Study On The Legal System Of The Cooperation Between Tax Authorities And Taxpayers

In April 2016,the concept of“the Cooperation Between Tax Authorities and Taxpayers”has been clearly put forward in the Opinions of the State Administration of Taxation on Comprehensively Promoting the Openness of Government Affairs.In addition,the importance of“the Communication Between Tax Authorities and Taxpayers”has been stressed repeatedly in such normative documents as the Planning Outline of the Tax Development During the 12^thFive-Year Period and the Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on the Establishment of a Tripartite Communication Mechanism Among Tax Authorities,Social Organizations of Tax-related Professional Service and Their Industry Associations,and Taxpayers.From the perspective of current tax legal norms,there is no lack of specific systems of cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers.Advance pricing and mediation of tax administrative litigation have been legislated.Advance tax ruling,amendment of tax declaration,reconciliation and mediation of tax administrative reconsideration have also entered the stage of legislative solicitation.The improvement of the legal system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers has become the common concerns of tax legislation,law enforcement and judicature in practice and academic circles.Only providing a thorough and detailed explanation of this issue,the practical defects in the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers can actively be dealt with,making the existing cooperation rules and methods institutionalized and systematized.This paper analyzes such problems of the system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers as inadequate implementation of basic principles of the tax law,improper function structure,unreasonable rules and weak operating foundations,and proposes suggestions for improvement.The purpose is to enable both parties of tax authorities and taxpayers to improve efficiency,balance interests,and control risks and disputes by improving the legal system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into six chapters.Chapter one is the theoretical explanation of the tax cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers.The cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers is a legal mechanism that employs such incentive tools as balance of interests,risk control and better services to impel taxpayers to participate in tax law enforcement spontaneously,enabling both parties to build an efficient and mutually beneficial mode of tax law enforcement under the legal framework of tax by a series of specific cooperation modes such as information exchanges,cognitive communication,counseling,reminders and replies and dispute settlement.Specifically,the mode of tax law enforcement includes three elements:tax declaration cooperation,tax adjustment cooperation and dispute resolution cooperation,all of which are needed to be guaranteed by systems.It is characterized by the dynamic mechanism of spontaneous cooperation as intrinsic content,and the tax law enforcement through communication between tax authorities and taxpayers as the external form.The reason why the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers is needed is that the current tax collection and management is based on tax declaration and quality services,and tax collection and paying is originally promoted by both parties of tax authorities and taxpayers.In order to better deal with problems such as asymmetric information of both parties and low efficiency,it is particularly important that both parties of tax authorities and taxpayers can build a cooperative legal relationship.Theoretically speaking,the tax cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers has deep theoretical foundations in economics,sociology,administration and law.Compared with the traditional mode of tax law enforcement with intensified collection and management,the cooperation mechanism between tax authorities and taxpayers has achieved a"win-win"situation between the government and taxpayers with the practical advantages of improving the efficiency of tax collection and paying,balancing tax benefits,controlling risks of both parties and improving the acceptability of tax law enforcement.Chapter two is about the prominent problems in the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers and its institutional reasons.The prominent problems of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers are manifested in the following three elements of cooperation.First,tax declaration cooperation has not been implemented in accordance with the law.Second,tax adjustment cooperation has not reached the fairness of tax law.Third,dispute resolution cooperation is still in a dilemma that the system has not been recognized.The imperfection of legal systems related to the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers is the fundamental cause of the frequent problems in the practice of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers.Due to the holistic and coherent roles systems related to the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers play,problems of the three elements of cooperation are not only associated with the imperfect rules of their own systems,but also reflect the existence of system defects in the structure arrangement among different elements of cooperation.Meanwhile,relevant systems have common problems in the implementation of basic principles of tax law and operating foundations of the systems.In view of this,this paper conducts an integrated analysis of the institutional reasons for cooperation practice issues.That is,there exist such problems in the current legal system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers as inadequate implementation of basic principles of tax law,improper function