What does a country's macro tax burden mean?

In recent years, with the reform of economic system, China's tax system reform has also achieved remarkable results, and a new tax system has been established that basically meets the requirements of market economy, ensuring the stable, healthy and rapid growth of fiscal revenue. The total tax revenue gradually increased from 1978 to 519.28 million yuan to 4,944.273 billion yuan in 2007 (excluding customs duties, deed taxes and taxes). With the increase of income, the tax burden (whether macro or micro) became more and more reasonable. This paper only briefly analyzes the changes of tax system and tax burden in the past 30 years of reform and opening up.

First, the main changes in the tax system since the reform and opening up

Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward the task of 1978 economic system reform, China's tax reform has gone through three years with the pace of reform and opening up, and has made great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention, with great changes in theory, policy and practice. The author mainly analyzes from the following aspects.

1. Comprehensive reform of tax system and its far-reaching influence

We believe that the 30-year tax reform can be divided into the following four stages. That is, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the mid-1980s, the early 1990s and the 20th century of 265,438+in recent years, the following is a brief review of the tax reform in each stage and its far-reaching impact.

The first stage is the initial period from 1978 to 1982. This stage is basically the stage of tax system construction recovery and comprehensive reform. This stage has made a lot of preparations for the later reform mainly from the aspects of thought, theory, organization and practice, and laid a solid foundation. First of all, we have conscientiously summed up the historical experience and lessons of China's tax system construction, corrected a series of erroneous ideas that belittle tax work and distort the role of tax, and correctly put forward the guiding ideology of starting from China's national conditions, acting according to economic laws, expanding the proportion of tax revenue, giving full play to the economic leverage of tax revenue and serving socialist modernization; Secondly, quickly restore and strengthen tax agencies at all levels from the organization, and vigorously enrich the ranks of tax cadres; Thirdly, some ideas and implementation steps of tax reform are put forward in practice.

The second stage is an all-round development period from 1983 to 199 1 year. In order to strengthen macro-control and give full play to the role of tax and other economic levers, 1983, the State Council decided to try out the reform of state-owned enterprise fees to taxes, that is, the profits paid by state-owned enterprises to the state were changed to income tax. This move broke through the forbidden zone that state-owned enterprises can only pay profits to the state without paying income tax in theory and practice. It is a historic change in the reform of the distribution relationship between the state and enterprises and completely changed the distribution relationship between the state and state-owned enterprises. On this basis, the tax system reform has been carried out in an all-round way, and a new tax system with turnover tax and income tax as the main body and other taxes as the support has been gradually established, which has generally adapted to the economic situation in the early stage of China's economic system reform, strengthened the function of taxation, sustained and steady growth of tax revenue, and significantly enhanced the macro-control role. The establishment of this tax system has broken through the shackles of long-term closed tax system in theory and practice and turned to an open tax system; Break through the financial distribution relationship of unified revenue and expenditure, and re-establish the distribution relationship between the state and enterprises; It broke through the previous one-sided emphasis on simplifying the tax system and paid attention to the multi-link, multi-level and multi-faceted economic leverage of taxation, and changed from a single tax system to composite tax. These breakthroughs have enabled China's tax system construction to enter a new track of healthy development, which is basically in harmony with the overall process of national economic system and financial system reform.

The third stage is the comprehensive deepening period of tax reform from 1992 to 2002. From 1992, the finance and taxation departments began to speed up the preparations for deepening the tax reform. 1993, they lost no time to study and formulate the overall plan and specific measures for comprehensively reforming the industrial and commercial tax system, and completed the necessary procedures for relevant laws and regulations, so that various decrees were promulgated one after another before the end of 1993, and they were implemented nationwide from 1994. This tax reform is the largest, widest and most far-reaching since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and such a big move is rare in the world. On the basis of tax system reform for more than ten years, after years of theoretical research and practical exploration, we actively draw lessons from the successful experience of foreign tax system construction and combine our national conditions to formulate a reform plan. Since its implementation, it has achieved great success in general and has been widely evaluated at home and abroad. More than ten years' practice has proved that the tax reform at this stage is suitable for the actual economic and social situation at that time.

