| Since the late Qing dynasty, the successive governments have been raised about stamp duty, inheritance tax,income tax to ease financial difficulty. However, it’s not successful because of the complicated tax environment and civil resistance. During Nanjing national government period, although social conditions of direct tax has not been mature, the direct tax system was set up successfully under the macro background of Anti-Japanese War. Making financial plan for Anti-Japanese War and improving tax system were major driving force of establishing direct tax for Nanjing national government and provided support from society for the new tax system.Nanjing national government began to collect income tax, which was the main tax of the direct tax system. And Gao Bingfang founded the original organization of direct tax-the income tax affairs office. Along with the new tax levy, a new direct tax system was set up. Income tax affairs office has established the personnel system of examination and the separate tax payment system, which were the main differences between traditional taxes and direct tax. With the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the government founded wartime profits tax, inheritance tax for financial injections and received business tax managed by local government and stamp duty managed by the tax department. In the process of the tax imposed, the taxpayer who had actual tax burden opposed the new tax,but the social public opinion supported the new tax, which made the direct tax system could be established during the period of Anti-Japanese War. In1944, the direct tax department was formally established. Because of wartime finance institutions and the personnel factions of the Kuomintang, direct tax department and the tax department in charge of commodity tax experienced repeated combination.In1948, direct tax department and the tax department were combined into national tax bureau.The effect of direct tax administration depends on government’s behavior and the grassroots operation of the tax. Under the conditions of the levy technology not mature, the government carried out a declaration and audit, estimating, simplify the levy method according to actual needs. Because the business account system was not perfect and people’s tax consciousness was weak, these tax methods could not be carried out. To improve the efficiency of tax, the government carried out a series of measures, such as competition of levy, rewarding informers, to a certain extent, which played an important role to direct tax operation. The grassroots operation of direct tax explained the failure of the tax administration. In the early time, staff were self-discipline, and the operation of direct tax was smooth. With the enlargement of direct tax system, the increasing of the business and the more complicated personnel, especially the practice of freight registration, affected the reputation of "gentleman tax" severely. The corruption of grassroots operation made direct tax widely reviled tax during Anti-Japanese War. And the effect on increasing the fiscal revenue was not very desirable. The main part of the government revenue still depended on indirect taxes. The establishment of the direct tax system didn’t realize the desired purpose, but it laid a solid foundation for China to become the modern tax country. |
