Urban land expansion and land finance are the products when the economy develops to the certain phases,which have the coupling relationship. Based on the data from 264 cities in mainland China from 2002 to 2011,this paper uses panel data to analyze the relationship between urban land expansion and land finance. The result shows that with the escalation of economic development,scale of urban land utilization and land finance income show the increasing tendency,the gap is broadening and the two have correlation. The contribution of urban land expansion to land finance has increased with the improvement of economic development. During different stages of economic development,urban land expansion is always the Granger cause of the increase of land finance income,but they have reversed relationship only in the overall industrialization phase. Under the current institutions,urban land expansion enhances the land supply,but it still cannot meet the land demand from the urban economic development,urbanization and industrialization,which is the fundamental reason for the land finance and the increase of land finance is the natural result of urban land utilization. In the overall industrialization phase,local governments push forward the expansion of urban land in order to acquire more land finance income.