The fourth stage is the period of harmonious tax reform from 2003 to now. In order to build a harmonious socialist society, promote market equity and social equity, and give full play to the function of tax adjustment, the country has completely abolished the agricultural tax for the first time in history and unified the income tax of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises. The abolition of agricultural tax can effectively play the role of taxation in regulating social equity and promoting harmonious social development. The integration of the two taxes can better safeguard the interests of the country and all relevant parties while promoting market equity. During this period, the country also carried out tariff reform in a timely manner, fulfilling China's commitment to join the WTO; Reform personal income tax in a timely manner to make it conform to the changes in residents' income level, living standard and price level; Revise the consumption tax in time to make it more in line with Scientific Outlook on Development; Wait a minute.

2. Review some historic tax events.

Through a brief review of each stage, we can sum up some historical tax events, and try to analyze them below.

I. Collection of state-owned enterprise income tax 1983. This is an "epoch-making leap" in the history of tax reform since the founding of New China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, for a long time, the state did not levy enterprise income tax on state-owned enterprises, but only participated in the distribution of state-owned enterprises as owners and implemented the system of state-owned enterprises paying profits. In order to straighten out the distribution relationship between the state and enterprises and further expand the autonomy of enterprises, 1983 implemented the first step of "changing profits into taxes" nationwide, stipulating that income tax will be levied on most state-owned enterprises in China from 1 983 June1day, and the tax collection time will start from 1983 65433. The first step of "changing profits into taxes" stipulates that 55% income tax will be levied on large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises. After-tax profit shall be paid by increasing lump sum, quota ratio, adjustment tax and quota according to different situations of enterprises. 1984 the second step of "changing profits into taxes" is to levy a unified adjustment tax on the profits of large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises after paying 55% income tax, and completely fix the distribution relationship between the state and state-owned enterprises as a tax relationship. The Draft Income Tax Regulations of State-owned Enterprises in People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Measures for the Collection of Adjustment Tax of State-owned Enterprises issued by the State Council in September 1984 have made specific provisions on the second step of "changing profits into taxes".

Second, the tax-sharing system was established from 65438 to 0994. The central and local tax-sharing financial system is a widely used method in the fiscal and taxation management system of many countries in the world today, and it is a successful international practice suitable for the development of market economy. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's financial system was a centralized model of the former Soviet Union, which was implemented continuously for 20 years. 1980 began to switch to the decentralized system of "eating by kitchen"; After 1988, it was changed to various forms of "lump sum" financial system and fiscal and taxation management system. It was not until 1994 that China's tax reform achieved a real "qualitative change", from administrative decentralization to economic decentralization, which was an important turning point in China's tax work. Drawing lessons from international advanced experience and combining with China's national conditions, this reform has established the basic framework of tax-sharing system, which not only mobilized the enthusiasm of the central government and local governments, but also greatly improved the fiscal revenue of the central government, which is conducive to the macro-management of the central government and accelerated China's economic construction. The tax-sharing reform of 1994 is a major progress in the financial management system since the founding of the People's Republic of China and a major breakthrough in the transformation from a planned economy to a market economy.

Third, the agricultural tax was abolished in 2006. Under the grim situation that the gap between agriculture and industry, rural areas and cities is gradually widening, and the "three rural issues" have obviously restricted China's economic and social development, after several years of reform pilot, on the afternoon of February 29th, 2005, the 19th meeting of the 10th the NPC Standing Committee voted to pass the "People's Republic of China (PRC) Agricultural Tax Regulations". On June 3rd, 2005, the regulation was passed by the 96th meeting of the first the NPC Standing Committee. This great feat marks that the agricultural tax in China, which lasted for more than two thousand years, has officially entered history, and the "national tax on imperial grain" has come to an end, and the history of industry feeding agriculture is coming soon.

