The Critical Function And Reform Direction Of China's Tobacco Tax Law

The tax and profit income account for significant part in fiscal revenue.The income is so influential that people often doubt that whether the tobacco tax can reduce tobacco consumption or not,also,the public media always criticize it.Actually,which function the China's tobacco tax is playing,while which function it should play? These are good questions.The paper analyze fact and expound which function the tobacco tax law should have in tax law respect.The first part of this article expounds the current social doubts about the tobacco tax issue,that is,many people think that “tobacco tax control tobacco consumption” is a high-sounding reason.The high tobacco tax only facilitates the government to raise fiscal revenue quickly and efficiently.The resulting “tobacco finances” not only failed to exert the effect of tobacco control,but also became a huge obstacle to tobacco control,blocking the implementation of other nontax control measures and impeding the overall process of tobacco control.Secondly,by studying the relevant historical documents of China's tobacco tax and tobacco industry,it shows the fact that the Chinese government has long supported the tobacco industry and hold the expectation of the fiscal function of tobacco tax,that is,the main purpose of the government to promote the establishment and operation of the tobacco tax law related system.It has always been for the tobacco industry to provide a stable and rich source of tax for the state's finances;through the analysis of tobacco tax data and fiscal data,it is explained that the tobacco tax has indeed played an important financial function.The second part of this paper mainly explains why it is necessary to distinguish the primary and secondary status of fiscal function and tobacco controlling function,that is,whether the tobacco control function is dominant or the fiscal function is dominant,and what is the legal significance of distinguishing this problem.To illustrate this problem,this section first constructs a simple model of tobacco tax law to control the consumption of tobacco products,describing the effect of increasing tobacco tax burden,although at the same time can achieve tobacco control and increase fiscal revenue,but in the long run,the two functions are completely conflicting.Then it discusses the conflict behavior of tobacco control function and financial function.The tobacco tax law under different functions has different patterns: from the dynamic point of view,it is reflected in the decision-making attitude of reform,the choice of reform time,and the size of reform.From the perspective of static tax rules,it is reflected in tax classification,tax rate design,taxation and taxpayers.The third part of this paper mainly uses tax law theory to analyze the function positioning of tobacco tax law.First of all,assuming that the tobacco tax law is a fiscal purpose tax that is mainly based on fiscal function,then it must be tested by the ability-to-pay principle.In short,whether the high tax burden on smokers is in line with the principle of fairness,obviously,smoking behavior does not mean that there is a high income ability,and the legitimacy of tobacco tax is doubtful.Secondly,assuming that the tobacco tax law is dominated by the tobacco control function,the tax is a normative tax for social purposes.It should be tested by the social stat principle,that is,whether the purpose of regulation is justified,whether the means conforms to the principle of proportionality.Tobacco controlling conforms to social welfare and can become true by tobacco tax law.The existence of legitimate reasons,and the use of taxation to control smoking,in general,also meet the necessity,feasibility and effectiveness required by the principle of proportionality.The fourth part of this paper is based on the conclusion of the third part,that is,the tobacco tax law should play a major role in the effectiveness of tobacco control,and put forward some suggestions.Such as,set the legislative purpose clause with tobacco control as the leading function;in the specific tax system design,specific taxation mechanism is used,simplify the ad valorem tax rate and set the normalization mechanism of tax rate adjustment;the tobacco leaf tax is incorporated into the tobacco consumption tax,separate interests of local governments and the tobacco industry;prevent the tendency that localization of tobacco taxes.In addition,tobacco tax control tobacco should form a good interaction with non-tax tobacco control measures,strengthen the public health department's tobacco control authority,and give tobacco controllers full right to speak when the law is amended.