The Problems And Improvement Of The Preferential Income Tax Policies For Corporate Donations

At the Central Working Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development in 2015,President Xi Jinping declared the battle against poverty.As of 2018,there were 16.6 million poor people in our country,and the incidence of poverty was 1.7%.This shows that although the poverty problem in C hina has eased,the problem of a large number of poor people in C hina still exists.In the context of the country's focus on poverty alleviation,China has included targeted poverty alleviation in corporate social responsibility assessment indicators in 2018 and issued the announcement of pre-tax deductions for income tax on poverty alleviation donations,which mobilize the whole society to contribute to the cause of charity.On the one hand,social donations are strongly supported by the national government,but on the other hand,new problems have also emerged during the donation of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic this year.The restrictions imposed by the Wuhan government on donation channels not only did not guarantee an orderly distribution of materials,nor did it achieve a fair and reasonable distribution.In this regard,the society has raised a lot of questions: Is it sensible to distinguish subjects by whether donating through the Red Cross? Will restricting donations through the Red Cross lead to less social donations? Can the Red Cross effectively distribute supplies to the front lines? Facts have shown that,regardless of whether the donation through the Red Cross can improve efficiency and achieve orderly distribution,the restriction of Wuhan's donation channels has indeed led to a shortage of materials in key first-line medical institutions even if the donation is sufficient.It can be seen that in the face of major emergencies,the problem of restricting donation channels will be more prominent,which will seriously hinder the choice of donation behavior and the solution of the problem,which has also caused reflections on the relevant provisions of the preferential tax policies for donations.Social donation has a significant role in resolving poverty and promoting the easing of social conflicts.In the case of market failure and limited government capacity,the solution of social problems needs the support of social forces.As one of the largest economic entities and the main donors in the market economy,enterprises will be endowed with significant responsibilities.However,in the final analysis,the enterprise is for profit.If the enterprise is simply required to bear the cost to fulfill social responsibilities such as donation,without corresponding support and incentives,the company will naturally lack the driving force.The use of tax incentives to guide companies to actively donate is a measure taken by most governments and it has been proved to be effective.But it is also necessary to improve the related tax incentives according to the problems exposed in the actual donation.Then,why can donations enjoy tax benefits? What principles should reasonable and effective tax incentives generally follow? What are the shortcomings from the perspective of solving problems and how to improve the current tax incentives for donation deductions? This series of issues is for further study.This article attempts to use literature analysis and comparative research methods to study these issues in accordance with the logic of why donations can enjoy benefits,what donations can enjoy benefits,and how to actually enjoy them.Firstly,this article summarizes the reasons why donations can enjoy tax benefits,and lays a reasonable foundation for tax-related preferential policies related to donations.Second ly,starting from the general guiding principles for formulating tax incentives,this paper discusses the principles that should be followed for reasonable donation tax incentives.Based on this,this paper discusses the necessity of tax policy emergency mechanism in conjunction with the problems reflected by the current epidemic situation in C hina,and points out the shortcomings of preferential policies for corporate donations before tax deduction in our country,and then combined with the experience of international comparisons to analyze the applicability to China.Finally,based on the analysis of issues and international comparisons,this article puts forward suggestions for improving the current tax incentives for donations,which mainly involve the following three aspects: First of all,improve the emergency nature of tax policies.O n one hand,relax the qualifications of recipients.The purpose of tax incentives is to encourage or take care of a certain industry or behavior so that the criteria for judging whether a charity is eligible for deduction should be should be based on whether it is for the purpose of charity or engaging in charitable causes.At the same time,strengthen the monitoring of the donated organization during and after the event,mainly the control of the logistics of donated funds.O n the other hand,promote the legislation level of emergency policy.After the qualification standards for charitable organizations are relaxed,more organizations have become transit points for donating money and materials,so that they can s hare the pressure to deal with large donations in the event of an emergency.Therefore,in order to further improve tax contingency,it is necessary to improve the legal level of tax concessions in special circumstances.This can not only give full play to the timely guidance of tax policies when an emergency occurs,but also reduce the pressure about the policy promulgation of the national government in response to problems.Secondly,optimize the scope of preferential treatment.On the one hand,the form of donation that enjoys preferential treatment should include non-cash donations to realize the efficiency of non-cash donations in solving short-term needs and reasonably guide donation behavior.On the other hand,the provisions for full deductions should be applied in special circumstances or use the final benefit area as the criterion,and should not be used to distinguish between charitable organizations.Last but not least,make the deduction methods convenient.Traditional paper deduction notes are not conducive to storage and cannot be used across regions.This is inconsistent with the cross-regional characteristics of donation behavior and also limits the deduction of donation expenditures,which means the failure of the implementation of tax preferential policies.Therefore,according to the electronic development of donation methods,a certain amount of resources can be invested to establish an online donation system to realize the electronization of deduction credentials.O n this basis,it is necessary to further improve relevant supporting measures,including enhancing supervision and information transparency,improving physical value evaluation standards and systems,and improving overall emergency awareness and capabilities.