In order to facilitate operation and analysis, the main criterion for the World Bank to classify the world economies is the per capita gross national income (GNI). Every economy is divided into three groups: low income, middle income (divided into lower-middle income and upper-middle income) and high income. According to the classification standard of the World Bank in 2006, countries with per capita gross national income less than $905 are low-income countries, such as Cambodia and Myanmar. Countries with a per capita gross national income of $ 905-3595 are low-and middle-income countries, such as Colombia and Egypt. Countries with a per capita gross national income of 3595-1116 are upper-middle income countries, such as Argentina, Brazil and South Africa. High-income countries with per capita gross national income above1116, such as the United States, Japan, Britain, Australia, Canada, Singapore and other countries.
The more developed the economy, the greater the proportion of income tax, while the smaller the proportion of turnover tax; The more backward a country is, the more it depends on turnover tax. The tax structure of low-income countries is mainly turnover tax, with a small proportion of income tax and almost no social insurance tax; The tax structure of low-and middle-income countries is still dominated by turnover tax, but the proportion of commodity tax is lower than that of low-income countries, and the proportion of income tax increases; Middle-and high-income countries generally levy social insurance taxes, and domestic goods and services taxes are far lower than those of the first two countries; The tax structure of high-income countries is mainly income tax. This is mainly because the direct adjustment of turnover tax is more obvious, and the adjustment of production direction and structure is greater than income tax, which can better reflect the purpose of promoting competition and maintaining fairness, and the collection efficiency is higher.
Therefore, developing countries and economically underdeveloped countries with strong financial needs implement a tax structure model with commodity tax as the main body; Income tax can better reflect the tax principle of "living within our means", and progressive income tax can play its role in automatically stabilizing the macro-economy through the tax policy of camera decision. At the same time, income tax needs a high collection and management ability and a good tax legal environment, so most developed countries adopt a tax structure model with income tax as the main body.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the development of capitalist economy suffered a serious economic crisis, and western countries generally fell into a "stagflation" dilemma. In order to promote economic growth, under the guidance of the supply-side school, western countries began a large-scale tax reform. The general trend is to generally reduce income tax and turn to the tax structure model of paying equal attention to commodity tax and income tax. At the same time, developing countries have also carried out corresponding tax reform to expand the tax base of individual income tax and improve the status and role of income tax in the tax structure; In terms of commodity tax, the wide introduction of value-added tax has reduced the position and role of commodity tax in the tax structure to some extent. It can be seen that both developing countries and developed countries may have a "dual-subject" tax system of income tax and commodity tax. Now, under the influence of the international financial crisis, the stability of the dual-subject tax system as a tax structure model has become an international trend of tax reform, and China must follow this trend and adopt the dual-subject tax system.
2. China's actual national conditions determine that it is necessary to adopt the dual-subject tax system model.
From 65438 to 0994, according to the guiding ideology of "unified tax management, fair tax burden, simplified tax system, reasonable decentralization, rationalized distribution relationship and guaranteed fiscal revenue", China carried out tax reform. Composite tax, with turnover tax and income tax as the main body, supplemented by resource tax and property tax, was initially established. However, judging from the operation of the tax system for more than ten years, China's tax structure is still dominated by turnover tax, while the main position of income tax is still relatively weak.
1996 The "optimal tax theory" put forward by Nobel Prize winners Mirlis and Wei Kexing holds that the choice of tax system mode depends on the government's policy objectives. Generally speaking, income tax is suitable for achieving the goal of fair distribution, and turnover tax is suitable for achieving the goal of economic efficiency. If the government's policy focuses on fair distribution, choose income tax as the main tax; If economic efficiency is the main tax type, turnover tax is selected as the main tax type.
At present, China's tax structure is still dominated by turnover tax, which reflects China's preference for efficiency as the largest developing country in the world. However, over-reliance on commodity taxes is obviously a retrogression for the economy. This tax system structure makes the personal income distribution gap in China widen continuously, and the Gini coefficient in China has reached and exceeded 0.4, exceeding the warning line of the international gap between the rich and the poor, which may lead to a series of economic, social and political risks and even social unrest. Therefore, we need fair taxation to mobilize the enthusiasm of members of society, especially in the current global financial crisis, and it is necessary to decisively change the current tax structure in China to cope with the downside risks of China's economy.
In addition, with the reform and opening up and the development of China's socialist market economy, China's economic and social development has reached a new level, that is, it has entered the stage of building a well-off society in an all-round way. China's economic aggregate is increasing day by day. In 2006, China's total GDP reached 2668 1 billion US dollars, ranking fourth in the world, second only to the United States, Japan and Germany. The per capita gross national income has also achieved rapid growth, reaching $2,065,438+00 in 2006. According to the classification standard of the World Bank, China has jumped from a low-income country to the ranks of lower-middle-income countries in the world. From the international experience, a country has developed to such a level, and has initially possessed the material basis for increasing the proportion of income tax, thus enhancing the fairness of social income.
In addition, with the accelerated development of democracy and the rule of law in China, fairness and justice have become the primary criteria for social members to judge whether social activities are reasonable. Therefore, from the reality of our country, the tax structure of our country should be greatly adjusted, gradually weakening the goal of emphasizing efficiency in commodity tax, increasing the intensity of paying attention to fairness in income tax, and truly realizing the "double-subject" tax structure model of paying equal attention to commodity tax and income tax. Only in this way can we make our society full of vitality and motivation, and strive to achieve the grand goal of building a harmonious society and building a well-off society in an all-round way while coping with the financial crisis.
3. The imperfection of the socialist market economy determines that China must adopt the "double subject" tax system model.
A developed and perfect market can play the basic role of market resource allocation and promote the rational flow of resources through the price mechanism. Therefore, taxation should be based on the relative price that does not affect the market, that is, taxation should be as "neutral" as possible. However, due to the establishment of China's market economy soon, the development is not mature, and the price system has not yet been fully formed; At the same time, the price comparison between basic industries and processing industries, and the market price comparison between industrial products and agricultural products are still very unreasonable, which leads to more prominent economic structural contradictions. Therefore, turnover tax is needed to correct relative prices and adjust and optimize China's economic structure.
In addition, under the condition of socialist market economy, with the development of various economic forms and distribution forms with public ownership as the main body, as well as the changes of national income level and economic structure, the distribution pattern of national income in China has also changed, and the profit level between enterprises and the income gap between regions and individuals has been widening. Although this can mobilize the enthusiasm of workers, expand the scope of market activities and open the consumption level, it is not conducive to the realization of tax "fairness". Therefore, we can redistribute income in the form of corporate income tax and personal income tax, appropriately narrow the income gap and the disparity between the rich and the poor, and correctly handle the distribution relationship between the state, enterprises and individuals.
Finally, from a macro point of view, the adjustment of the market mechanism to the economy is ex post facto, which has a certain lag, and this lag often leads to inefficiency and waste of resource allocation. Therefore, the market economy needs the "invisible hand" of the government to carry out macro-control on its operation. Western economic theory holds that the purchasing power of money in a certain period is the total social demand, and finance takes money as the operating object, which is actually the adjustment of the total social demand. Income tax has the function of automatic stabilizer and camera choice, and has obvious advantages in regulating the total social demand.
In short, summing up the historical experience of China's tax system reform, according to the fact that China's market economy is constantly developing and improving, in the financial crisis situation, China clearly listed "maintaining stable and rapid economic development" as the primary task of economic work this year, and China should take the "double-subject" tax system model with equal emphasis on commodity tax and income tax as the center of tax system reform. Tencent creates space, a platform for entrepreneurship.