Tax administration improvements have contributed significantly to a doubling of China’s tax-to-GDP ratio and the substantial reduction in taxpayers’ compliance costs since the mid-1990s. This paper describes the key features of China’s tax administration and their evolution over the last 20 years. It also identifes emerging challenges to the tax system and areas where further tax administration improvements are needed to sustain tax revenue and reduce taxpayers’ compliance costs in the future.
The People’s Republic of China’s tax policies and international obligations are as multifaceted and dynamic as they are complex, developing closely with the nation’s rise to the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Today, after decades of reform and the entry into the World Trade Organization, China has developed regulatory systems that enable it to provide stable administration, including a tax structure. China’s main tax reform can be attributed to the enactment of the Enterprise Income Tax Law, which came into effect on January 1, 2008. Chinese tax regulations include direct taxes, indirect taxes, other taxes, and custom duties and from a collection point of view, China’s tax administration adopts a very devolved system, with revenue collected and shared between different levels of government in accordance with contracts between the different levels of the tax administration system. With respect to international treaties, China has established a network of bilateral tax treaties and regional free trade agreements. This publication describes in detail China’s complex tax system and policies, as well as major bilateral treaties in which China has entered into using country-by-country analysis. Lorenzo Riccardi is Tax Advisor and Certified Public Accountant specialized in international taxation. He is based in Shanghai, where he focuses on business and tax law, assisting foreign investments in East Asia. He is an auditor and an advisor for several corporate groups and he is partner and Head of Tax of the consulting firm GWA, specializing in emerging markets.
Widespread voluntary tax compliance plays a significant role in countries’ efforts to raise the revenues necessary to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. As part of this process, governments are increasingly reaching out to taxpayers – current and future – to teach, communicate and assist them in order to foster a “culture of compliance” based on rights and responsibilities, in which citizens see paying taxes as an integral aspect of their relationship with their government.
Unlocking what drives tax morale – the intrinsic willingness to pay tax – can greatly assist governments in the design of tax policies and their administration, particularly in developing countries where compliance rates are low. This report builds on previous OECD research to identify some of the key socio-economic and institutional drivers of tax morale across developing countries, and seeks to test for evidence of the social contract by examining the impact of public services on tax morale. It also uses new data on tax certainty as an entry point to explore tax morale in businesses, where existing research is very limited. Finally, the report identifies a range of factors related to the tax system that may affect business decision making, how they vary across regions, and suggests some areas for future research. Overall, the report provides a range of suggestions for further work, and how tax morale considerations can be integrated into holistic tax compliance strategies.
In Corporate Income Tax Law and Practice in the People's Republic of China, Fuli Cao provides a comprehensive analysis of China's newly revised tax laws and answers to specific China tax issues.
China's economy has developed rapidly since the economic reforms in 1978, but public finance reforms have proceeded more slowly. This book looks at three major policy options addressing the underlying imbalance between revenues and expenditures at the local level in China. This is a valuable resource for anyone interested in local fiscal issues in China.
Taxation is increasingly in the limelight as a development agenda item, particularly with the emergence of the G20 as the premier international forum. This volume highlights the challenges faced by the Asia and Pacific region regarding tax policy and administration. Partly reflecting the diversity of the region, the region’s voice still appears to be low in comparison with that of other regions such as Europe and Latin America. This book introduces ADB’s and ADBI’s active roles in assisting developing countries with respect to taxation. In addition, this book is an attempt to narrow the gap in understanding between development specialists and tax specialists. This publication, an anthology by contributors who have been involved in ADB’s and ADBI’s activities on fiscal policy and taxation in various capacities is classified into three groups: (i) bird’s-eye overviews that discuss tax and development issues in Asia and the Pacific; (ii) country case studies that present theoretical policy analysis of a particular economy; and (iii) another set of country case studies that share practical experiences regarding the tax system of a particular economy.
