Research On Problems Of The Enterprise Taxpayer's Taxpayer Compliance Costs In China

For the concept of tax compliance costs, China's tax circles is not very strange, many of research articles about the costs of tax and tax collection and management have mentioned the existence of this part of the costs, but more commonly known as"tax costs","pursuing cost"or"subordinate costs". In the past, the government was not interested in tax compliance costs, because it does not require direct government expenditures. Moreover, the tax compliance costs are not as easy as tax management costs to measure.The measurement of tax compliance costs are originated in 1934, the American scholar Haige is for the measurement of tax compliance costs, He studied tax compliance costs of Federal Tax and State Revenues in the United States, but he didn't give clear definition of tax compliance costs. Until the last century the 1980s, many countries were flooded by the loss of revenues, many foreign countries began paying attention to the problem of tax compliance costs. Particularly, British Professor Sanford acquired a large number of research results in the area of tax compliance costs, the eyes of many countries have long been attracted to this ignored area. From 1985, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and other countries have mentioned the tax compliance costs on the agenda, and taken effective measures to make tax compliance costs into policy formulation track in the government report, the legislature, tax reforms and other measures. Some developed countries, such as the United States, Australia, had been expressly prescribed that the size of their tax compliance costs must be assessed when a new revenue was brought forward.Tax Compliance Costs been had been paied more concern in recent years, because of the following causes : first, tax compliance costs are huge; secondly, Tax Compliance Costs are cumulative;thirdly, the huge tax compliance costs encourage the incompliance activities of taxpayers easily, so it often lead to a lot of acts of tax evasion in reality. Fourthly, Many factors of the tax reform are involved in tax compliance costs, such as the introduction of value-added tax(VAT) in many countries. The work for simplifying the tax system and solving the loss of tax revenue in many countries, including long debated issues about tax fairness are closely related to tax compliance costs. Particularly , the loss of revenue is the main cause of taking tax compliance costs on the agenda in many countries. In addition, the massive investigation has become feasible and easy by the rapid development of computer information technology, also making the estimates and consideration of tax compliance costs on the agenda of tax authorities.Although foreign countries began paying more attention to the study of tax compliance costs in the last 40 or 50 years. However, our concern and research for tax compliance costs is far from abroad. In China, the tax costs are usually divided into three categories, namely, economic costs, the collection cost and tax compliance costs. A long time, people did the meticulous research on the economic costs and the collection costs of the tax and the research data about them are many. However, the study of the tax compliance costs is relatively slow, tax compliance costs are considered insignificant. Some Chinese scholars consider that ratio of tax compliance costs and the tax total costs is 9:1, collecting a lot of data to measure tax compliance costs is necessary ,and the data is not found in the official publication. Therefore, the domestic research for tax compliance costs is little. The paper"On the tax compliance costs" published on "tax research" magazine NO.7 in 2002 was wrote by Chinese scholars Lei Gen Qiang and Shen Feng, it introduced the concept of tax compliance costs, Classification and foreign research results; in Chapter five, Section two of the book "China's current tax system operation cost analysis", Yu Hai Feng write the basic situation of the tax compliance costs . In general, there are many aspects to be studied further. And so far there are no comprehensive quantitative calculations about our tax compliance costs. Our study for tax compliance costs is still at the initial stage. These studies for tax compliance costs are immature, which are still further in terms of both theory and practice. Firstly, from the research perspective, the majority of the research is based on the tax administrator's point of view, and less based on taxpayers're point of view;secondly, from research methods, the main methods are standard analysis and qualitative analysis, Few empirical or quantitative research methods;thirdly, the scope of the study, many areas of tax compliance, for example, the measure for tax compliance costs, our scholars have not conducted an in-depth study. first of all, because the cost of management has not been accurate calculation, calculation of tax compliance costs has been put in an important position, and tax compliance costs are not the direct costs, not so obvious such as tax administration costs; the second, it is extremely difficult to measure tax compliance costs accurately because of the considerable complexity of tax compliance costs, including not only money and time costs, but also psychological costs of taxpayers which is almost impossible to measure psychological cost of taxpayers ; once more ,it is necessary to gather a large number of tax compliance cost measurement data in order to calculate tax compliance costs but China is lack of statistical data currently.This paper try to do some calculations of tax compliance costs for enterprise taxpayers (including tax compliance total costs, tax compliance total incomes and tax compliance net costs), on the basis of foreign theory for tax compliance costs calculations and estimates experience ,according to the results of calculations ,and this paper bring forward how to reduce the costs of tax compliance.The paper is divided into four parts.The first part The first part is : introduction. The part from the World Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers recently announced a global tax compliance costs of the investigation report, in the 175 surveyed countries (regions), mainland China's tax compliance costs is No. 8, so tax compliance cost of China'enterprise is high, beginning research on tax compliance costs in China, for the taxpayers to comply with tax laws, reducing tax losses, playing an important role. Next, a brief overview of tax compliance costs related to the development of the theory of history and the study results of foreign tax compliance costs.The second part giving a more detailed and comprehensive theoretical explanation of tax compliance costs. For example, the classification of tax compliance costs, various forms , several other factors and etc, also giving a relatively simple interpretation of the main impact factors of tax compliance costs.The third part is empirical study for tax compliance costs of enterprise taxpayers.Firstly, the calculation formula of enterprise taxpayers for tax compliance costs and incomes is brought forward, which was then endorsed by the survey and combined by specific data, a detailed calculation of tax compliance total costs, tax compliance total incomes and tax compliance net costs. The fourth part is the impact factors on the tax compliance costs and the policy options to reduce tax compliance costs. Firstly I analysis the impact factors on tax compliance cost. In the last part of the paper, I put forward some specific Personal recommendations on reducing tax compliance costs, not definitely for the purpose of reducing tax compliance costs, but combined with management costs to achieve the minimum tax.The possible innovation : firstly ,more comprehensive study of tax compliance costs, making up for gaps of the current research on this area to some extent; Secondly, the policy isn't definitely for the purpose of reducing tax compliance costs, but combined with management costs to achieve the minimum tax; thirdly, I pay more attention to the empirical research methods. Empirical analysis, the objective is to describe the original appearance of things. The previous study of the tax compliance costs is only confined to a standard research methods, in this paper, using a specific questionnaire and interview survey, making the article much more valuable; fourthly, I use combination methods of Western theories with the reality of China. In the last 30 years ,many of the developed market economy countries had acquired the abundant results and experience in the field of theoretical research and policy measures of tax compliance costs, as a developing country, China should draw more attention to the achievements and experience of international excellent countries, but the experience and conditions of different countries are often based on different backgrounds, so we should find suitable recommendations related to situation of china. The third point which probably can be described as a bright spot in this paper.In summary, this paper summarizes the results of a large number of foreign Study results on tax compliance costs. Through the way of questionnaire surveys, in the cases of tax compliance cost data in Sichuan, this paper give a detailed calculation of tax compliance total costs, tax compliance total income and tax compliance net costs, discussing the possible ways to reduce the tax compliance total costs ,in order to solve practical problems with a new perspective, making a number of policy considerations and recommendations for China's tax system reform. I hope that the analysis which are not very thoroughly and the suggestions which are not thoughtful can provide some useful information for the researchers in this field. Due to lack of materials for cost compliance costs both inland and abroad, and limitation for myself theoretical and practical level, this paper has some disadvantages. I'm glad to receive your criticism.