Fourth, unify enterprise income tax in 2008. Based on the principle of national treatment, we should be "kind to guests" in tax policy, but at the same time we should not be too "self-denial". The realization of "two taxes in one" marks the end of the dual-track income tax rate system for domestic and foreign-funded enterprises from 1994, and the original corporate income tax rate for domestic and foreign-funded enterprises was formally unified to 25%. The "different taxes" of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises have become history, and the "national treatment" of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises has been realized. The cancellation of the de facto preferential tax policies for foreign-funded enterprises and foreign enterprises can also fully swear to the world that China's economic development environment has been well improved. China attracts foreign investment not by sacrificing economic interests, but by relying more on the "buttonwood" of good international reputation, investment environment and development space to attract "golden phoenix".

3. Analysis of the reform of tax collection and management

1992, China promulgated the first tax collection and management law. 1994 at the same time of tax reform, tax collection and management has also been reformed accordingly, and a tax declaration system has been generally established; Actively promote the tax agency system; Accelerate the informationization process of tax collection and management; Establish a strict tax inspection system, improve the level of tax collection and management, and initially establish a scientific and strict tax collection and management system. This will promote the implementation of the new tax system and the establishment of a normal tax order. On April 28th, 20001year, the 21st meeting of the Ninth NPC Standing Committee revised the Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) on Tax Collection and Management.

In the work of tax collection and management, it is particularly worth mentioning the change of value-added tax collection and management methods. At the end of March, 1994, the "Golden Tax Project" was officially launched. On August 3rd, 20001day, State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China, People's Republic of China (PRC) submitted the second-phase construction plan of "Golden Tax Project" to the State Council and was approved. Judging from the whole tax work, it can be said that the smooth operation of the second phase of the "Golden Tax Project" in recent years has played an important role in increasing tax revenue.

Two, the main changes in China's tax burden since the reform and opening up

1. Macro tax burden change analysis

Macro tax burden refers to the proportion of all taxes paid by all taxpayers in a country to the economic output in the same period. From the reform and opening up to 1984, China's macro tax burden basically followed the planned economic system before the reform and opening up, and the macro tax burden rate basically remained at around 13% because the reform in this period was mainly carried out in rural areas and basically did not involve fiscal reform. The second stage is from the second step of 1984 "changing profits into taxes" to the tax reform of 1994 and two years after the inertia delay of 1994. The macro tax burden has experienced a continuous decline of 12, from 22. 77% in 1985 to 198. In the two years of 1997 and 1998, it rose to the level of 1 1%, and the tax burden was 1 1. 43% and 1 1. 96% respectively. From 1999 to 2004, it increased from 13. 0 1% is increasing year by year, exceeding 14%, 15%, 16% and 17% in turn, reaching 65438 in 2004. After squeezing out the water in GDP in 2005, China's macro tax burden was adjusted to 16.93%, which was about 1 percentage point higher than that in 2004 at comparable prices. In 2006, the macro tax burden was about 18%, which was still about 3 percentage points lower than that of developing countries and 12 percentage points lower than that of developed countries. From the analysis of the development trend of macro tax burden, it is basically about 1 percentage point per year, and it should be reasonable to continue to increase it to about 25%. The current optimal macro tax burden level in China should be 23% ~ 30%.

2. Analysis of the changes of meso-tax burden and micro-tax burden

Intermediate tax burden refers to the proportion of all taxes paid by all taxpayers in a certain region or a certain department of the national economy to the economic output of that region or department in the same period. The meso-tax burden is actually an index between macro-tax burden and micro-tax burden. Micro-tax burden refers to the proportion of all taxes paid by taxpayers in a certain period or an economic event to the economic income of the same period or the event. We can summarize the changes of micro and meso tax burden levels in the past 30 years as follows.

