【China Daily】The importance of paying right amount of tax

（本文发表于《中国日报》2018年6月7日）

The State Administration of Taxation, China's top tax authority, has told local tax authorities to thoroughly investigate alleged tax evasion by top celebrities in the film and television industry after an online post exposed the co-existence of "yin and yang" contracts in the entertainment sector. Many celebrities sign two contracts－one real with the real (higher) amount they receive, and the other with a lower payment and perks which they use to evade paying the due tax.

According to China's taxation laws, individual income tax (IIT) is deducted from the salary of employees by the employers and paid to the government. But the tax levied on the entertainment industry, including celebrities, is different from IIT for salaried people, because the service contracts in the sector could involve payments of dozens of millions of yuan.

One of the reasons some individuals intentionally or unintentionally evade tax is the lack of sufficient knowledge of the taxation laws. Especially those some celebrities who earn huge amounts and have big fan following should realize the importance of paying the due tax and never evade tax.

The problem is that "yin and yang" contracts are not uncommon; they are used even in the real estate sector, which should prompt the tax authorities to strictly enforce the taxation laws. The administrative authorities, on their part, should educate the people about the importance of paying the right amount of tax in time and warn them that intentional tax evasion is a crime, for which they will be punished. This will help the public better understand and respect taxation laws and regulations.

It may take some time to establish a comprehensive IIT system, for which not only the efforts of the tax department but also the cooperation of other departments are required.

According to the general direction of individual income tax reform, an IIT mechanism that combines comprehensive and classified taxation systems is likely to be gradually introduced.

The system of imposing different amounts of tax on people earning the same amount of money simply because their income channels are different should be changed. For instance, salary income and remuneration for labor are both labor income, but different tax rates are imposed on them in many cases. This is unfair for people whose only source of income is remuneration for labor.

For the time being, the authorities could accelerate the merger of different kinds of income for labor, such as salaries and remuneration for labor, to collect tax using the same method.

In the future, tax will be levied based on household income and the tax authorities could grant some special tax deductions for expenditure on children's education and eldercare. In the next stage of the reform, the highest and lowest tax rates for IIT are expected to be reduced, which will boost the economy, and reduce the tax burden of the high-income group.

Taxpayers should be made more aware of the taxation laws. Now big data have made it easier to identify some hidden sources of individuals' income. And in the future, the tax authorities are expected to use personal identification card numbers to trace more hidden sources of individuals' income.

Since it has become easier for the tax authorities to know a taxpayer's actual income, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to evade tax.

So it's time the taxpayers realized that paying tax according to the law is not only in their own long-term interest, but also will help build a harmonious relationship between the tax authorities and the taxpayers.

贾 康 介 绍

第十一届、十二届全国政协委员、政协经济委员会委员，华夏新供给经济学研究院首席经济学家，中国财政科学研究院研究员、博导，中国财政学会顾问，中国财政学会PPP专业委员会主任委员，国家发改委PPP专家库专家委员会成员，北京市等多地人民政府咨询委员，北京大学等多家高校特聘教授。1995年享受政府特殊津贴。1997年被评为国家百千万人才工程高层次学术带头人。多次受朱镕基、温家宝、胡锦涛和李克强等中央领导同志之邀座谈经济工作（被媒体称之为“中南海问策”）。担任2010年1月8日中央政治局第十八次集体学习“财税体制改革”专题讲解人之一。孙冶方经济学奖、黄达—蒙代尔经济学奖和中国软科学大奖获得者。国家“十一五”、“十二五”和“十三五”规划专家委员会委员。曾长期担任财政部财政科学研究所所长。1988年曾入选亨氏基金项目，到美国匹兹堡大学做访问学者一年。2013年，主编《新供给：经济学理论的中国创新》，发起成立“华夏新供给经济学研究院”和“新供给经济学50人论坛”（任首任院长、首任秘书长），2015年-2016年与苏京春合著出版《新供给经济学》专著、《供给侧改革：新供给简明读本》、以及《中国的坎：如何跨越“中等收入陷阱”》（获评中国图书评论学会和央视的“2016年度中国好书”），2016年出版的《供给侧改革十讲》被中组部、新闻出版广电总局和国家图书馆评为全国精品教材。2017年领衔出版《中国住房制度与房地产税改革》、《新供给：创新发展，攻坚突破》、《构建现代治理基础：中国财税体制改革40年》等。根据《中国社会科学评估》公布的2006～2015年我国哲学社会科学6268种学术期刊700余万篇文献的大数据统计分析，贾康先生的发文量（398篇），总被引频次（4231次）和总下载频次（204115次）均列第一位，综合指数3429，遥居第一，是经济学核心作者中的代表性学者。