On individual income tax - Education and Training Encyclopedia

On individual income tax

Significance of adjustment of personal income tax threshold

The threshold of "one size fits all" is controversial.

Moderator: Due to the different levels of economic development in different regions, is the starting point of this tax reform "one size fits all" reasonable?

Jin Dongsheng: Relatively speaking, it is more reasonable and fair to implement a unified deduction standard. This is also an international practice. Because the biggest advantage of this is that it is convenient for national management.

Once the threshold of each region floats up and down, each region will not be subject to any restrictions, and it will often go beyond the floating range, affecting local fiscal revenue, thus increasing the gap between rich and poor regions.

Meng: I think it is unfair to implement a unified tax threshold. At present, there is a big gap in economy, income and other aspects in various regions of the country, and the development is uneven. For example, the per capita income of Shandong Province is more than twice that of Shanxi Province. In this case, the implementation of a unified threshold is not conducive to the balanced development of society.

Zhu Jinling: The tax threshold should allow all localities to float within a certain range. A very important function of individual tax is to adjust the gap between the rich and the poor and balance the secondary distribution. Tax threshold, threshold and economic development keep "synchronous progress" to narrow the gap between residents in various regions.

Sun Wei: The threshold for this adjustment does not reflect the fairness of tax development. It should be higher. It will be unreasonable to implement the expense deduction standard across the board. At present, the level of economic development in different parts of the country is different, so the exemption amount should pay attention to the differences in different places. In my opinion, different types of regions should be divided according to their economic level and price index, and a reference base for the threshold should be determined. Then, according to the actual situation of the local economic development level, the local legislature implemented a certain degree of floating on the basis of 1.500 yuan.

The reform of personal income tax is imperative

Moderator: Under what background was this tax reform carried out? What factors contributed to this tax reform?

Jin Dongsheng: Tax reform is imperative. Originally, individual taxes played a role in regulating income balance, but now the burden of ordinary people has not been alleviated, but has increased. The threshold standard of the current individual income tax law was formulated in 1980. Twenty-five years later, with the increase of residents' income, the consumption expenditure has obviously increased, far exceeding the monthly expense deduction standard of 800 yuan stipulated in the individual income tax law. If it is levied according to the original standard, it will obviously lead to a substantial increase in the tax burden of ordinary people.

Meng: At present, the biggest social problem facing China is the polarization between the rich and the poor in China. According to a report recently released by the Ministry of Finance, the income distribution gap has been widening and the polarization between the rich and the poor has intensified over the past decade or so. The Gini coefficient reached 0.447. According to international practice, if the Gini coefficient reaches or exceeds 0.4, it means that the gap between the rich and the poor is too large. As one of the effective means to adjust the personal income gap, the adjustment of the tax threshold is mainly to reduce the tax burden of low-and middle-income people and adjust social equity.

Zhu Jinling: The significance of tax adjustment lies in changing the working class as the main taxpayer. According to the statistics of China State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China last year, the personal income tax in China in 2004 was more than 654.38+073 billion yuan, of which 65% came from the working class. The working class becomes the main taxpayer, which violates the original intention of personal income tax to promote social equity and adjust the gap between the rich and the poor.

Sun Wei: At present, the biggest drawback of domestic individual tax is that the current tax system does not reflect the principle of fair tax burden and reasonable burden, and does not play its due role in regulating social equity. First of all, the tax burden of the working class is too heavy. At present, the monthly salary of working-class people in China ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 yuan, which increases a lot of expenses, such as housing accumulation fund, medical expenses, education expenses and old-age security. In fact, this part of the monthly salary is only enough for many working-class people to make a living, but at present the tax system still taxes them according to the standards of the rich.

Secondly, the key targets of adjustment are biased. The middle-and low-income working class is not the object of individual income tax adjustment, but the subject of taxation. Thirdly, there is a suspicion of reverse adjustment, and the secondary distribution is in a "backflow" state. The long-term "countercurrent" can only be that the richer the rich, the poorer the poor.

Wealth means more social responsibility.

Moderator: This tax reform has strengthened the supervision of high-income people and required them to declare automatically. How should we treat this change?

Jin Dongsheng: Taxation is based on the purpose of adjusting the gap between the rich and the poor and balancing society. While the rich occupy social resources and create wealth, they are more obligated to pay taxes, and then the government will distribute them to help the poor and provide them with basic living security and equal competition opportunities.

Meng: Paying taxes is the duty and responsibility of citizens. As long as you are a citizen of a country, you should pay taxes. Of course, citizens living in poverty and enjoying state relief, that is, citizens living below the poverty line, do not have to pay taxes. This is also the significance of setting a threshold for individual taxes.

For a person's social responsibility, the rich should be more aware of "more work, more gain". Because the rich are wealth accumulated by consuming a lot of social resources, occupying a lot of space and using a lot of manpower. The rich should not be forced to pay taxes, but should rely on their consciousness.

