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Study On Taxpayers' Rights And Its Legal Protection

Posted on:2008-04-28Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:G R XinFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116360215453557Subject:Legal theory
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The thesis researches taxpayers'rights in scientific and uniform aspect on the basis of respecting citizen's rights and limiting the civic rights in Constitutional Regime, drawing lessons from achievements on the right theories in the field of law and philosophy and the fundamental theories of tax laws in our country. From the perspective of the constitutional regime, with regard to"the new constitutional regime theory"and the theory of"the finance constitutionalism"in the west and the object mode and the ideal of reforming the current finance system, the scope of the research on taxpayers'rights has been expanded. Taxpayers'rights are"the rights cluster", and rights in the Constitution, the Tax Basic Law and tax laws are discussed considering the integrity of the right system. From the perspective of promoting the rank of right and limiting the civic rights, it is debated that material foundations for the government to provide the public products or services mostly come from the tax revenue and the government is using taxpayers'money to handle affairs for taxpayers in essence. The equality of both sides in taxation should be maintained for social justice. In the aspect of legislation, execution of law and justice, the way of thinking and measures of perfecting taxpayers'rights protection system is put forward. The 1st Chapter the General Outline of Taxpayers'Rights. This part corresponds to the study of"Ontology"of taxpayers'rights, including the essence, property and types of taxpayers'rights. With the reference in lessons from the research on the right theories in the field of law and philosophy and the fundamental theories of tax laws, the unilateral emphasis on the idea of taxpayers'duties in our country has been abandoned, and the important functions of taxpayers'rights in remolding the relations among tax laws have been highlighted, indicating that the taxpayers'rights are to resist or limit national taxation duty. From three aspects, multiple relations in tax laws among taxpayers, tax authorities and the nation are to be discussed, especially stressing that the relations between taxpayers and the nation are the start of remolding the relations among tax laws. Taxpayers'rights are the system of rights or"the rights cluster"in other words and should be clearly stated mainly according to the Constitution and the Tax Basic Law.The 2nd Chapter Taxpayers'Rights under the Constitutional Regime. From the perspective of the constitutional regime, rights (human rights) and taxpayers'rights have been studied. The basic meaning of the constitutional regime is" the limit of power", and to strengthen taxpayers'rights is to limit the power to the nation (tax authority), the two aspects of one problem. At the same time, the theories of the constitutional regime may be divided into"the old constitutional regime theory"and " the new constitutional regime theory". With regard to the old one, glorifying taxpayers'rights aims to limit the abuse of national power; according to the new one, taxpayers (citizen) should participate actively in national administration (tax authority) management, which is the idea of participant democracy in modern constitutional regime, and the research on taxpayers'rights has been intensified, integrating the research fruits in the new and old constitutional regime theories. In addition, this part has drawn lessons from the theory of " the finance constitutionalism" in the school of public choice, and combined the object mode of reforming the finance system and the ideal of perfecting the constitutional regime so as to expand the research range of taxpayers'rights.The 3rd Chapter Discussions about Taxpayers'Rights. Taxpayers'rights are"the rights cluster"and rich in content involving the rights not only in tax laws but also on the Constitution. In the past, the system research on taxpayers'rights was not complete based on the Law of the Administration of Tax Collection in neglect of research in the field of the Constitution or the Tax Basic Law, because the research on the Constitution and tax laws relatively fell behind and both were not linked in research in a good way. Though we have set out the rights that taxpayers can enjoy in the Law of the Administration of Tax Collection, they only refer to the ones in the course of tax law execution, for short of the constitutional or basic rights that taxpayers possess, for example the basic life maintenance right, the tax revenue usage knowing right, the taxpayers'applying for hearing right and the Constitution violation inspection right etc.. As far as the completion of right system is concerned, even though the pivot of taxpayers'rights protection is in the course of tax law execution, we should stand on the Constitution or the tax basic law to know taxpayers'rights thoroughly. The thesis has relied on the advanced experiences from United States and Germany in the Constitution, the Tax Basic Law and the Tax Administration Procedure Law, and set forth taxpayers'rights theoretically in those areas. Rights, The basic rights of a taxpayer mainly include:First of all, the tax participant right. It includes"the right to decide tax"and"the right to participate in taxation". In the 1st provision of the 8th article in the modified the Law of the Administration of Tax Collection, taxpayers and withholding agents have the right to comprehend the tax laws, the administration regulations and tax procedures of the nation, which provides the taxpayer with the knowing right. But we consider that taxpayers should have the right to know how the tax laws are used and whether they are legal and reasonable or not, besides possessing the right of understanding and knowing laws, regulations and rules and how to pay tax etc.. Endowed with those rights, taxpayers can help preventing from discretional tax collection and any violations in the process of using tax revenue.The second, the right to be treated equally. With regard to taxpayers, on the one hand, they possess the right to be treated equally as the other no matter the difference in economic property and status etc.; on the other hand, they have the right to request the tax authority to treat tax matters fairly and equally in tax disputes, in other words that all the taxpayers should be treated equally. The"equality"here mainly indicates that taxpayers and tax authorities are equal in legal status, namely that each possesses legal rights and fulfils legal duties. On the account of tax authorities, though they have the power to collect tax, on the one hand, they shouldn't override their own rights on taxpayers and injure taxpayers'interests at will; on the other hand, they should be aware that collecting tax is not only the right that they possess but also the duty and responsibility, that is to collect tax by law in the course of performing the right to collect tax. Between the two sides in taxation, the idea of equality may prevent tax