China expects a 0.7% year-on-year increase in securities transaction stamp duty for the entire year.

The official expectations for this year’s “stock trading tax” have been released.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance disclosed the central government’s budget for 2026. The “2026 Central General Public Budget Revenue Budget Table” shows that the annual securities transaction stamp duty for 2026 is expected to be 202.5 billion yuan, an increase of 0.7% compared to the executed figure for 2025. The Ministry of Finance explained that this is mainly based on the estimated trading volume of the stock market.

The securities transaction stamp duty is commonly referred to by the public as the “stock trading tax,” which is a stamp duty levied on taxpayers transferring stocks traded on national securities exchanges and on stock-based depositary receipts. It is imposed only on the transferor of the securities transaction, not on the transferee, with a statutory tax rate of 0.1% of the transaction amount. However, to invigorate the capital market and boost investor confidence, the securities transaction stamp duty has been halved since August 28, 2023.

Due to the impact of stock market transactions, the revenue from the securities transaction stamp duty fluctuates significantly. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, the revenues from the securities transaction stamp duty for 2023, 2024, and 2025 are 180.1 billion yuan, 127.6 billion yuan, and 203.5 billion yuan, respectively, reflecting year-on-year declines of 34.7%, a decline of 29.1%, and an increase of 57.8%.

As the stock market has been active and transaction amounts have increased, the revenue from the securities transaction stamp duty in the first two months of this year reached 49.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times.

Due to the unpredictable nature of stock market transactions, there is a significant discrepancy between the budgeted revenue growth rate for the securities transaction stamp duty and the actual revenue growth rate.

For example, according to data from the Ministry of Finance in recent years, the securities transaction stamp duty was expected to grow by 3.5% in 2025, while the actual growth was 57.8%. In 2024, the tax was expected to decline by about 37%, while the actual decline was 29.1%. In 2023, the tax was expected to decline by about 8.7%, while the actual decline was 34.7%.

On-duty editor: Grace

For a wealth of information and precise interpretations, check out the Sina Finance APP.