A Legal Study On Sorting Out Taxation Regulatory Documents In China

Apart from the four laws on taxation, namely, Individual Income Tax Law, The Law on Enterprise Income Tax, Vehicle and Vessel Tax Law and Tax Collection and Administration Law, which have been adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, as well as the provisional regulations on 15 categories of taxes stipulated by the State Council, the existing revenue law system of China also includes taxation regulatory documents released by the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, local governments and tax authorities of all levels in the form of stipulation, notification, announcement and reply, etc.These taxation regulatory documents, which involve all the categories of taxes with miscellaneous content and diversified legal forms, are considered as interpretation and supplement of uniserial tax laws and administrative laws and regulations, and included as the evidence of law enforcement concerning revenue. However, the taxation regulatory documents are formulated by diverse departments. Due to the “various sources of politics”, the varying quality of content, the deficiency of authority and frequent variations, the principle of legality and the fairness of revenue are violated, which impairs the consistency and stability of the tax system, and exposes flaws in the substantial and formal rationality.With the continuous construction of the government by law and the development of the society and economy in China, the appeal for the perfection of the existing taxation law system has been increasing. With the revision of the Legislation Law in March 2015, the principle of tax statutory is clarified. Meanwhile, the objective of comprehensively implementing this principle in 2020 has also been proposed by the government. This means that it is the crucial time for the transformation of the revenue law system in China. The completion of the cleaning of the large number of taxation regulatory documents is the only route that must be passed if the revenue law system needs to be perfected.The sorting out of taxation regulatory documents is taken as the object of this paper. By analyzing the malpractices and elaborating the standard of sorting out, certain suggestions are put forward for the perfection of the taxation law system. The sorting out and rectification adheres to the “principle of unified tax system, fair taxation and the promotion of fair competition”, and evaluates the legitimacy in procedure and content, and the substantial fairness of the policies being cleaned in accordance with the principle of tax statutory, and the principle of tax equity, etc. First of all, whether the authorities establishing the legal norms on taxation have relevant authority, and whether the validity of the policies are inconsistent with the law of higher levels should be examined. Secondly, the objective of such establishment and the normality of the content, and whether the principle of tax statutory and the principle of tax equity are satisfied should be examined and verified. Thirdly, the specific space-time environment on which such establishment depends should be evaluated, and whether the adjusted relationship still exists should be analyzed, so as to determine the existence value.Undoubtedly, the sorting out of taxation regulatory documents is good for the tax law system. However, it is still difficult to avoid the continuous establishment of new taxation policies that are inconsistent with the principles. The supervision of the revenue law system should be reinforced continuously, the various laws and regulations on revenue should be perfected, and the reform of the taxation system should be completed. Furthermore, a modern taxation system that is consistent with the basic principle of revenue, the requirements of government by law and relevant norms of science should be established. Hence, the rights and interests of the taxpayers can be maintained, and the progress of China's economy can be facilitated practically.