On The Legislative Power Of Local Tax Under The Legal Principle

Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18 th CPC Central Committee first put forward the tax statutory principle,it has been playing a pivotal role in the tax field,even called the "imperial clause".There is no doubt that the establishment of the principle of tax legality has made an important contribution to standardizing tax legislation and promoting the reform of fiscal and taxation systems.However,at the same time,due to the need of standardizing tax legislation,the provisions of the principle of tax legality include tax matters into the scope of relative legal reservation.The legislative power related to tax can only be exercised by the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee,and even if authorized,it can only be authorized by The State Council.Local tax legislative power is basically denied.In the system of local tax power,it is generally believed that local tax power mainly includes local tax legislation power,local tax revenue power and local tax collection and management power.The core of the tax power is local tax legislation power,which is the basis of the other two powers.As a result,local governments at all levels can not independently decide local tax matters,local governments lack the enthusiasm of taxation,and the lack of local financial autonomy also causes many problems.In order to comply with the distinct regional characteristics of tax matters,fully mobilize the initiative of local independent income generation,and solve the dilemma of lack of local autonomy,it is urgent to explore a feasible path to give local part of tax legislative power under the premise of complying with the principle of legal taxation.But at present the biggest problem lies in the legislative obstacles,that is,the provisions of the statutory principle of taxation on tax matters relatively reserved,basically exclude the local legislative power,so we must first open the legislative space for the local tax legislative power.At present,there are two feasible ways: one is to interpret the existing legislation,through which it is concluded that both the Legislation Law and the Tax Collection and Administration Law leave a certain living space for the local tax legislation power;The second is to amend the existing legislation properly to make the provisions of the tax statutory principle more fit the spirit of the tax statutory principle.No matter which method is adopted,the common purpose is to make the local tax legislation power feasible in legislation and meet the basic requirements of the principle of statutory taxation.Only on this basis can we further discuss how to grant the local tax legislation power.The proper decentralization of tax legislation power to local governments can not only solve the problem of lack of autonomy of local governments to a certain extent,but also better balance the tax power relationship between the central government and local governments,so that the financial power enjoyed by local governments can match their power and expenditure responsibility.