The 2005 "Tax Tragedy Index" published by Forbes, an American financial magazine, shows that China's macro tax burden index has been climbing all the way since it entered Forbes' statistics in 2000, ranking third in 2002, fourth in 2004 and second in the world with the index of 160 in 2005. We can't objectively evaluate the rationality and authenticity of this indicator, but we need to reasonably determine the scale of government tax revenue at any time, that is, to determine a reasonable macro tax burden level. At this level, it can not only meet the government's demand for tax revenue, but also be within the overall affordability, and will not have a negative impact on society. Therefore, it is particularly important to reasonably define the reasonable level of macro tax burden and realize its optimization.
First, the definition of macro tax burden level: influencing factors and international experience
(A) factors affecting the level of macro tax burden
Macro tax burden refers to the overall tax burden level of a country, which is generally reflected by the proportion of total tax revenue to GDP in a certain period. To accurately grasp the macro tax burden level in a certain period, it is necessary to comprehensively, fully and deeply investigate the factors affecting the macro tax burden level, find out the regularity and correctly handle the relationship between the macro tax burden and these influencing factors. Generally speaking, the macro tax burden level in a certain period is mainly determined by the level of economic growth, the scope of government functions and the scale of government non-tax revenue.
1. Factors of economic growth level. The macro tax burden level of a country in a certain period is positively related to the level of economic growth. The higher the level of economic growth, the richer the social products and the higher the per capita GDP level, so that the tax base will be wider and the tax revenue of the whole society will be stronger. Therefore, the macro tax burden of developed countries with higher economic growth level is higher than that of developing countries. Theoretically, the growth of macro tax burden level should be coordinated with the development level of productive forces. According to experts, the elasticity coefficient of tax revenue growth to GDP growth in western countries is usually greater than 1, and it is more appropriate to keep this elasticity coefficient at around 0.8 in China.
2. The scope of government functions. The macro tax burden level in a certain period depends on the scope of government functions. The government has a wide range of functions and powers, and the number of public goods and services that the government needs to provide is more, so the macro tax burden level should be higher, and vice versa. The scale and scope of government in society are expanding day by day. The expansion of the scope of government functions will inevitably lead to the expansion of the scale of government expenditure and the need for large-scale tax support, which will inevitably require the continuous improvement of macro tax burden. In the case that tax has become the main source of government revenue, the proportion of fiscal expenditure to tax revenue in a certain period can be used to reflect the degree of tax support for the government to perform its functions. According to the calculation of the grey model, the tax scale provides stable support for the government to perform its functions, which should generally meet the following requirements: -0.03.
3. From the scale factor of non-tax revenue. Taxation is not the only way and channel for the government to raise financial funds. When measuring the macro tax burden, it is necessary to examine the size of the government's income obtained through non-tax means. Because the GDP created by the whole society for distribution in a certain period of time is quantitative, all kinds of government income come from the GDP created by the current society. In the case of meeting the government's certain expenditure demand, the scale of income obtained through non-tax forms is large, and the scale of income obtained through taxation is bound to decrease. Under the traditional planned economy system in China, state-owned enterprises pay profits instead of taxes, which leads to a simple tax structure, a decrease in the amount of taxes, a larger share of corporate profits in fiscal revenue, a correspondingly smaller share of taxes, and a lower level of macro tax burden. However, a reasonable tax burden requires a combination of tax revenue and non-tax revenue and an overall arrangement. Judging from the composition of fiscal revenue in various countries, there are more or less non-tax revenues. Such as Japan, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Britain, Australia and other countries, the central government's non-tax revenue accounts for about 10% of tax revenue. The proportion of non-tax revenue in fiscal revenue in developing countries is about 15% ~ 25%. Therefore, the tax burden is not the whole burden of taxpayers, and the government's fiscal revenue is not just a form of tax. To ensure the rationalization of macro tax burden, we must first ensure the standardization of government revenue forms. According to the calculation of the grey model, the gap between the actual tax status and the basic tax capacity development coefficient should be less than 0.03 under the condition that the government revenue form is relatively standardized.
(B) the international experience of macro tax burden level
As early as 1983, former World Bank consultant Keith? Maston uses empirical analysis to select 2 1 countries, and reveals the basic relationship between macro tax burden level and economic growth through comparative analysis. He concluded that the per capita GDP growth rate, public and private consumption growth rate, investment and export growth rate, social employment and labor productivity growth rate in low-tax countries are higher than those in high-tax countries. The variable relationship between tax revenue and economic growth is that the economic growth rate decreases by 0.36% for every percentage increase of tax revenue in GDP. It is almost a universal law that high tax burden is at the expense of economic growth, and for low-income countries, the impact of raising macro tax burden on economic growth is particularly obvious. The relationship between tax revenue and economic growth is an important factor that countries attach great importance to when determining the macro tax burden level. Through the comparative analysis of the macro tax burden levels of various countries, it can be seen that the macro tax burden levels of western developed countries are gradually rising, and the current average level is above 30%; The average tax burden of developing countries is generally between 16%-20%.
According to the theory of the relationship between tax revenue and economic growth, from the general situation of tax burden level in developing countries, the macro tax burden level is more appropriate in the range of 15% ~ 25%, which is more in line with the economic development and average profit level of developing countries.
Second, China macro tax burden level analysis
(1) Macro tax burden level and economic growth level.
