Compared with value-added tax, business tax has the advantages of less collection links (single link), high efficiency and effective avoidance of double taxation. Although business tax is a general commodity tax, the differential tax rate is simple in design and strong in operability. The business tax is levied in a circulation link, which is easy to cause tax loss. From the reality, the value-added tax model is conducive to promoting specialized production and stable growth of fiscal revenue, which is more suitable for the requirements of China's economic construction. In order to overcome the disadvantages of unfair tax burden in different industries, the value-added tax will be gradually extended to all aspects of goods and services transactions in the future.
2. Advantages and disadvantages of the current VAT model
As the main tax of turnover tax series, value-added tax has been implemented in more than 100 countries, especially in all 14 member States of the European Union. According to the different caliber of tax base calculation, value-added tax can be divided into three categories: production type, income type and consumption type. The current value-added tax in China belongs to production type. The reason why China chooses production-oriented VAT is to curb the expansion of investment scale under the circumstances of inflation and overheating of the economy, and to ensure that the proportion of central fiscal revenue does not decline. Due to the close relationship between the tax base and GDP, productive value-added tax has played a great role in ensuring the growth of national fiscal revenue, and also restricted the scale of investment in fixed assets. However, tax deduction is not allowed for fixed assets projects, which will inevitably lead to repeated taxation, affect the technological transformation of enterprises, be unfavorable to the development of high-tech industries, and then have a negative impact on the sustainable growth of tax sources. In the process of joining WTO and connecting with international practices, the current production-oriented value-added tax also exposes other problems:
(1) Implementing productive value-added tax is not in line with international practice. Judging from the international practice of value-added tax, production-oriented value-added tax is only adopted by some countries such as China. Income-based value-added tax is only adopted in a few countries in Latin America, and it is not universal; The vast majority of countries that implement value-added tax in the world adopt consumption value-added tax. After China's entry into WTO, if we continue to implement productive value-added tax, it will hinder the normal exchanges between Chinese and foreign enterprises and is not conducive to the improvement of the domestic investment environment.
(2) It is not conducive to capital-intensive basic industries and high-tech industries to participate in international competition. The organic composition of capital in basic industries and high-tech industries is relatively high, and the proportion of long-term capital investment is relatively large. The value-added tax burden of outsourcing fixed assets cannot be deducted, which will inevitably increase the tax burden of this part of the industry. When enterprises participate in international competition, their business decisions and investment decisions will be distorted, such as excessive dependence on government subsidies, which is not allowed by WTO principles.
(3) products that are not conducive to domestic enterprises to participate in international and domestic market competition. (1) The common practice of countries to export products is to implement zero tax rate. Because China's production-oriented value-added tax does not allow the deduction of purchased fixed assets, the tax rebate obtained by domestic enterprises after export does not include the tax paid by purchased parts, which leads to the high cost of exported products. (2) After the tariff is greatly reduced, the current value-added tax rate levied on imported products is low, which makes imported products enjoy super-national treatment. The value-added tax of imported products can be completely deducted, so after entering the domestic market, the actual tax burden is only 17%, while the tax burden of similar products in China is about 25% (VAT payable/(industrial added value-new fixed assets)). If the tariff is reduced to 5%, the overall tax burden of imported products is only 22%, and domestic products will be in an unfavorable competitive position.
From the international experience, the implementation of consumption-oriented value-added tax is conducive to the adjustment of industrial structure and the reorganization of enterprise assets; It is conducive to stimulating investment scale and promoting the development of high-tech industries; It is conducive to the development of import and export trade and the balance of international trade, and it is also conducive to simplifying the collection and management procedures and reducing the collection cost. However, from production-oriented value-added tax to consumption-oriented value-added tax, from non-deduction to one-time deduction of fixed assets will bring some problems: first, the tax base will be significantly reduced. According to statistics, from 65438 to 0998, the total investment in infrastructure and renovation in China was164331700 million yuan, of which the value-added tax was about 6937438+07 billion yuan. In that year, the fixed assets increased by 57,465,438+39 million yuan. Excluding all kinds of infrastructure investment factors that cannot use special VAT invoices, according to the basic tax rate of 1.7%, the actual input tax that should be deducted is about 57.327 billion yuan. If it is changed to consumption-oriented value-added tax, the tax will be reduced by at least 30-40 billion yuan in that year due to the influence of fixed assets increment and stock depreciation. The second is to bring about changes in the tax burden of industrial structure. This change may be a reverse adjustment, that is, it is conducive to the transformation of processing industries and labor-intensive enterprises in the past to basic industries and capital technology-intensive industries. In the past, enterprises with less investment and less deduction in fixed assets projects under productive value-added tax will no longer have the tax burden advantage. The third is to have an impact on tax rates. According to the calculation, due to the deduction of fixed assets, when the tax system was reformed in 194, the basic tax rate of productive value-added tax was determined as 17% (low tax rate and zero tax rate as 13%). If it is now converted to consumption-oriented value-added tax, the tax rate should be increased by several percentage points accordingly.
