| Tax-refund for export goods is universally adopted under the intemational rules. It enables the export goods to compete in the world market without any taxes. It is a kind of neutral tax policy. Starting in 1985, the tax-refund policy in China has gone through 20 years and it is getting more and more perfect in terms of both theory and in practice. It has played a key role in promoting the rapid increase of our foreign trade and the fast development of our foreign-oriented economy. However, there are still some drawbacks with our present tax-refund system in terms of the tax law theory and tax practice. From the point of view of tax law and tax practice and based on the background of the emergence of the tax-refund system and its development, analyzes its drawbacks and gives some advice on how to perfect the System in order to offer some help to the work of tax-refund.This paper consists of three parts.First of all, this paper introduces the evolving process from two aspects. One is before the tax-refund system reform promulgated in 2004,. In September2 of 1983, China began to refund the industrial and commercial tax or value-added tax paid with a few export goods, and in April of 1985, China started to refund the taxes paid domestically with all export items. In 1988, the through tax-refund policy was carried out. The Provisional Ordinance of Value-Added Tax of the People's Republic Of China and The Provisional Ordinance of Excise Tax of the People's Republic Of China, both put in force on January 1, 1994, prescribe that the export goods are levied with zero value-added tax rate and the excise tax levied on the export goods is exempted, thus, the legal status of the tax-refund system was established. The second is that the tax-refund system reform promulgated in 2004, its content and the carrying effect. Because the value-added tax is shared by both the central and local government, but the export tax-refund amount all comes from the central, there had been a great shortage between the national financial budget and the actual need from the export tax-refund. Thus, the central government has owed a huge amount of tax-refund to the export enterprises, and the right of getting tax back for the export enterprises cannot be realized. Therefore, the State Council decided to adjust the tax-refund system with a great extent, which aimed to solve the problem of owing tax-refund completely. The Tax-Refund System Reform of 2004 adjusted the structure of the tax-refund rates and lower the tax-refund rates; strength the support form the central finance; establishes the new. system of sharing the tax-refund amount between the central and local governments; stimulating the foreign trade reform; all the amount of the tax-refund accruing before December 31 of 1993 is covered by the central government. The new System sets up a new sharing mechanism, it alleviates the burden of the central govemment, adjusts and controls the rapid increase of national foreign exchange reserve, eases the pressure of the value-increase of RMB, helps the fund circulation in the export enterprises and stimulates the enthusiasm of their production, helps to optimize the export structure and boost the capability of technology creation, promote the development of foreign trade, and enables the foreign trade to contain a high increase condition.Secondly, this paper analyzes the key problems existing in the present tax-refund system. One is the inadequate legal support which appears as the inadequate support from the legal authorization, the inadequate support for the regulations and the non-standardization of regulation-making body, and is that the present tax-refund system needs to be more stable, because it is more agile now. A large number of supplements and amendments make the tax-refund system frequently change, which has brought about a negative effect and increased the unexpected risks of operation and law-changing, and the root cause is just the imperfect system of value-added tax. Another one is that, is it not reasonable for the central and local governments to share the tax-refund amount that exceeds the base amount. The method of deciding the exceeding amount is not very reasonable either and the sharing system has brought about a negative effect. The third one is that, the lowering of tax-refund rates hinders the economic development, increases the export cost for the export enterprises, exerts an effect on the employment and all these have led the export enterprises to change their trade modes to lower the tax burdens. The forth is the breakaway of levy and refund existing in the tax-refund administration. The formality of the administration is imperfect, it does not establish a scientific and rigorous electronic information supervision net, etc. The fifth is that the difference of the methods for the tax refund make the unfair competition, etc.Lastly, this paper sets forth the countermeasure to perfect the tax-refund system from five aspects. One is to make the tax problem pertain to the taxrefund ascertain by national laws so that it guarantees not only the national revenues, but the legal rights of taxpayers as well. The second is to reform the tax-refund sharing system. The govemment may increase the national revenue and alleviate the local financial burden by way of special transferring payment; adjust the revenue sharing system between the central and local governments by increasing the central revenue and therefore, all the amount of tax-refund will be covered by the central govemment; under the present system of value-added tax, it is necessary to carry out the sharing system; adjust the operation procedure of the tax-refund and build up the system of tax exemption for the foreign trade companies; reform the method of deciding the tax-refund base. The third is to consummate the tax structure pertain to the tax-refund. We should abandon the "complete refund" policy and according to our national condition and without breaking the international laws, we should establish different tax-refund rates for different export items. Increase the proportion of the income tax and change the production value-added tax to consumption type as soon as possible; decrease the double taxation to a maximized extent; reform the tax incentives and the system of tax deduction and exemption of the value-added tax and excise tax, strengthen the rigidity of tax laws and decrease the random of the tax incentives. The fourth is to build up a scientific and rigorous law system for the tax-refund administration. It is necessary to build up an integrative system of tax-collection and tax-retired, accelerate the building of electronic information supervision net system, perfect the flow of tax-refund administration, carry out the system of time assurance and "late payment". The fifth one is to define the claim right in the tax law, and establish a path for relief in order to have the taxpayers to fulfill their claim rights by way of lawsuit. |
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