Who Should Lighten The Burden Of Tax Reform?

The reform of personal income tax involves thousands of households, and has a bearing on the vital interests of the people, which has always been a hot topic.

During the two sessions this year, "how to reform the individual tax" has once again become the focus of discussion among representatives and members of the community.

What is the main direction of the future personal tax reform? Will the exemption be raised? What tax burden will be reduced? Recently, our reporter conducted an investigation and interview.

The taxable income of more than 960 thousand yuan per year is eligible for the highest tax rate of 45%.

The reduction of this tax rate may not solve the problem of "one year salary" for the rich.

"At present, the most prominent problem of personal income tax is the maximum marginal tax rate of 45% of paid income, which seems to be high in tax rate and can not be tax in practice."

During the two sessions, Huang Qifan, deputy director of the finance and Economic Commission of the National People's Congress, put forward that the highest marginal tax rate should be reduced from 45% to 25%, so as to reduce the tax burden of the high paid and middle-income people, and create an environment conducive to innovation.

Huang Qifan believes that the excessively high personal tax rate will lead to two problems: first, some enterprises will pay the salaries of executives to Hongkong, Singapore and other places to enjoy the lower local tax rates; two, some private entrepreneurs avoid paying taxes by taking no salary or "one yuan annual salary" and putting personal expenses at the expense of enterprises.

Lowering tax rates is not only conducive to gathering talents, but also conducive to tax base expansion.

One stone stirred up thousands of waves. This view immediately aroused heated debate in the society.

So, what kind of talents have "qualification" to pay 45% tax? Do we want to lower the tax for the high salaries?

According to Bai Jingming, vice president of the Chinese Academy of fiscal Sciences, under the current personal tax system of classified taxation, personal income is divided into 11 income items, including wages and salaries, income from production and operation of individual industrial and commercial households, income from remuneration for labor services, income from interest, shares, dividends, income from property lease, and pfer of property.

Among them, for wages and salaries, a progressive tax rate of 7 to 3% is applied, and the income from remuneration for labour service applies to the tax rate of 20% to 40%; the interest rate, dividend and bonus income shall be applied to 20% of the proportion of the tax rate of income. The tax rate shall be 7.

"The marginal tax rate is set higher. It is hoped that the high income people will bear more tax burden and contribute more to the society.

The reduction of marginal tax rate may distort the function of taxation.

Bai Jingming said that only on the wage income, the annual taxable income is more than 420 thousand yuan, the applicable tax rate is 30%, and 960 thousand yuan or more will qualify for 45%.

Pay taxes.

This income level is 15.5 times the average wage of urban workers in 2015.

"Under different tax systems, it is not significant to compare the tax rate of a single project."

Bai Jingming believes that, in general, the current seven income tax rate design is consistent with the actual situation in China. The reduction of the highest marginal tax rate is not the main direction of the current personal tax reform.

How do some executives solve the problem of tax avoidance through "one yuan annual salary"?

"This kind of tax avoidance phenomenon is mainly related to the cost of illegal activities and the degree of supervision, which is not directly related to the low tax rate."

Hu Yijian, Dean of the Institute of public policy and governance of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said that under any tax system, it is difficult to prevent tax evasion altogether.

Even if the tax rate is reduced to 25%, the annual salary of millions of bosses will still have to pay about 200000 yuan tax, and he still has the urge to avoid taxes, and it is still possible to get "one yuan annual salary".

Some high-income earners may receive only one yuan in salary, but their income is more reflected in equity and other aspects. This part of the income will be subject to a corresponding tax when obtaining dividends and pfers.

"However, if the same income of a million yuan is applied to the highest salary rate of 45% under the item of wages and salaries, the tax rate is only 20% when dividends and property pfer items are applied.

This may be an important reason why some high-income people give up high salaries and turn into equity income. "

Hu Yijian believes that in order to solve the uneven tax burden caused by different sources of income, we should promote the reform of individual tax, implement the combination of classification and synthesis, and gradually integrate some conventional income items together to collect taxes on a yearly basis.

We should establish a mechanism of "basic deduction + special deduction", and appropriately increase special deductions, including reeducation, maintenance, first mortgage interest and so on, so as to lighten the tax burden of middle and low income groups.

Guangzhou's Lin received the "personal income tax payment certificate" sent by the tax department. The bill shows that the total amount of tax he paid last year was 26000 yuan. "I didn't expect so much!" Lin complained that his monthly income was only about 15 thousand yuan. After he finished his mortgage, it was unreasonable for the children to bear such a high personal income.