Third, the realistic choice of China turnover tax reform
Among the western developed countries, only France takes value-added tax as the main tax (at present, value-added tax accounts for 45% of the total tax revenue), but this situation is changing. In order to overcome the "stagflation" of the economy in 1970s and 1980s, the proportion of indirect taxes in western countries has increased, and the main tax types have a trend of developing towards dual subjects. China's current tax structure is still based on turnover tax, which is not in line with international practice. However, the ideal tax system model may not be suitable for China's current national conditions, and we are faced with many realistic choices in the process of exploring the optimal tax system.
1. Ways to smoothly transform VAT. The principle of national treatment of WTO stipulates that its member countries shall not provide some protection for domestic industries by means of domestic taxes, other domestic expenses or quantity regulations. Although the WTO also allows developing countries to implement some protection for naive national industries, the measures are always limited. With the further reduction of the tariff level promised by the China government, domestic industries will bear more and more competitive pressure, and it is of great significance to carry out VAT transformation at this time. The implementation of consumption value-added tax can change the tax burden structure of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises on the basis of maintaining the original tax burden: for domestic enterprises, even if the tax rate is moderately increased, the overall tax burden will not increase, and the tax rebate for export products will be more thorough; For imported products, the tax base of consumption-oriented value-added tax remains unchanged, and raising the tax rate can increase their tax burden and ease the pressure on domestic products caused by drastically reducing tariffs. From the point of view of efficiency, the consumption-based value-added tax can completely solve the problem of double taxation of purchased goods, which conforms to the basic spirit and principles of value-added tax and reduces the cost of collection and management. In addition, judging from the international practice of tax system changes, the way to increase the tax burden of imported products by implementing consumption-oriented value-added tax is a tax reform oriented towards fair tax burden and can be accepted by the international community.
(1) One of the ways to realize the transformation of value-added tax is to expand the tax base, that is, to expand the adjustment scope of value-added tax. The current value-added tax only taxes the production and sale of goods and the provision of processing, repair and replacement services, while construction and installation, transportation, post and telecommunications, finance and insurance, service industry, sales of real estate and transfer of intangible assets all fall within the scope of business tax collection. We can consider extending the scope of VAT collection to industries that are in line with international standards in advance, such as construction and installation, transportation and so on. First, it is conducive to increasing the central fiscal revenue; Second, bringing the above industries into the VAT deduction chain can reduce the actual cost of export products and help to compete with international products; Third, it can reduce the contradiction between the unclear definition of value-added tax and business tax in these industries and the national tax department.
(2) The second way to realize the transformation of VAT is to raise the tax rate. After calculation, raising the revised VAT rate to about 2 1% can basically make up for the shortage of fiscal revenue. From the international comparison, the 2 1% VAT rate is not high, which is completely feasible. Judging from the tax burden of domestic enterprises, the tax burden level of 2 1% actually declined after the transformation. However, the impact of simply raising the tax rate is industry-wide, which will bring unexpected cost burden to some production departments, so it should be used with caution in actual operation.
(3) The third way is to implement step-by-step transformation. That is, since the promulgation of the Provisional Regulations on the Pilot of Consumption-oriented Value-added Tax, the value-added tax contained in all newly-added fixed assets of general taxpayers will be deducted once, and the value-added tax contained in existing fixed assets will be deducted by stages. The deduction can be completed in a few years according to the progressive rate of 20% in the first year and 40% in the second year; You can also set different deduction rates for different industries, and adjust the unreasonable industrial structure through the transformation of value-added tax. Due to the complexity of the deduction of fixed assets, the impact on tax revenue cannot be accurately predicted, so the scope of step-by-step conversion must be strictly controlled.
(4) The fourth way is phased promotion. In view of the fact that the consumption-based value-added tax can not be extended to all industrial sectors at present, the promotion work can be carried out in stages. The first step is in high-tech industries or departments that can significantly improve China's international competitiveness, such as network electronic information, biomedicine, new energy and new materials, environmental protection and other industries; Then it will be extended to the chemical industry, machinery, mechatronics and other industries that match it; Then it will be extended to basic industries such as metallurgy and oil exploitation, and gradually realize the transformation of value-added tax in the whole industrial field.
