In The Face Of Many Voices Of Opposition, Do We Need Luxury Tax?

"To some extent, it is necessary, as a tax, its existence is inevitable, but China's luxury tax is still a long way to go." Lin Dan told reporters.

"Because the luxury tax is very complicated. First of all, you have to distinguish between luxury goods, which is the biggest problem of luxury tax. Lin Dan analysis, if we want to levy luxury tax, we must first define the object of taxation.

Paula Shukla, a luxury industry expert and senior lecturer at University of Brighton, said that at first, low income people could not buy it, and what elite could buy was luxury goods. With the development of society, some new categories called "luxury goods" or "public luxury goods" were born in the ranks of luxury goods. These products aim at the middle class.

accord with Shukla An example of this definition is the automobile. 20 years ago, buying a car by oneself is no doubt very luxurious. Now, "having a car" is a necessary condition for the middle class. On the other hand, the mid-range car market has not affected the luxury car as a "luxury" status.

Ge Changyin, a finance and taxation expert at China Agricultural University School of economics and management, also said that Luxury goods It is a relative concept. With the improvement of living standards, some commodities have changed from luxuries. Intermediate goods Even ordinary goods, and the division of luxury consumption is not necessarily shopping, such as playing golf.

China is so, so is the United States. Martin Price, a tax expert at American sturst lawyer, said the definition of luxury goods is changing all the time. In the United States, telephone once belonged to luxury goods, people should pay taxes for the "luxury" behavior of telephone, and now no one thinks that telephone will be a luxury.

In fact, academics argued for a long time and failed to sum up a clear definition of luxury. As Shukla said, with the continuous penetration of luxury goods into the mass consumer market, it is becoming more and more difficult to define "luxury".

Because of this, our government does not have a special luxury tax. Instead, it distinguishes them from different commodities according to their respective characteristics.

For example, in the Customs Tariff of our country, the definition of "high-end watches" is "the price is more than 10 thousand yuan"; the tax rate of imported cars is based on the engine exhaust volume, the vehicle tax rate of up to 4 liters is higher than 40%, and the rate of 3 to 4 liters is 25%.

This is also in line with international practice. In fact, there are few countries that levy luxury tax internationally, such as India, though it has a "luxury tax" tax, but this tax is levied on high-end hotels.