Plan for Further Reforming the State and Local Tax Collection and Administration Systems
Plan for Further Reforming the State and Local Tax Collection and Administration Systems
Plan for Further Reforming the State and Local Tax Collection and Administration Systems
December 24, 2015
Since the tax separation reform in 1994, two tax systems have been established respectively for state and local taxes. The separate tax systems have not only produced good results, but also played an important role in mobilizing the initiative of both central and local governments and in establishing a sound socialist market economic system. Nevertheless, there are still problems in the existing tax systems, such as role ambiguity, lack of cooperation in law enforcement, lack of tax facility, lack of scientific management means, irrational organization structure, and imperfect environment, which cannot respond to the requirements of economic and social development. This Plan is formulated in accordance with the requirements of the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Issues Concerning Further Reforms, and the Overall Plan for Further Reforming the Fiscal and Tax Systems, with a view to further reforming the state and local tax collection and administration systems and advancing the modernization of the national governing system and capability.
I. General Requirements
1. Guidelines
To fully implement the guiding principles of the 18th National Congress and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Plenary Sessions of the 18th National Congress of the CPC, under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of "Three Represents", and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and in accordance with President Xi Jinping's important speeches, and the decisions and arrangements of the Central Government and the State Council, make full use of the resources of the state and local tax systems to promote in-depth integration of service, law enforcement and information recourses under the principles of legality, reform and innovation, solve prominent and underlying problems in the existing tax systems, drive the modernization of the national governing system and capability, and further enhance the role of tax revenues in national governance as the foundation, pillar and guarantee of the national economy.
2. Objectives
To establish a modern tax collection and administration system that suits the national governing system and capability by 2020, characterized by lower taxation costs, better tax collection and administration efficiency, better law compliance and taxpayer satisfaction, and better performance of administration duties, so as to promote healthy economic development and social justice and equality.
3. Basic Principles
Lawful Administration: To be guided by the law both in thinking and action while making endeavors to promote reforms, implement the principle of taxation under the law, improve the tax legislation system, and ensure unified and standardized enforcement of tax laws and regulations.
Taxpayer Service: To enhance cooperation between state and local tax departments and provide high-quality administrative services for taxpayers, reduce the tax burden on taxpayers, safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and make taxpayers and citizens have a sense of gain.
Scientificity and Efficiency: To attach utmost importance to the prevention of tax risks, transform tax collection and administration modes and optimize allocation of tax collection and administration resources based on modern information technology to accelerate the progress of scientific, information-based collection and administration in accordance with international standards, and improve the collection and administration quality and efficiency.
Cooperation: To integrate the resources of tax authorities and related parties in order to join efforts to create social synergy for tax support, protection and administration.
Steady Progress: To enhance top-level design in line with the further reform of the fiscal and tax systems, actively respond to the concerns of taxpayers and the public, make overall plans and take all factors into consideration, and make steady progress.
II. Major Tasks
1. Division of Responsibilities
To establish a sound local tax system and define the responsibilities of state and local tax departments and other departments in line with the progress of the fiscal and tax system reform, with the focus on solving overlapping responsibilities between state and local tax authorities and confusion of responsibilities in some areas.
(1) Dividing Responsibilities between State and Local Tax Authorities: Central taxes to be collected by state tax department, local taxes to be collected by local tax department; the responsibility of collecting and administering taxes shared by central and local governments to be determined according to the tax type and on the principle of convenience.
State and local tax departments may entrust each other to collect taxes on the principles of lowering costs and convenience.
(2) Delegating the Responsibility for Collection and Administration of Non-tax Revenues to Local Tax Departments: To assign the responsibility for collecting non-tax revenue items such as administrative fees and government funds to the extent permitted by the law and suitable for collection by the tax department to the local tax department, based on the principles of convenience and saving administrative resources, in order to draw on the advantages of the tax department in the collection of taxes and fees, promote the administration of non-tax revenues by law and improve the local tax revenue system.
2. Service System Innovation
To maximally facilitate and standardize taxpayers according to the requirements of building service-oriented tax administrations, constantly improve the tax service system, save taxpayers from going back and forth among different tax departments, and reduce taxpayer costs.
(3) Promoting the Standardization of Tax Administration: To standardize tax services and tax collection and administration procedure, adopt the approach of list of tax law enforcement agencies and their responsibilities and make known to the public, implement the same service standards, same taxation procedures and same enforcement criteria in both state and local tax departments throughout the country, and provide faster, more economical and standardized services for taxpayers.
