Personal income tax evasion has become a serious issue in China
with many in private enterprises and on high incomes not paying
their taxes.
As
a result, the average rates of tax actually collected from city
dwellers are not only lower than the nominal rates, but are also
lower than those for rural areas. Of the total income tax revenues
collected, most are raised out of the incomes of salaried employees
and bank account interest. Taxes paid by the private business and
service sectors account for only a small proportion. Most
non-salaried income tax is just not paid in full. Income inequality
widens where any income tax system fails in its role in the
redistribution of income.
Professor Hu Angang of Tsinghua University has proposed measures to
strengthen the work of income tax collection. Hu describes China's
personal income tax rates as among the lowest in the world. The
past few years have seen rapid increases in personal income tax.
However, the average real tax rates for city residents and for
those with high-incomes are only 0.58 and 0.59 percent
respectively, almost the lowest internationally. To enhance
personal income tax collection, the arrangements for collection and
the tax system itself are in need of reform. The costs and risks of
tax evasion should be increased. Hu has offered some specific
suggestions.
He
advocates the introduction of a consolidated approach. Currently,
income tax is calculated according to tax banding and collected on
a monthly basis. His new consolidated approach would mean the
introduction of a new annual reconciliation. This would involve
recalculating tax liability over the year as a whole and then
refunding any overpayment or requiring supplementary payment when
reconciled with the month-by-month tally. In line with common
international practice, basic allowances would be applied to reduce
the taxable amount.
He
proposes to strengthen identification procedures. Individuals would
be recognised by name and tracked in the system through their ID
card number. This would provide the point of reference for earned
income, deposit account income and calculation of tax liability.
Citizens' tax records would be set up and managed by reference to
nationally unified codes.
Computerisation would facilitate monitoring especially in those
areas, industries and groups needing special cares. The system
would be enhanced through the introduction of an online
service.
He
would increase both the frequency of tax checks and the penalties
for tax evasion. Punishment for tax evasion would be extended to
include both increased financial penalties and public exposure that
should be particularly significant to public figures. Records would
identify an individual's standing with the tax authorities and
blacklists would be introduced.
Every country needs to levy taxes and a modern taxation system is
crucial for any modern country. Hu said that in peacetime a fair,
unified and effective tax system might reasonably be thought to be
even more important than a modern army, police and legal
institutions.
He
added that China with its socialist market economy also needed to
strengthen the various relationships involved. These include those
between the citizen who pays and the government that levies the
taxes, those between the consumer and the supplier and those
between the officials responsible for overseeing public expenditure
and those who are overseen.
(china.org.cn by Feng Yikun, August 2, 2002)