It is generally believed that with the continuous improvement of the development level of productive forces, the per capita GDP level of a country increases, and the macro tax burden level also increases. China's per capita GDP has maintained an annual growth rate of more than 6% since 199 1, which is the basis for improving macro tax burden. However, as can be seen from Table 2, after 1994, the growth rate of tax as a proportion of GDP is higher than that of per capita GDP. The elasticity coefficient of China's tax revenue growth to GDP growth is less than 1 before 1996, that is, the tax revenue growth rate is lower than the economic growth rate. From 1996, the elasticity coefficient of tax revenue growth to GDP growth exceeded 1, and reached 1.285 in 2005. From the change of elasticity coefficient of tax revenue growth to GDP growth, it can be clearly seen that in recent years, China's macro tax burden has turned to an upward trend after years of decline, which has a certain rebound nature. However, this rising process happened in the period of declining economic growth, which deviated from the direction of macro-control.
(B) The comparison between the macro tax burden level and the needs of the government to perform its functions.
China is still in the transition period of economic system, the division of labor between government and market is not completely clear, and the definition of government functions is not standardized, which needs to be adjusted through deepening reform. However, it should be noted that although China's fiscal revenue has increased year by year, it still cannot fully guarantee the operation of government functional departments and the basic needs of public expenditure. Many grassroots governments are still "eating finance". Although China has made great efforts to increase the key expenditures in the fields of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, it is still difficult to meet the needs of development in all aspects. Taking education as an example, the proportion of China's fiscal expenditure on education in GDP 1994 was 2. 19%, and in 2005 it was 2.54%, which was still far below the world average. From the perspective of development needs, with the growth of per capita GDP, the demand for public goods and services will continue to increase, and the proportion of public expenditure in GDP will become larger and larger, which has been proved by the development practice of many countries. At present, China has higher and higher requirements for the level of public expenditure in improving people's living environment, narrowing regional development differences, promoting the flow of factors and improving international competitiveness.
In addition to the pressure of public expenditure growth, there is still a considerable potential financial expenditure burden in China's finance. Years of national debt has accumulated to a considerable scale, and the annual debt service expenditure has accounted for a large proportion of fiscal revenue. Although the expansion of the national debt scale after 1997 is related to the needs of macro-control, it is not entirely due to financial difficulties, but the finance has to undertake a considerable amount of debt service and interest repayment tasks every year. In 2005, for example, debt interest repaid 73 billion yuan, accounting for13.2% of the fiscal expenditure; Debt service expenditure157.982 billion yuan, accounting for 37.8% of the debt income of the year. In the process of the operation of the new social security system and the aging population, in order to pay the social security expenses of the old workers who took part in the work before the reform, more and more old people are shouldered the social security burden, and potential financial liabilities are also formed. It will also be an inevitable financial burden to write off the bad debts of some state-owned banks and repay the debts by local governments. From these aspects, the current level of tax revenue as a proportion of GDP in China is not compatible with the level of financial resources needed to perform government functions.
(C) Comparison of macro tax burden level and enterprise burden
Macro tax burden level is related to corporate tax burden, but they are different. The level of corporate tax burden mainly depends on the actual tax rate of applicable taxes. Other things being equal, the corporate tax burden level is the basic factor that affects the macro tax burden level. The macro tax burden level is not only affected by taxes and tax rates, but also by tax base and tax source scope. Even if taxes and tax rates remain unchanged, or even decrease and decline, if the tax base and tax sources expand, it may also lead to an increase in macro tax burden. For example, EU countries have been taking measures to reduce tax rates since 1990s, but their macro tax burden is still rising. In 2005, the proportion of tax revenue in the economic and monetary union area of the European Union was as high as 45% of GDP, which made the macro tax burden hit a new high, which was 14% higher than that of the United States and Japan. The reason is that EU countries have taken measures to expand the tax base and strengthen tax collection and management while reducing the tax rate. Therefore, the tax burden of enterprises should not only look at the tax //GDP ratio of this country, but also look at the tax rate of basic taxes in this country.
In recent years, China's macro tax rate has increased, but the nominal tax rate of basic corporate taxes has not changed, and the statutory tax rate of various industrial and commercial taxes has remained at the level of 1994 tax reform. The actual tax rate of enterprises has risen and fallen. On the one hand, the actual tax rate has increased due to measures such as strengthening tax collection and management by the finance and taxation departments and correcting the arbitrary tax reduction and exemption by local governments. On the other hand, since 1994, the government has also introduced some new preferential tax policies, such as preferential tax policies for high-tech industries, preferential tax policies for western regions, and increasing the tax rebate rate for export products, which have played a role in reducing the actual tax rate of enterprises. Of course, different industries and different types of enterprises have different distributions of actual tax rates. Therefore, objectively speaking, the main reason for the increase of macro tax burden in recent years is not the increase of corporate tax burden.
Through the above analysis, the author draws the following conclusions: (1) The proportion of China's government system revenue (referring to the sum of budgetary and extra-budgetary revenue) in GDP is close to that of countries with similar economic development level in the world, and it is still within the normal range. However, there is still considerable government revenue outside the system, which increases the proportion of the government's actual concentrated resources. (2) In the process of China's macro tax burden rising, the statutory tax rate of enterprises has not increased, but generally it has improved in recovery and development. However, enterprises do have a high basic tax rate and a heavy burden outside the system. (3) Although the macro tax burden has risen and the tax revenue has increased substantially, the financial resources of the government to perform basic functions and meet basic public needs are still insufficient. (4) In recent years, China's tax revenue growth rate is higher than GDP growth rate, and the tax elasticity coefficient has increased a lot, which contradicts the expansionary fiscal policy objectives in the period of low economic growth. In this case, the rationalization of China's macro tax burden level is not simply a question of tax rate adjustment.