(4) Promoting Tax Facilitation Reform: To expedite the building of citywide tax service systems, and accomplish the building of basic province-wide tax service systems in 2016 and a basic nationwide tax service system in 2017 for taxpayers with multi-regional operations; improve the taxpayer service system with respect to first-person responsibility, guaranteed service time, reservation service, prolonged service, one-off 2D code notification, 24-hour self-service, TIPS service, export tax rebate classified management to save taxpayers time; reasonably reduce the number of tax declarations by taxpayers; provide one-stop examination and approval services based on an internal flow system with guaranteed service time and issuance at the site, and all-around online examination and approval services to improve the administrative efficiency and transparency; push ahead with the improvement of the public tax information system to facilitate taxpayers; standardize tax returns, establish an integrated tax information collection and sharing system for both state and local taxpayers; avoid repeated submission of information by taxpayers if it is available in the information system to expedite the progress of paperless billing to save taxpayers time and money.
(5) Establishing a Normalized Service Cooperation System: To strengthen cooperation between state and local tax departments and provide standardized taxpayer services; introduce the service model of "centralized acceptance decentralized processing guaranteed service time" in 2016 by establishing integrated state and local tax service facilities; improve the national "12366" tax service platform to provide better services for taxpayers in 2016; formulate and implement "Internet Plus Taxation" action plans, build electronic tax bureaus with a uniform logo, uniform processes and uniform interfaces to provide integrated state and local tax services so that taxpayers could handle common tax affairs online in 2017; push forward cross-regional sharing of tax information, recognition of qualifications, and cooperation in tax collection and administration, broaden the scope of regional cooperation, adopt innovative service measures based on the successful practices of the free trade pilot zones, and provide unified, convenient, high-quality taxation services for taxpayers.
(6) Establishing a Taxpayer Credit Promotion System: To launch "green channels" for taxpayers of good credit standing to further facilitate their submission of documents, acquisition of invoices, and export tax rebate, reduce the number of or exempt tax inspections within certain periods of time, and boost the development of enterprises through bank-tax interaction; intensify control of black-listed taxpayers, and work with related enforcement departments to prohibit them from exorbitant consumption, set credit limits, prevent them from participating in government purchases, restrict them from acquiring public land and government financial support, and prevent them from going abroad, give the green light to law-abiding taxpayers and impose bans on law breakers.
(7) Improving the Taxpayer Complaint System: To establish a regular taxation service appraisal and feedback system by taxpayers and third parties, with which complaint may be lodged by taxpayers about nonperformance of statutory duties, low working efficiency and bad service, etc.
......
December 24, 2015
Since the tax separation reform in 1994, two tax systems have been established respectively for state and local taxes. The separate tax systems have not only produced good results, but also played an important role in mobilizing the initiative of both central and local governments and in establishing a sound socialist market economic system. Nevertheless, there are still problems in the existing tax systems, such as role ambiguity, lack of cooperation in law enforcement, lack of tax facility, lack of scientific management means, irrational organization structure, and imperfect environment, which cannot respond to the requirements of economic and social development. This Plan is formulated in accordance with the requirements of the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Issues Concerning Further Reforms, and the Overall Plan for Further Reforming the Fiscal and Tax Systems, with a view to further reforming the state and local tax collection and administration systems and advancing the modernization of the national governing system and capability.
I. General Requirements
1. Guidelines
To fully implement the guiding principles of the 18th National Congress and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Plenary Sessions of the 18th National Congress of the CPC, under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of "Three Represents", and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and in accordance with President Xi Jinping's important speeches, and the decisions and arrangements of the Central Government and the State Council, make full use of the resources of the state and local tax systems to promote in-depth integration of service, law enforcement and information recourses under the principles of legality, reform and innovation, solve prominent and underlying problems in the existing tax systems, drive the modernization of the national governing system and capability, and further enhance the role of tax revenues in national governance as the foundation, pillar and guarantee of the national economy.
2. Objectives
To establish a modern tax collection and administration system that suits the national governing system and capability by 2020, characterized by lower taxation costs, better tax collection and administration efficiency, better law compliance and taxpayer satisfaction, and better performance of administration duties, so as to promote healthy economic development and social justice and equality.
3. Basic Principles
Lawful Administration: To be guided by the law both in thinking and action while making endeavors to promote reforms, implement the principle of taxation under the law, improve the tax legislation system, and ensure unified and standardized enforcement of tax laws and regulations.
Taxpayer Service: To enhance cooperation between state and local tax departments and provide high-quality administrative services for taxpayers, reduce the tax burden on taxpayers, safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and make taxpayers and citizens have a sense of gain.
Scientificity and Efficiency: To attach utmost importance to the prevention of tax risks, transform tax collection and administration modes and optimize allocation of tax collection and administration resources based on modern information technology to accelerate the progress of scientific, information-based collection and administration in accordance with international standards, and improve the collection and administration quality and efficiency.
