On Completing Administrative Enforcement Of Law For Tax Check

As an important method to administrate taxation, administrative enforcement of law for tax check is one of the main tasks which should be enforced in China's tax affairs. Since it has many theoretical and practical problems, administrative enforcement of law for tax check doesn't function well as the last line of defense in tax affairs. After all, inspection on it and its perfection has significance in normalizing taxation order and establishing harmonious relationship in tax levy and taxpaying. Consisting of four parts, this paper will probe into the related issues of administrative enforcement of law for tax check.Part 1 will render the readers a generally theoretical analysis on administrate enforcement of law for tax check. Tax check refers to the administrative enforcement action conducted by taxation authorities to deal with their work and check on the tax liabilities, the withholding tax liabilities, and other obligations tax law has exerted on taxpayers, the withholding persons and other tax parties. Its functions mainly include supervision function, punishment function, education function, and the function of income. Jurisdictions of tax check are composed of functional jurisdiction, territorial jurisdiction, designed jurisdiction, and jurisdiction by level. China's tax check fits its economic development and develops with the gradually deepening of tax reform and tax collection and management reform. Especially after the implementation of new taxation system in 1994, tax check's name mechanism has been regulated, its management system has been gradually completed, it has gained more prominence, and step by step tax check has become a top priority in the tax collection and management activities. The authorization of administrative enforcement of law for tax check lies in: the right to examine records, the right to inspect premises, the right to investigate and collect evidences, and the right to implement administrative punishment etc. Inspector has obligations in showing tax inspection certificate and letter of notification, keeping secrets for the inspected, legally returning account books acquired beforehand, and utilizing them in accordance with regulation, etc. The classification of tax inspection falls into two categories: daily tax inspection and tax check. Although the two have distinctive differences in the subject of enforcement, nature and content, they form an organically inter-connected and inter-promoted whole. Part 2 will offer the readers an analysis on the current condition of and problems existing in administrative enforcement of law for tax check. Based on the organization structuring of tax check, China has adopted a one level inspecting system, and established tax check institutions in taxation authorities of three levels: county, city and province. The responsibilities of each level lie in executing regulations related to tax check, selecting cases for inspection and reviewing, assisting the upper level to check the case, providing the lower level with professional guidance, supervision and assessment, coordinating the judicial work in tax check with public security organs, and organizing the work of specialized tax check and the rectification and regulation of taxation order, etc. The four basis procedures for tax check are case selection, examination, inquest, and execution. The clear division, the complementary effects and inter-promotion of those four procedures enhance the overall efficiency of tax check. Along with the ever continuing perfection of tax legal system and the implementation of new tax collection and administration model, the increasingly standardized administrative enforcement of law for tax check has gained positive results in cracking down tax-related infringement and constructing a fair and harmonious tax environment. However, owing to deficiency of the legislation, mechanism and personnel in tax check, its function of protecting national interest and the rights of taxpayers hasn't been brought into full play, and also it has been faced with lots of problem. First, lacking of guarantee of related law; with economic development and the deepening of tax collection and administration reform, stipulations of some laws and regulations like Law on the Administration of Tax Collection, Implementing Regulations, and Inspection Regulations, however, can't meet the current situation and need to be modified; besides, foundations on which current tax law deals with some infringements are not specified and need to be complete. Second, law enforcement needs to be intensified; since tax-related infringement are becoming increasingly disguised, specialization and intellectualization become features of the methods of infringement, current inspecting methods are restricted in the investigation and prosecution of some cases, administrative penalty of cases violating the law needs to be strengthened, and taxation authorities orient inspection institutions'as income-producing type, all those defects, to some extent, hinder the normal check function. Third, mechanism in this system needs to be further rectified and standardized, with the symptoms of further implementation requirement of one level inspection system; non-fluency in the links between tax payment assessment and tax check, no deliverance of the cases should be delivered, vagueness in the target of the suggestion in tax collection and administration, no formation of positive interactive mechanism; deficiency of complementary effects in the four basic procedures of tax check, and unsatisfactory effect of inspection cases'review and supervision on tax enforcement and tax check; and also unsatisfactory coordination with tax department. Fourth, effective inspection force should be strengthened; inspectors are lacking in backbone staff, and their comprehensive quality need to be further elevated, and at the same time, modern inspection technologies as auditing software need to be further explored and utilized to realize high efficiency. Fifth, the sense of assisting and protecting taxation needs to be enhanced; because of the lasting of traditional ideology and the lacking of specific law stipulation, Chinese taxpayers has a weak sense of tax law observation and protecting their own legal interest, and furthermore, taxation authorities'abilities of collecting tax-related information from the outside tax-related departments need to be improved.Part 3 focuses on the international comparison of administrative enforcement of law for tax check and its references. From the aspects of tax check's organization construction, enforcement means, personnel and case source selection, this chapter draws a comparison among tax check systems in USA, Germany, and Japan, etc., and holds the idea that the oversea countries have established separate departments handling common cases of tax law violation and its criminal cases which has enough law enforcement authorization, optimized personnel, and a broad channel of case information source, etc. All of these have significance in offering references and enlightenment to China.Chapter 4 will supply the readers with suggestions concerning the complement of administrative enforcement of law for tax check. On basis of previous research work, this chapter renders its readers several suggestions on how to complete the administrative enforcement of law for tax check, from the perspectives of legislation perfection, law enforcement regulation, supervision intensification, and the protection of private party in inspection. First, relevant legislation should be completed. It is advised that concerning Law on the Administration of Tax Collection and Implementing Regulations, modification should be made in time calculation of late fee and the authorization of collecting account books, etc., and certain criminal detecting right should be bestowed upon tax check departments; concerning Inspection Regulations, it is suggested to modify it in the definition of tax check, the mandatory measures for retaining tax revenue, and administrative penalty; As to the problems existing in the checking procedure of commercial invoices, perfection of relevant enforcement basis is advised. Second, the enforcement activities of tax check should be regulated. The author suggests that, on basis of enhancing the sense of responsibility in law enforcement, it is a necessity to implement one-level tax check system and the positive interactive mechanism between tax assessment and tax check, strengthen the cooperation between the IRS and Local Tax Bureau, further coordinate with the outside tax-related department to collect sufficient tax-related information, and elevate the ability of case selection. Third, supervision and restraint mechanism should be strengthened. The strengthening work should proceed from three aspects as the quality of enforcement staff, connections amongst the four procedures, and assessment standards; deepening the inner-system supervision from the aspects of superior-subordinate supervision, department supervision, and responsibility investigation; ensuring the fluency of social supervision from the aspects of supervision capability, channel and effects, recognize and fix problems existing in the process of law enforcement, and control the risk of law enforcement. Last but not least, the rights of individual party in the inspection should be protected. Proceeding from the point that tax check department should raise a sense of protecting individual party and individual party in tax check should also raise a sense of protecting his own rights, the remedy methods in administrative reconsideration should be completed from the aspects of taxation restriction, lawsuit linkage, and the process of tax check, and taxation service should be well rendered through taxation publicity, procedure execution, and tax check efficiency.