On The Ethical Dimension Of Tax Impartiality

The issue of impartiality demands ethical explanation. Against the background that the existing tax system in China does not work well to enhance social impartiality, the thesis aimed to do a systematic and specific study on the issue of tax impartiality, elaborating the ethical implications of tax impartiality, putting forth the measurement of tax impartiality and finally offering advices for the new-round reform of tax system in contemporary China.As far as the ethical dimension of tax impartiality is concerned, the essence of the tax impartiality means fair exchange. Based on this understanding, I argued with the thesis that tax impartiality has three layers. First, it means that the basic rights of human being should be respected impartially; Second, it refers to macro-impartiality, say, the income government gets by tax should be largely equal to public service it has provided. Third, it entails micro-impartiality, namely that the burden of tax should be dispended according to the public service the taxpayer has benefited from the government. Tax impartiality sets some limits to the government's authority of taxing. That means the government should have enough income by tax to help the poor's basic rights come true, on the other hand, the income government receives from tax should not be more than the public service it has provided to the citizens. And it also means that a country's tax system should not be discriminated to every taxpayer. Nowadays there is some deficiencies in Chinese tax policy, it dose not work well in promoting the whole country's impartiality, so it was elaborately argued that tax reformation is indispensable. Specifically, to bring the ethical dimension of the tax impartiality into effect, improving law-making and its implementation is needed.