While paying attention to the tax burden of the high income earners, more people focus on the tax threshold, hoping to reduce the burden of the middle and low income earners by raising the threshold.

At the two sessions this year, Dong Mingzhu, chairman of the National People's Congress and chairman of GREE electric appliances, submitted the proposal to adjust the threshold of personal income tax to 5000 yuan. It was proposed that the starting point of personal wages and salaries should be raised to 5000 yuan in accordance with the growth of residents' income and consumption expenditure in recent years, and a dynamic adjustment mechanism should be established.

At the same time, we should gradually establish a tax calculation method to calculate the taxable income based on the family, and maximize the fairness of the tax burden.

Dong Mingzhu believes that in recent years, with rising prices, the income of 3500 yuan in many cities can barely maintain food and clothing. In addition, taking into account inflation, consumer spending has increased year by year, and residents' consumption ability and willingness have been suppressed.

On the one hand, it is not conducive to the expansion of domestic demand, encouraging residents consumption and other structural adjustment policies. On the other hand, it is not conducive to the improvement of residents' happiness.

In this regard, Xiao Jie, Minister of finance, said that in the area of increasing the total exemption from social concerns, it will be determined comprehensively according to the factors such as the consumption level of residents and so on.

"Now it has been more than 5 years since the last point was raised.

Great changes have taken place. There is indeed a demand for increasing the threshold. However, simply raising the threshold does not solve all problems. "

Hu Yijian said that in recent years, the voice of the community has been very high for raising the threshold of personal tax.

How to properly set up the "starting point" and truly take care of the actual conditions of people in different living conditions, from formal fairness to substantive fairness, is the main problem to be solved in the future personal tax reform.

In recent years, China has made some positive explorations in perfecting the tax deduction mechanism.

Last year, 31 cities began to pilot a commercial health insurance deduction policy, which allowed the individuals in the pilot area to purchase the commercial health insurance products that meet the prescribed requirements, allowing the tax deduction before the year (month) to calculate the taxable income amount, deducting the limit to 2400 yuan per year, and calculating the monthly income of 200 yuan per month.

"On the basis of the revision of the individual income tax law, we should establish a mechanism of" basic deduction + special deduction ", and appropriately increase the expenses for special deduction, including reeducation, maintenance, first mortgage interest and so on, so as to lighten the tax burden of the middle and low income groups.

Zhang Lianqi, member of the CPPCC National Committee and member of the accounting standards strategy committee of the Ministry of finance.

Hu Yijian believes that for the basic deduction, that is, the "exemption amount" of individual tax should be adjusted in time with the level of economic and social development, so as to adapt to changes in prices and living standards. The key to special deduction is to set reasonable deduction items and quota, so as to ensure that the tax burden among different groups is basically reasonable.

The main tax category of individual tax needs to be strengthened.

From international experience, most people, including the salaried people, have to pay taxes except the poorest people who do not pay taxes.

Many people think that paying personal tax is a matter of the rich, and should not be taxed to ordinary people and wage earners.

Even the media exclaimed that the middle class group was reduced to a tax payer.

How should we look at this problem?

"In the more mature developed economies, the middle-income people are the main force of the tax payment."

Bai Jingming introduced that personal income tax is not only a function of income adjustment, but also an important source of revenue.

In many countries, individual tax is universal.

In addition to the poorest people who do not pay taxes, most of them, including the salaried people, have to pay taxes.

According to the data, the tax payment of personal income tax in developed countries is usually over 70%, and some developing countries are over 50%.

However, the number of paid tax earners in China only accounts for about 8% of the total wage earners.

"The US personal income tax accounts for more than 50% of the total tax revenue of the whole country.

Among them, the middle-income person has taken up 55% of the personal tax, and the high income person has borne about 40% of the personal tax, which means that the middle-income group and the high-income group are the main tax groups.

Hu Yijian said.

In contrast, last year's general public budget revenue was 15 trillion and 960 billion yuan, including personal income tax of 10089 billion yuan, and the proportion of personal tax to fiscal revenue was 6.32%.

In recent years, the focus of individual tax reform has been focused on research, promotion of integration and classification.

However, the fiscal position of future personal tax seems to be further clarified.

For example, should the individual tax be the main tax category? How large is the coverage of the tax people? There is a general direction on these issues. Then we can decide who should pay taxes and who will not pay taxes, so as to better form a social consensus and promote the tax reform in accordance with the law.

"At present, individual tax has become the fourth largest tax in China, but it is far from the main tax category.

In the future, we need to establish a stable growth mechanism of personal income tax through reform, and gradually enhance the status of its main tax categories.

Bai Jingming thinks.

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