structure,unreasonable rules and weak operating foundations,which seriously hinders the actual effect of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers.Only by perfecting relevant systems,obstacles to cooperation can be effectively resolved.Chapter three is the overall idea of perfecting the legal system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers,including three parts:perfection direction,system framework and operating foundations.The perfection direction of the legal system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers includes legalization of the cooperation mechanism between tax authorities and taxpayers,sufficient and appropriate incentive mechanism for spontaneous cooperation,rigorous restriction mechanism for cooperation in accordance with the law,and the integration of function design of the system.In the cooperation of tax declaration,tax adjustment and dispute resolution,the legal system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers shall bear the following functions:to provide institutional guarantee for the tax declaration cooperation to achieve the maximization of legal declaration;to provide institutional guarantee for tax adjustment cooperation to achieve the maximation of fair adjustment;and to provide institutional guarantee for making up the deficiency of early cooperation through dispute resolution.In view of this,this paper first sets the legal systems of cooperation in tax declaration,tax adjustment and dispute resolution as the secondary institutional framework for the legal system of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers,and then adds,subtracts and integrates current systems to determine the three-level specific system,and finally optimizes the function structure of specific systems.In addition,the smooth implementation of the cooperation between tax authorities and taxpayers requires strengthening operating foundations of the system,including introducing the relevant taxpayers'rights into the law,the duty fulfillment of non-cooperative behaviors,and the establishment of the mechanism of capacity balance under the need of power balance.Chapter four is the expansion of the legal system of tax declaration cooperation.First,introducing the system of advance tax rulings into the law.Providing free services and introducing the mechanism of“the division of complexity and simplicity”so as to shorten the ruling period and simplify the content of application materials.Second,expanding the system of advance pricing,that is,introducing the mechanism of“the division of complexity and simplicity”,designing the protection rules for taxpayers'rights in case of failure to negotiate and sign,and improving the relief rule for taxpayers'rights.Third,constructing an innovative legal system of advance expenditure agreement.As a tax service,it can provide objective standards recognized by both parties of tax authorities and taxpayers for the reasonable pre-tax deduction payment terms of taxpayers with industry self-discipline supervision.By minimizing the space of reasonable discretion of tax adjustment,it can avoid disputes between two parties of tax authorities and taxpayers over expenditures that have not been clearly stipulated in the tax law to the maximum.Fourth,introducing the system of risk reminder into the law to achieve full coverage of tax categories and improve the accuracy and effectiveness of reminder.Fifth,introducing the system of tax coaching into the law.By designing service standards,it can strengthen the initiative,timeliness,comprehensiveness and accuracy of tax authorities'cooperation,making it an important impetus for taxpayers to successfully complete tax declaration in accordance with the law.Chapter five is about the perfection of the legal system of tax adjustment.First,introducing the system of amendment of tax declaration into the law.The application scope of the system includes all kinds of errors caused by subjective intention and non-subjective intent.Second,introducing the system of tax interview into the law.The system is defined as a cooperative mode of enforcement that motivates taxpayers to comply with the tax law automatically after the expiration of the tax period and before the tax penalty takes effect.It endows taxpayers with the right to apply for tax interviews,clearly stipulates“The facts are difficult to ascertain”as the statutory qualification of subjects of application and clearly specifies those subjects as eligible taxpayers.Third,designing a comprehensive and systematic system of automatic payment and lenient punishment in accordance with the needs of amendment of tax declaration and tax interview.By detailed legislation,the standardization,fairness and stability of penalty rules will be enhanced.Chapter six is the optimization of the legal system of dispute resolution cooperation.First,it is of practical significance that the rules for reconciling tax dispute and mediating the system subjects of application ignore"reasons and conditions"and set“other reasonableness"clauses.The key to system optimization is to restrict and ease the contradiction that miscellaneous provisions surpasses the restriction of“The facts are difficult to ascertain”.Second,the"types of matters"of reconciliation and mediation systems should be clarified:Disputes over the administrative encouragement,administrative compensation and administrative compensation which are borne by tax authorities can only be applied to the mediation system.Third,the construction of a neutral third-party mediation institution,the disclosure of reconciliation agreements and mediation documents,and the substantial and full communication between tax authorities and taxpayers can significantly improve the fairness of the reconciliation and mediation system,thus enhancing the willingness of taxpayers to spontaneously participate in the reconciliation and voluntarily accept the mediation.