Cooperation: To integrate the resources of tax authorities and related parties in order to join efforts to create social synergy for tax support, protection and administration.
Steady Progress: To enhance top-level design in line with the further reform of the fiscal and tax systems, actively respond to the concerns of taxpayers and the public, make overall plans and take all factors into consideration, and make steady progress.
II. Major Tasks
1. Division of Responsibilities
To establish a sound local tax system and define the responsibilities of state and local tax departments and other departments in line with the progress of the fiscal and tax system reform, with the focus on solving overlapping responsibilities between state and local tax authorities and confusion of responsibilities in some areas.
(1) Dividing Responsibilities between State and Local Tax Authorities: Central taxes to be collected by state tax department, local taxes to be collected by local tax department; the responsibility of collecting and administering taxes shared by central and local governments to be determined according to the tax type and on the principle of convenience.
State and local tax departments may entrust each other to collect taxes on the principles of lowering costs and convenience.
(2) Delegating the Responsibility for Collection and Administration of Non-tax Revenues to Local Tax Departments: To assign the responsibility for collecting non-tax revenue items such as administrative fees and government funds to the extent permitted by the law and suitable for collection by the tax department to the local tax department, based on the principles of convenience and saving administrative resources, in order to draw on the advantages of the tax department in the collection of taxes and fees, promote the administration of non-tax revenues by law and improve the local tax revenue system.
2. Service System Innovation
To maximally facilitate and standardize taxpayers according to the requirements of building service-oriented tax administrations, constantly improve the tax service system, save taxpayers from going back and forth among different tax departments, and reduce taxpayer costs.
(3) Promoting the Standardization of Tax Administration: To standardize tax services and tax collection and administration procedure, adopt the approach of list of tax law enforcement agencies and their responsibilities and make known to the public, implement the same service standards, same taxation procedures and same enforcement criteria in both state and local tax departments throughout the country, and provide faster, more economical and standardized services for taxpayers.
(4) Promoting Tax Facilitation Reform: To expedite the building of citywide tax service systems, and accomplish the building of basic province-wide tax service systems in 2016 and a basic nationwide tax service system in 2017 for taxpayers with multi-regional operations; improve the taxpayer service system with respect to first-person responsibility, guaranteed service time, reservation service, prolonged service, one-off 2D code notification, 24-hour self-service, TIPS service, export tax rebate classified management to save taxpayers time; reasonably reduce the number of tax declarations by taxpayers; provide one-stop examination and approval services based on an internal flow system with guaranteed service time and issuance at the site, and all-around online examination and approval services to improve the administrative efficiency and transparency; push ahead with the improvement of the public tax information system to facilitate taxpayers; standardize tax returns, establish an integrated tax information collection and sharing system for both state and local taxpayers; avoid repeated submission of information by taxpayers if it is available in the information system to expedite the progress of paperless billing to save taxpayers time and money.
(5) Establishing a Normalized Service Cooperation System: To strengthen cooperation between state and local tax departments and provide standardized taxpayer services; introduce the service model of "centralized acceptance decentralized processing guaranteed service time" in 2016 by establishing integrated state and local tax service facilities; improve the national "12366" tax service platform to provide better services for taxpayers in 2016; formulate and implement "Internet Plus Taxation" action plans, build electronic tax bureaus with a uniform logo, uniform processes and uniform interfaces to provide integrated state and local tax services so that taxpayers could handle common tax affairs online in 2017; push forward cross-regional sharing of tax information, recognition of qualifications, and cooperation in tax collection and administration, broaden the scope of regional cooperation, adopt innovative service measures based on the successful practices of the free trade pilot zones, and provide unified, convenient, high-quality taxation services for taxpayers.
(6) Establishing a Taxpayer Credit Promotion System: To launch "green channels" for taxpayers of good credit standing to further facilitate their submission of documents, acquisition of invoices, and export tax rebate, reduce the number of or exempt tax inspections within certain periods of time, and boost the development of enterprises through bank-tax interaction; intensify control of black-listed taxpayers, and work with related enforcement departments to prohibit them from exorbitant consumption, set credit limits, prevent them from participating in government purchases, restrict them from acquiring public land and government financial support, and prevent them from going abroad, give the green light to law-abiding taxpayers and impose bans on law breakers.
(7) Improving the Taxpayer Complaint System: To establish a regular taxation service appraisal and feedback system by taxpayers and third parties, with which complaint may be lodged by taxpayers about nonperformance of statutory duties, low working efficiency and bad service, etc.
......