On The Fairness Of Tax Burden In Current China

Along with the historical process of reform and opening up and economic and social structure transition,China's economy has achieved a sustainable rapid growth for over 30 years.However,many economic and social problems has also been accumulated,such as the disparity between the rich and the poor,the unfair distribution of incomes,which further sharpened the social contradictions and increasingly raised public attention to the social justice problem.In the tax misery index ranking released by Forbes magazine in 2009,China was second only to France which has been on the top of the list for many years.This news just added fuel to the long-fermenting discontent of social injustice,while,scholars differed on the rank.Then,how to evaluate the judgment of China's tax burden level by the Forbes?China is really in such a high level of tax burden?How to measure the degree of fairness of tax burden?How to evaluate the current state of China's tax burden?How to promote the fairness of tax burden in current China?All these are unavoidable in theory and reality.Therefore,responding and resolving these problems is the aim and value of the study.The existing domestic research on the tax burden mainly focused on the concept of tax burden fairness,criteria,principles and so on,and mostly addressed it from the economic sense.There are lots of descriptive researches,while lacking of the care of reality,limiting the width and depth on the research of tax burden.Therefore,this dissertation mainly from the perspective of public management,systematically studied the current state,conditions and process of the fairness of tax burden,which not only conducive to the improvement of tax collection,government legality,and the realization of social justice,but also helpful to the enrichment and development of the theory of good governance,then providing a theoretical basis and some valuable references for China's tax system reform and harmonious society.From the outset,the dissertation discussed the concept of tax burden fairness from two aspects:fiscal revenues collection and expenditures,defining it as the tax burden born by taxpayers should match their economic conditions and the public goods and service they have received.This definition is not confined to discuss tax burden fairness from the collecting area of fiscal resources,but extends to the quality and quantity of fiscal expenditure for inspecting the fairness of tax burden,highlighting the relations between the state taxation power and civil rights to enrich the connotation of tax burden fairness.Next,based on the clarification of the concept,orientated to the fairness of tax burden,through the discussion of principles and criteria under the perspective of normative theory of good governance,the dissertation attempts to build a three-dimensional analytical framework,including taxation publicity,commonality and sustainability:(1)legality includes the legal requirement of taxation,taxation democracy and rule by law;(2)commonality means the scientificity and transparency public revenues and expenditures,and the commonality of taxation administration;(3)sustainability refers to that taxation burden should reflect the fairness of taxation system and structure,the normatively of taxation power distribution and green taxation system.This analytical framework is trying to pay close attention to the fairness of tax burden from the starting point,process to economic,social fairness,and intergeneration equity.It emphasize the reasonable distribution of burden among all taxpayers,and also requires the total tax revenues collected by the state should be symmetrical with the overall benefits provided for all members,hence to promote tax burden fairness and the coordinative development of economy,society and the growth of national wellbeing.In addition,by adopting the research methods of system analysis,comparative analysis,empirical analysis,etc.,and the comprehensive study of the current state of the tax burden in China,the author came to some conclusions:First,China's macro tax burden level is not high.While due to the large proportion of non-tax government revenue incomes,the non-tax burden level is on the high side,and the tax structure is imbalance,mainly as the uneven distribution of tax burden among regions,industries,ownerships,social classes and intergeneration.Coupled with the absence of government spending on people's livelihood,the tax burden in China is seriously unfair,leading to people's“tax misery index”rising.Second,the lack of legality,commonality and sustainability of taxation is the main cause of the unfairness of tax burden in China.(1)Due to the absence of legal requirement and taxation democracy,the imbalance supply of taxation system,the lagged taxation concept,the legality of China's taxation is inadequate;(2)Because the public service investment and tax revenue growth are not synchronized and the lag of taxation administration publicity,China does not have the desired tax publicity;(3)As a result of the unbalance tax system structure,the alienation of tax competition,the rapid expansion of taxation,and the ignorance of intergenerational equity,the sustainability of tax in China is not satisfied.Third,the main cause of Chinese people's tax misery is that the taxes paid by the people do not match with the public goods and service that the government should provide.People's sense of tax misery and tax burden fairness is not only directed against the problem of government revenue caliber or purely against the tax burden level,but more depending on taxpayers' subjective feelings,namely the matching degree between the real taxes payment and the expected gains(which means the public goods and service provided by the government).From this sense,the tax burden level itself is not the fundamental problem that can measure the tax misery,but the consistency of obligation,rights and interests,and the symmetry of cost and benefit.Fourth,enhancing the legality,publicity and sustainability of the tax is the only way leading to the fairness of tax burden in China.(1)By establishing a tax system recognized by both of the government and the civilians;emphasizing the reasonableness,fairness and effectiveness of the taxation governance and other original values and basic meaning,on the basis of the cooperative trust relationship and behavior patterns,coupling the state power and civil rights,the legality of tax can be enhanced;(2)Tax's commonality can be improved through the optimization of the operating field of the tax,the construction of mechanism and platform for taxation good governance,the development of the cooperative governance of tax,the establishment of tax credit system,and the scientificity and transparency of public revenues and expenditures;(3)The sustainability of taxation can be realized in a way of improving taxation system structure,maintaining order construction with moderate tension,perfecting the taxation management system,reasonable division of taxation power,building a green taxation system and promoting intergenerational equity over the issue of tax burden.The innovation of this dissertation mainly lies in the following aspects:firstly,it's the research perspective which the dissertation adopts,from political science,economics to public management,efforts to broaden the research field of vision of the subject.This dissertation analyzes the tax burden problem from the relations between state taxation power and civil rights,attempting to profoundly explore and explain the unfairness of China's tax burden,thus providing some reference on theory and method for related research.Secondly,it's the contents.The dissertation has constructed a three-dimensional analytical framework,which broadens the research horizon,and to some extent deepens the research of state taxation governance.Thirdly,it's some new research findings and viewpoints.The dissertation argued that the lagging tax concept is deep cause of both sides of levier and taxpayers cannot comply with each other.Through the analysis of the legality of tax based on the theory of mutual political recognition,pointing out that taxation legality contains the respect for civil rights and freedom;the dissertation summarized the structure integrity of the tax's mutual recognition relationship.The realization of the fairness of tax burden cannot limit in the fair distribution of tax burden,it also need to expend into the fair spending of government fiscal incomes,together with the increase of public goods and service and the growth of national well-being.In order to promote tax burden fairness,state financial governance mechanism must be operated effectively.Only in the way to establish a people's livelihood finance,state budgets,and service-oriented government based on good governance,can the fairness of tax burden be true from theory to reality.