Zhu Jinling: The degree of democracy, legal system and civilization of a country is directly reflected in citizens' awareness of paying taxes. At present, China's tax law system is imperfect, citizens' tax awareness is weak and imperfect, and tax evasion by enterprises and individuals is serious.

In China, it seems to be a common social phenomenon that the rich pay little or no taxes. As a powerful social class, the rich class has a strong ability to pay taxes, and should assume social responsibilities and repay the society.

Sun Wei: In a developed market economy, it is the duty of every citizen to pay taxes. As long as you have income, you will definitely think about how much tax you should pay. In China, social credit, personal credit system and personal property registration system need to be improved. In addition, citizens' tax awareness is still relatively weak, which makes the collection of individual taxes somewhat mandatory.

More wealth means more social responsibility. In developed countries, the tax-related donation system can get corresponding returns, for example, enterprises and individuals can get tax-free treatment for donating to charitable causes. In the future, China can learn from the experience of western countries and cultivate the enthusiasm of the rich to donate.

High taxes should bring high welfare.

Moderator: Do we enjoy social welfare and high taxes? Is there a gap?

Jin Dongsheng: Personal income tax reform is carried out in stages, but the ultimate goal is to improve the tax system that regulates personal income distribution and give full play to the regulatory role of taxation in income distribution. In other words, high taxes should feed back the society and bring corresponding high welfare to the people.

Meng: Paying taxes is the duty of citizens. In turn, the government should provide taxpayers with relevant public goods and services. Because the government has more disposable income through taxes, the government should provide certain services when citizens have living needs. Since the 1990s, China has carried out reforms in medical care, housing and education, which has increased the burden borne by ordinary people. The state should increase subsidies for low-income people. People should know where my taxes are spent.

Zhu Jinling: Taxation should be "taken from the people and used by the people". At present, the personal income tax law only plays a role in regulating the income of urban working class. Even in this range, it is only the high tax burden of high-wage earners, and there is no corresponding social return. Some high-welfare countries, such as northern Europe, have high taxes, but they do not become a burden to the people. On the contrary, people can benefit from this system of "high taxes and high welfare".

At present, ordinary people in China lack the sense of benefit from this tax adjustment in education, unemployment, medical care, housing and other major benefits.

Sun Wei: At present, people are more concerned about the threshold. I think it is meaningless to blindly pursue the threshold. At present, a dilemma faced by the revision of the tax law is the improvement of social welfare corresponding to taxation. In fact, it doesn't matter how much tax is exempted. The key is whether high taxes can bring higher social welfare benefits to ordinary people. In other words, the tax that Teacher Zhu said just now is "take it from the people and use it for the people."

Adjusting the gap between the rich and the poor can't just rely on a tax.

Moderator: How does this tax reform undertake the great mission of "social justice"?

Jin Dongsheng: The adjustment of the tax threshold is an important step in the tax reform, and it also lays the foundation for the tax system combining comprehensive and classified. The most appropriate way to combine comprehensive collection with classified collection is to include five incomes: salary income, income from production and operation, income from labor remuneration, income from property leasing and income from property transfer, while other incomes such as interest dividends and accidental income are still subject to classified taxation. At present, all western countries implement a tax system that combines comprehensive taxation with classified taxation, which will ensure the balance of social income distribution to the greatest extent.

Meng: In view of many social problems, the direction of individual tax reform should be to establish a fair and just personal income tax system on the basis of the principle of "fair tax burden and reasonable burden". With the gradual maturity of conditions and the improvement of collection and management conditions, only by establishing a multi-link and multi-tax system can the reasonable adjustment of personal income gap be effectively realized. The direction of reform should gradually transition from income tax to the combination of income tax and property tax, that is, not only the income part, but also the stock part of property.

Zhu Jinling: In fact, it is very important to really narrow the gap between the rich and the poor and reduce the tax revenue of the working class. However, from the perspective of balancing social distribution, how to bring high-income earners into the stricter scope of tax law supervision and management is the key to tax adjustment and the ultimate direction of tax reform.

Strengthen the regulation of high-income earners, study measures and introduce new means in collection and management, strengthen the management of independent taxpayers such as high-income industries, high-income individuals, key taxpayers and individual investors, improve the filing system of key taxpayers, narrow the gap between the rich and the poor as much as possible, and promote the harmonious development of society.

Sun Wei: Adjusting the gap between the rich and the poor cannot rely solely on taxes. At present, there are few taxes that directly regulate the distribution of personal income in China, mainly personal income tax, property tax and travel tax, and a systematic personal income adjustment tax system has not yet been formed. Therefore, on the basis of reforming the personal income tax system, we should levy inheritance tax and gift tax in a timely manner, adjust the personal income tax and inheritance tax levied on high-income people, improve the real estate tax system, establish a social security tax system, expand the scope of social security, establish and improve the social security system for urban low-income people, and constantly improve the consumption tax system.