What’s Considered Marital Property in Divorce in China?
If a property is marital property, it will be divided equally between the spouses on a 50/50 basis in the event of a divorce.
The following property acquired by the spouses during their marriage constitutes marital property:
- salaries and wages as well as bonuses and other remuneration received from services rendered;
- proceeds obtained from production, business operation, and investment;
- proceeds arising from intellectual property rights;
- property acquired from inheritance or given as a gift, except the property that belongs to only one spouse as provided in a will or gift contract; and
- other property that shall be jointly owned by the spouses.
Under Chinese law, marital property is called ‘community property’, because it is jointly owned by the spouses.
Several of the aforementioned properties should be understood as follows:
1.The term “proceeds arising from intellectual property rights”
It means the property income that has already been obtained or is certain to be obtained during the marriage.
2.The term “other property that shall be jointly owned by the spouses”
It means the following property acquired during the marriage:
- The return on the investment of one party’s separate property;
- Housing subsidies or housing provident funds that both parties have actually obtained or should obtain;
- The basic pension or bankruptcy resettlement compensation that both parties have actually obtained or should obtain;
- Proceeds from the separate property of a spouse after marriage, excluding fruits and unearned increment, shall be determined as community property;
- The house was rented before marriage and purchased after marriage with the marital property by one party and registered under one party’s name.
The above content is based on Article 1062 of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, and Articles 24-27, the Supreme People’s Court’s Interpretation (I) on the Application of the ‘Marriage and Family’ Book of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China.
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