China'S Tax Revenue Is Accused Of Pushing Up Prices And Shifting Consumers.

At present, more than 70% of China's tax revenue is Indirect tax Is this proportion too high? Will it increase the burden on residents? Is there any need for reform?

"Last year, the state adjusted the personal income tax, and the average working-class tax burden really lightened. If the taxes contained in ordinary commodities can be reduced a little, then we will have more energy to consume. In a shopping mall, a parent who is buying a schoolbag for a child says.

Recently, the discussion on excessive taxes in Chinese commodities has become a hot topic in the society. How much tax is included in Chinese products? Is China's commodity tax higher than that of developed countries? How should we adjust our tax structure in the future?

　　 The proportion of indirect taxes levied on enterprises is too high. Consumer burden

According to the data, in 2011, the total income from turnover tax accounted for more than 70% of the total tax revenue in China, while the total income from income tax and other taxes accounted for less than 30%. The proportion of tax revenue from all kinds of enterprises is 92.06%, while the tax revenue from residents is only 7.94%.

"These figures tell us that over 70% of China's tax revenue is indirect tax, and indirect taxes, as one of the components of prices, can usually be embedded directly into commodity prices, which are taxes that can be transferred through price channels." Gao Peiyong, President of the financial and Strategic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Gao Peiyong thinks that paying taxes by enterprise legal person and taking the commodity price passageway is a typical characteristic of our country's actual tax revenue operation pattern, and also embodies the situation of our country's current tax structure imbalance. The drawbacks of this unbalanced tax structure and tax revenue structure are constantly emerging.

For example, the high proportion and large scale indirect tax income are concentrated on the transfer of commodity price channels to the whole society, which not only makes the tax revenue and prices highly related, but also raises the price in real life. Especially in commodities such as daily necessities, taxes are too high, which in fact become a public tax burden on consumers.

At the same time, this kind of high proportion and large scale tax revenue comes from all kinds of enterprises, which will generally increase the tax burden of all kinds of enterprises. In addition, small and micro enterprises will bear heavier burden of fact tax burden, because of their differences in competitiveness. In addition, the small proportion of direct taxes represented by income tax and property tax is not conducive to regulating the distribution of income and reducing the income gap.

　　 The high tax rate of Chinese commodities is mainly due to the fact that our tax system is quite different from that of developed countries.

"In the United States, the federal government generates more than 40% of its income from personal income tax. If it is added to the salary tax, it will account for about 80%, while China's personal income tax will only account for 6.7% of the total tax revenue. In terms of property tax, property tax has just started pilot projects, and few others. The director of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance said.

China's tax structure is quite different from that of developed countries. China's main levy of turnover tax, turnover tax is indirect tax, can be used as a constituent factor of price has been included in the price of goods. Some developed countries mainly levy direct taxes on residents, while tax in circulation is few, so there is less tax in commodities.

Why is the proportion of indirect taxes levied by enterprises in China is high, and the proportion of direct taxes levied on residents is small?

In 1994, when the tax reform was carried out in China, the vast majority of people did not have property such as housing. The main source of income was wages. Because the wage level was not high and the income gap was not large, many residents' income was not enough to pay the standard of personal income tax. Not to mention the direct taxation of property tax, social security tax and so on, as developed countries do. The more feasible way is to levy taxes on enterprises in the production and circulation links, and enterprises will then pay taxes into production or operation costs, and finally pass them to consumers through price channels.

"Objectively speaking, such a tax structure is compatible with the economic and social development at that time. But now it seems that with the accumulation of personal wealth, the rich and the productive classes are increasing, so the original tax structure is not so appropriate, and we should also carry out corresponding reforms and adjustments.

China's commodity tax is high, which does not mean that China's overall tax burden is heavier than that of the developed countries. A measure of a country's macro tax burden is usually based on the proportion of fiscal revenue to GDP. In 2011, the level of China's macro tax burden was around 30%, the average level of developed countries was above 40%, and the overall tax burden level in China is still in a reasonable range.

　　 To increase direct taxes on income tax and property tax, we should also consider tax collection and management and people's psychological bearing capacity.

Gao Peiyong believes that in the future, the direction of tax reform and adjustment in China should be to reduce indirect taxes and increase direct taxes, reduce taxes from enterprises and increase taxes paid by residents on the premise of appropriately lowering the level of macro tax burden.

Reducing the tax burden of enterprises can achieve the purpose of reducing taxes in commodities. In this regard, a series of structural tax reduction policies, such as raising the value added tax and business tax threshold of small and micro enterprises, carrying out the pilot of business tax transfer to value-added tax, and repeating double taxation, have been implemented or are being implemented.

The pilot scheme of changing business tax to value added tax is different from the previous tax reform measures. As the largest tax category in China, the change of value-added tax will bring an important opportunity to optimize the structure of tax system and the structure of tax revenue. With the gradual promotion of value-added tax to the whole country, not only value-added tax, but also other types of turnover tax, there will be an important reform aimed at lowering the level of tax burden and further improving the turnover tax system. The space thus made will pave the way for the increase of direct taxation and the promotion of overall tax reform aimed at optimizing the tax structure.

It is relatively easy for us to reduce the indirect tax which is mainly based on turnover tax, and it is easier to implement it. However, there is still a lot of basic work to do to increase the proportion of direct taxation such as personal income tax and property tax.

For example, in terms of personal income tax, the adjustment of personal tax policy in recent years is mainly based on tax reduction. After the reform of personal income tax in 2011, only about 7% of the wage earners were covered. If we increase taxes on the income of the rich, we need to find out the number of rich people in our country, and effectively supervise and accurately calculate their incomes.

In terms of property tax, our country has only begun to levy property taxes in the pilot area. Although the pilot time is only one year, many problems still exist. One of the most prominent problems is the high cost of collection and administration. For example, some of the property listed in the scope of the collection, some of them are not living, some of the owners are not local, tax officials can only call people over and over again, or even collect at home, and the efficiency is very low.

It means that Reform of tax structure And adjustment can not be accomplished overnight. "At present, the tax department has no experience in levying direct taxes, and individual income tax is also withheld by units. Increasing direct taxation means that the tax departments should directly levy taxes on residents, which requires innovative means of collection and management to improve the efficiency of collection and administration. What we need to do now is to clarify the direction of reform, explore the establishment of a partial framework, and move forward step by step.