2. Tax support for VAT transformation. In order to minimize the negative impact of the transformation of value-added tax, other taxes must be designed to cooperate. (1) Expand the adjustment breadth and intensity of consumption tax. In line with the transformation of value-added tax, consumption tax should also expand the scope of collection and design differential tax rates to replace the adjustment function of some tariffs. Because it belongs to the change of domestic tax system, WTO has no right to interfere. At present, the main work of consumption tax collection and management is to find out the tax source, strictly implement the revised tax items and tax rates, and increase the intensity of debt settlement. (2) levying new taxes to ensure the steady growth of central fiscal revenue. Accelerate the preparatory work before the collection of fuel tax and vehicle purchase tax in the turnover tax series; In other tax series, we are actively preparing to levy social security tax, inheritance tax and environmental protection tax. , so that the fiscal deficit after vat reduction and exemption will be concentrated in the hands of the state by opening up new tax sources. Moreover, the introduction of these new taxes also has the function of regulating social wealth and maintaining stable social development. (3) Strengthen the design and collection of income tax and increase the proportion of income tax. The implementation of consumption-oriented value-added tax increases the input tax deduction, because this part of the tax does not enter the production cost of the enterprise, so it will show an increase in the tax base of equal income. 1998, the income tax can only be increased by/kloc-0 18938+08000000000 yuan if the deduction is allowed according to the increment of all fixed assets. In order to fully tap the potential of income tax, it is necessary to merge the two sets of income tax at home and abroad as soon as possible to increase the income tax burden of foreign-funded enterprises. In addition, publicity and education should be strengthened in the collection and management to improve the quality of taxpayers and prevent tax loss. (four) the implementation of various preferential policies to stop the implementation of the work. At the end of 1999, benefits such as "tax deduction for inventory at the beginning" and "tax refund for foreign-invested enterprises" have expired one after another. After the implementation is stopped, the value-added tax revenue can be increased by 35-40 billion yuan every year.
3. The problem of small-scale taxpayers after VAT transformation. The first is the tax burden. Because small-scale taxpayers adopt a fixed collection rate, the input tax cannot be deducted, and the tax burden is heavier than that of ordinary taxpayers. In the past, small-scale taxpayers uniformly used 6% tax collection rate, but now commercial enterprises have changed to 4%, and industrial enterprises are still 6%, resulting in new tax injustice. After the transformation into consumption-oriented value-added tax, the burden on small-scale taxpayers has increased relatively because the input cannot be deducted. Second, small-scale taxpayers issue special VAT invoices. Now, it is stipulated that the national tax authorities should open it on behalf of the taxpayers, which not only increases the difficulty of national tax work, but also brings inconvenience to small-scale taxpayers' business activities, and is also prone to problems such as false opening and opening it on behalf of the taxpayers. Since the small-scale taxpayers, who account for 80% of VAT taxpayers, cannot be abolished or changed in a short time, it is suggested to learn from the successful experience of this management in France: ① Reduce the identification standard of small-scale taxpayers, which is only a few tenths of that in China. (2) Set up a small business management center, bringing together the departments of industry and commerce, taxation, etc. to implement joint payment and billing management for small-scale taxpayers. ③ Further reduce the collection rate of small-scale taxpayers and reduce their burden.
4. Adjustment of circulation structure after VAT transformation. At present, in China's tax-sharing structure, the local tax system is relatively weak, and business tax is the pillar of its income. The expansion of the scope after the transformation of value-added tax will inevitably crowd out a considerable part of local tax revenue. If this part of financial resources is not compensated, it will not only be resisted by local governments because it harms local interests, but also dampen the enthusiasm of local tax authorities. In practice, two schemes of adjusting distribution can be adopted to supplement this part of local tax losses: one is to increase the business tax rate of other industries. For example, the tax rate of posts and telecommunications, service industry, transfer of real estate and intangible assets will be raised by 1-3 percentage points. Second, appropriately increase the local share of value-added tax, and consider increasing it from the current 25% to 30%. The central government can use the above two schemes alternately or mixed according to the situation, so as to balance interests and promote economic development.
5. How to solve new problems in the collection and management of turnover tax? After the transformation of value-added tax into a new industry, the difficulty of collection and management will increase. (1) The construction, installation and transportation industries have a long history of collecting business tax in China. Both industries have the characteristics of diversified business forms and great differences in financial accounting methods. A considerable number of accounting systems in construction, installation and transportation industries are extremely imperfect, and it may be more problematic to levy value-added tax than to implement business tax. (2) Some high-tech industries have created new tax-related problems, such as e-commerce based on the Internet, which fundamentally challenges the traditional tax theory and tax collection and management model. E-commerce activities spread in the form of data streams. Theoretically, the forms and contents of services provided by e-commerce through the Internet are almost infinite, but the current collection and management methods are in a state of no basis and no action in the face of e-commerce. Facing the complicated and changeable international and domestic economic environment, the realistic thinking of China's turnover tax system reform is: speeding up the legalization of collection and management; Modernization of collection means; Scientific management methods. Among them, the ideas of VAT collection and management reform are as follows: ① Actively promote computer collection and management and VAT anti-counterfeiting tax control system, and improve "managing tax by ticket"; ② Scientifically define general taxpayers and small-scale taxpayers, and finally unify the VAT rate; ③ Gradually cancel all forms of tax reduction and exemption.