First, the tax burden levels of different industries and industries are gradually rationalized. Because of the differences between industries, it is natural for the national tax policy to adopt encouraging, limiting or neutral policies in a certain period of time. The tax burden of industry and industry is trying to eliminate the excess profits brought by non-subjective factors. Second, the tax burden gap between different economic types has gradually narrowed. It turns out that domestic investment is more important than foreign investment, and state-owned enterprises are more important than private enterprises. The one-sided preferential tax policies of different enterprises in the same industry violate the principles of openness, justice and fairness in the market economy, and gradually eliminate the problem of artificial tax burden. For example, the unified enterprise income tax introduced in 2007 can obviously eliminate the actual situation of different tax burdens of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises. Third, the level of tax burden in different regions has gradually become fair. From the analysis of the law of economic development speed and the corresponding increase of tax revenue, the tax burden level of most provinces and cities in the eastern region is actually higher than that of the whole country and other regions. Among the three economic belts, the eastern part has the highest tax burden, which is significantly higher than that in the central and western regions. Taking the data of 2002 as an example, the macro tax burden of three cities and one province in developed areas is relatively high, which is 42.49% in Beijing, 34.40% in Shanghai, 24.08% in Tianjin and 2 1.55% in Guangdong. However, the macro tax burden in Guizhou Province is 14. 15%, in the north of Shaanxi Province it is1.81%,in Xinjiang it is 12.43%, and in Ningxia it is1/kloc. Fourth, the tax burden of different income groups embodies the principle of social equity. From the development of personal income tax in China, firstly, the standard of necessary deduction has been raised, and from the analysis of the law of diminishing marginal income, the result of the reform itself is biased in favor of low-income people; At the same time, the state has changed from paying attention to the development of the working class to managing the high-income class. According to statistics, the tax payment of high-income earners has accounted for more than 30% of the total tax revenue, and the state has issued relevant policies to strengthen the management of personal income tax payment of high-income earners.

Third, the prospect of tax reform and tax burden change.

1. Prospect of tax reform

First of all, do a good job in individual tax reform to make it more in line with the long-term strategy of sound and rapid economic development. The author believes that there are mainly the following aspects. First, continue to improve the reform of the agricultural tax system. Abolishing the agricultural tax is by no means that there is no three agricultural taxes, and the "three rural" who should pay taxes have to pay taxes; We should continue to reform the agricultural tax system and put an end to the emergence of "Huang Zongxi's Law". The second is to steadily do a good job in the pilot and promotion of value-added tax. Value-added tax is the largest tax in China, and tax reform should undoubtedly be a major event in recent years. The pilot project in Northeast China is successful. Continue to do a good job in the pilot work of central cities, and take this opportunity to promote the reform results to the whole country. Third, do a good job in the research and pilot work of several taxes related to people's livelihood. Such as: real estate tax reform, which can curb the abnormal rise of housing prices; Personal income tax continues to be reformed. Fourth, resolutely do a good job in the tax reform related to the sustainable development of society. Such as: fuel tax, consumption tax, resource tax and customs duty.

Tax reform. Fifth, introduce other related taxes in a timely manner. For example, in order to better embody the principle of equal opportunity, inheritance tax can be introduced in a timely manner, and social security tax can be levied in a timely manner to stabilize the economy and society. Second, deepen the reform of tax collection and management and strengthen tax collection and management. A perfect tax system must also rely on a set of effective collection and management methods, and strengthen collection and management, in order to achieve the expected purpose and effect. Therefore, while further improving the tax system, China must deepen the reform of tax collection and management and strengthen tax collection and management. For example, the third phase of the "Golden Tax Project" is planned and implemented.

2. Prospect of tax burden change

In recent years, it has become an indisputable fact that China's macro tax burden continues to rise, showing a good development trend. However, at present, the proportion of central government tax revenue to GDP in developed countries is not less than 30%, and that in developing countries is not less than 15%, while the proportion of total tax revenue to GDP in China is less than 20%, which is not only far lower than that in most foreign countries, but also far lower than that after the tax reform in China in the mid-1980s. Therefore, China should gradually increase the total tax burden to more than 20%. Therefore, practical measures should be taken from expanding the tax base and strengthening management. With the change of macro tax burden, micro and meso tax burden will tend to be more scientific and reasonable.