Study On Several Legal Issues Of The Circulation Tax In Our Country

The circulation tax is a kind of tax that is collected according to the quantity of the circulation amount of commodities at a certain tax rate. The circulation tax in our country is mainly made up of value-added tax, consumption tax, sales tax and so on. It takes up a big proportion in the tax revenue in our country at present and plays an important part in the social development and economic construction of our country. However, we find in tax collection practice that there are obvious defects in the current circulation tax legislation system. It is incompatible with the realistic needs of the economic development in our country and even it hinders the development of the market economy in our country to some extent. Taking the legal system of the value-added tax as a typical representative, the paper reconsiders the current legal system of the circulation tax in our country in view of the law. What's more, it puts forward the suggestions to perfect the system in the end. The paper includes three chapters. Chapter I. The Problems Existing in the Legislation System of the Circulation Tax and the Perfection of It in Our Country The taxation legislation system refers to the division of the taxation legislation jurisdiction. The current taxation legislation system in our country is a system in the form of one unit, two levels, three hierarchies, four branches and multi bodies. "One unit"refers that the people's congresses and the standing committees at all levels which have the legislative power are the unique taxation legislative body. "Two levels"means that the taxation legislative power is exercised by the legislative bodies at both the central and local levels. "Three hierarchies"has such meaning as the legislative jurisdiction at each level is divided into three grades: at the central level, the National People's Congress and the Standing Committee is the first grade; the State Department forms is the second grade; and the Finance Department, the National Tax Bureau and the Customs Head Office constitute the third grade. At the local level, the situation can be inferred on the analogy of the central level. "Four branches"refers to the concept that the legislative power at the central level is extended to the local organs and then the legislative power is formed in the structure of the province, the autonomous region, the special economic region and the special administrative region. "Multi bodies"is understood as that the multi bodies exercise the power. The current situation of the circulation tax legislative system in our country is as follows: the relative legal foundation of collecting the circulation tax is the provisional regulations for the value-added tax, consumption tax, and sales tax set down by the State Department, the "detailed rules for implementation"regulated by the Finance Department and the large numbers of tax administrative regulations established by the National Tax Bureau. The paper holds the opinion that there are mainly two problems existing in the current legislative system of the circulation system in our country: first, the current circulation tax law of our country is in need of the command of the tax basic law; second, the legal form of the circulation tax law of our state is still at a comparatively lower grade. In view of the above problems, the paper suggests it should be perfected from the following perspectives: first, in order to instruct the circulation tax system much better, The Tax Basic Law must be made at a faster speed. As we haven't made The Tax Basic Law, a lot of disadvantages have come into being in the building of the circulation tax legal system in our country. Therefore, it is much necessary to make The Tax Basic Law and make it "small constitution"or mother law in the taxation law system, by which it is endowed with the supreme legal status and legal effect. In this way, it can command, restrain, instruct and harmonize the separate regulations and detailed rules for the circulation tax. Second, the legal grade of the legislation of the circulation tax should be promoted gradually. Up to now, there has not been even one tax entity law in the real sense in the circulation law of our country, but only some regulations and rules such as provisional regulations and detailed rules for implementation regulated by the State Department and the Finance Department. The collection and management of the circulation tax is mainly operated according to the great number of administrative regulations set down by the National Tax Bureau. The administrative organ has no right to make regulations about the items of taxation unless it is authorized by the legislative body according to the legal principles of the elements of tax and the conditions for the establishment of the taxing payingobligation, which means, all the content of the elements of tax and the procedure of tax collection must be regulated by the law. When the legislative body gives authority to the administrative organ, it should make detailed rules for the authorized content, purpose and scope in the authorized items. so as to help the taxpayers predict their own tax burden from the perspective of the legal system. Chapter II. The Problems Existing in the Legal Responsibility System of the Circulation Tax and the Perfection of it in Our Country The legal responsibility of taxation refers to kinds of immediate and enforced legal consequences that are taken by the responsible subject in the taxation legal relationship because of the illegal acts of taxation. According to the different illegal natures of the doer, the legal responsibility of taxation includes the administrative responsibility of taxation and the criminal responsibility of taxation. Viewed from the regulation of relative laws and rules at present and the practical situation in execution, there are some problems in the current legal responsibility system of the circulation tax. As for the administrative responsibility, there are mainly such problems with the administrative punishment on the circulation tax payer as follows: first, the casualness of penalty is too strong; second, there are also many problems with the management of the invoice. The problems with the tax criminal responsibility system in the circulation tax law are as follows: first, there is some mistakes in calculating the loss of the tax revenue of the state in the crime of making a false specific invoice for the value-added tax; second, the measurement of penalty is much heavier for the crime of making a false specific invoice for the value-added tax. In regard of this, we put forward the following perfecting measures: in the respect of the administrative responsibility system, the standard of penalty should be clarified at first. In practice, the casualness of the amount of the penalty is great. For example, some particular tax law-enforcement officer decide the amount of penalty totally according to his own taste or personal feeling or for some kind of purpose. His behavior breaks the justice of the tax law. Therefore, when making a decision on imposing a penalty, the tax organ should take the fact, nature, plot and harm to the society of one's illegal act into full consideration according to the reasonable principle of administration.It does good to avoiding the appearance of unjust acts. Next, the invoice management should be standardized. In the respect of the criminal responsibility system, the method of calculating the tax loss in the crime of making a false specific invoice for the value-added tax is improved at first; and then a suggestion is brought that a law should be made against the crime of making a false specific invoice for the value-added tax and for the corresponding criminal responsibility, including: 1) to cancel the death penalty in the criminal law that applies to the crime of making a false specific invoice for the value-added tax; 2) to increase the standard measurement of penalty for the crime of making a false specific invoice for the value-added tax. Chapter III. The Problems Existing in the Legal System of the Value-added Tax and the Countermeasures of it in our country The Value-added tax is a kind of commodity tax collected according to the added value that is produced in the process of circulation of the commodities. It is the most important one in the circulation tax categories, the revenue of which ranks first in all the present tax categories. It has made up about half of the total revenue of the industrial and commercial tax for years. It can be said that the perfection of the value-added tax plays a decisive role in perfecting the current circulation tax system. It is not exaggerating at all to describe its role with the phrase "a slight more in one part may affect the situation as a whole". The chapter mainly illustrates the following three issues: the transformation of the value-added tax, the narrowness of the scope of the value-added tax collection and the problems of the tax payers. On the systematic analysis of the existing problems, the paper put forwards the following perfecting measures: first, it is advised that the value-added tax o f the consumption pattern should be carried out. We can make some attempts in some areas and then spread it to the whole country. Second, we should perfect the items of the value-added tax and enlarge the scope of collecting the value-added tax. For example, the building industry can be brought into the scope of value-added tax colletion. Finally, the taxpayer system of the value-added tax should be perfected in order to make the proportion of the taxpayer of the small scale more reasonable and the division of the taxpayer subjects of the value-added tax more scientific.