorce in the capital soared by 41 percent in the first three quarters of 2013 over the same period last year, the city’s civil affairs bureau said Tuesday.
The figure of nearly 40,000 couples initiating divorce — 39,075 to be exact — has surpassed the total figure for 2012, they said.
Similar rises are happening in cities nationwide.
The reason?
The reason?
Tax regulations that took effect in March aimed at curbing property speculation and too-high prices mean, in essence, that a couple selling a second property pays capital gains tax of 20 percent.
Singles selling their sole property are exempt, if they have owned it for five years or more.
So a couple that divorces and registers their properties singly stands to save a lot of money for the family.
Mr. and Ms. Mao, a Beijing married couple cited by the Guangzhou Daily, a government newspaper, wanted to sell their second apartment in Tongzhou, in the city’s eastern suburbs.
Mr. and Ms. Mao, a Beijing married couple cited by the Guangzhou Daily, a government newspaper, wanted to sell their second apartment in Tongzhou, in the city’s eastern suburbs.
They opted to divorce.
“In this way the apartment we sold counted as belonging to one person, and we saved 300,000 renminbi,” or nearly $50,000, the newspaper quoted them as saying.
In Shanghai, where property is also very expensive, municipal divorce offices have put up signs warning prospective divorcees: “Property is Risk, Divorce with Care!”
Attitudes toward divorce in China’s cities are becoming more liberal and rates are overall “rising stably,” wrote Zhou Junsheng, a commentator in The Beijing News.
In Shanghai, where property is also very expensive, municipal divorce offices have put up signs warning prospective divorcees: “Property is Risk, Divorce with Care!”
Attitudes toward divorce in China’s cities are becoming more liberal and rates are overall “rising stably,” wrote Zhou Junsheng, a commentator in The Beijing News.
But many couples were exploiting the loophole and divorcing, he wrote.
Li Ziwei, of the Beijing Marriage and Family Building Association, attributed the “fast, unusual” rise this year to couples’ determination to avoid the taxes contained in the rules, dubbed the “National Five Regulations.”
Still, officials were not required to ask about the reasons for a couple’s divorce, Ms. Li said.
Li Ziwei, of the Beijing Marriage and Family Building Association, attributed the “fast, unusual” rise this year to couples’ determination to avoid the taxes contained in the rules, dubbed the “National Five Regulations.”
Still, officials were not required to ask about the reasons for a couple’s divorce, Ms. Li said.
That would constitute interference with their freedom to divorce, she said in comments carried widely in Chinese media.
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