authorities from injuring taxpayers'legal interests at will by the right of collecting tax and the protection of taxpayers'rights may probably become realistic.The third, the basic life maintenance right. Taxation is to limit the properties of citizens, and this kind of limit must guarantee the basic life maintenance of citizens, which embodies the respect for living right of citizens in the society of ruling by law.The fourth, the democratic inspection right. It includes the administration reconsideration right, the administration litigation right and the future constitution violation inspection right.The 4th Chapter the Significance of Taxpayers'Rights Protection. First of all, to build up taxpayers'rights consciousness is just to limit the public rights and transform government functions. For long time, the service and right consciousness of the government in our country is weak, and the"master"position of taxpayers cannot gain the respect and be shown, which has affected the realization of taxpayers'rights. In some sense, the government is substantially similar to a special industry section in market economy, to provide the public products or services for taxpayers. Material foundations for the government to provide the public products or services mostly come from the tax revenue and the government is using taxpayers'money to handle affairs for taxpayers in essence. The second, the consciousness of ruling by law should be strengthened, the fair relations between both sides of collecting and paying tax should be set up, and the positions of both sides should be defended. In the new situation, the persistence in taxation by law requires firmly establishing the consciousness of the equality in two sides of collecting and paying tax, corresponding and balancing rights and duties of both sides. We should pay attention to the publicity of the basic contents, means and measures of taxpayers'rights, further improve legal system of taxpayers'rights, smooth the mechanism of realization and protection of taxpayers'rights and complete the roles of taxpayers. Tax authorities should think little of power, enhance the service consciousness and switch the powers in tax authorities to the duties and responsibilities to serve taxpayers. Again, to set up the harmonious society requires caring the social minority community such as rights of farmers and canceling the agriculture tax to lighten farmers'burden for social justice.The 5th Chapter Perfection of Taxpayers'Rights System. First of all, in the aspect of legislation, it is suggested that taxpayers'rights, as the basic rights of citizens, are defined by modifying the Constitution through legal procedures, thus to make taxpayers'rights in accordance with the duties in the Constitution as well as provide the basis for taxpayers'rights protection legislation. From abroad, some of taxpayers'rights may exist in the Taxpayers'Rights Charter or the Taxpayers'Rights Bill, and some may be stipulated in the Tax Basic Law or the General Principles of Tax Law. As above-mentioned, taxpayers'rights in the modified the Law of the Administration of Tax Collection, are not complete. Therefore, it is necessary to draw lessons from Japan and Korea etc. to constitute the Tax Basic Law, so as to regulate taxpayers'rights on the concentrated and uniform basis. In addition, the establishment of the Tax Basic Law is advantageous to unify each current tax law and provide scientific and sufficient legislation basis to systematize and regulate the tax law system. That will take an active effect in making up national tax law system and preventing the contents belonging to basic law from scattering in each regulation, which makes the legislative spirit not clear and in disunity. It is urgent to reform the current legislation system and avoid the improper expansion of taxation right. The 90th article in the Constitution states that the orders, directions and regulations within the right scope should be in accordance with the administrative regulations, decisions and orders by the ministries and councils in the State Council. And the same statements exist in the 71st article of the Legislation Law. Tax authorities have the right to formulate the regulations by those statements. However, that tax authorities focus legislative and administrative powers in law execution on themselves may result in continuous expansion of taxation right, and goes against protection of taxpayers'rights. Therefore, it is quite necessary to reform the current tax legislation system. We suggest canceling rights for tax authorities to draw up regulations in order to explain tax laws.The second, the restriction in taxation organization and officers'behavior should be enforced. Strengthening the supervision upon administration organizations is an important measure to guarantee administration by law. It is required to strengthen the supervision on law execution, avoid corruption, infringe upon the interests of taxpayers and withholding agents, at the time of enforcing the administration of tax collection and tax law execution. Tax collection is not only the right taken by tax authorities representing the nation, but also the duties and responsibilities that should be fulfilled. According to the principle of taxation regulated by law, tax authorities cannot tax more or less, even not collect tax, but only exercise taxation right by tax law, or else take the corresponding responsibilities. At the same time, taxpayers'rights impartation system should be established, meaning that tax authorities should inform taxpayers of the rights that they should have and avoid inappropriate infringement on taxpayers'rights at the time of collecting tax, inspecting taxation and punishing the illegal behaviors.The third, in the aspect of justice, the scope of cases concerning tax administration litigation should be expanded, so that the system of inspection on the violation of the Constitution may take positive effect.The fourth, the establishment of organizations and agencies in defending taxpayers'rights. Compared with tax authorities of executing taxation right, taxpayers are placed in inferior position. Therefore, in many cases, taxpayers have difficulty in maintaining their own interests. In this aspect, we can draw lessons from the United States to establish an autonomous organization---a taxpayer association for supporting their rights. The taxpayer association can provide them with the consultation service of paying tax and immediately get to know the suggestions and advices on the current tax laws and the administration of tax collection and send the feedback to relevant organizations, which will play an active role in perfecting current tax laws and reforming the current administrative system of tax collection. To be more important, the taxpayer association can protect taxpayers in the process of paying tax. The advanced lessons from taxpayers'defending rights will be helpful to try to build up taxpayers'autonomous organizations of our country in the future, and that is also an effective measure for citizens in the society of ruling by law to participate in the national administration by social self-government.
Keywords/Search Tags:Taxpayers'
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