Research On Discretion In Tax Administration In The Context Of Comprehensively Lmplementing Law-based Governance

Governing the country according to the law has become a consensus of governance and administration of state affairs in China.The most immediate objective of the law-based administration is to standardize and restrain state power.All economic fields have been covered by the management of the tax system upon the combination of state tax and local tax,leading to increasing centralization of administrative power.Moreover,a huge discretionary space has been given to the tax authority under complicated economic activities and lagging tax legal systems.In that case,it is of both theoretical and practical significance to study the standardized discretion in administration of tax under the background of comprehensively conducting the law-based governance.This paper is composed of five parts.Firstly,fundamental research methods are determined from the perspectives of research background,research significance,and research concerning related problems at home and abroad.Secondly,the concept of discretion in tax administration is interpreted,which lays a foundation for the subsequent research in conjunction with the rule of administrative law,self-discipline in administration,and the theory of power restraint and balance.Thirdly,the control system of discretion in tax administration is analyzed in accordance with practices ofdiscretion in tax administration in China.On this basis,classification and characteristics of China’s discretion in tax administration were summarized.Fourthly,problems existing in excessive discretionary powers given by relevant laws and regulations,confusing discretion standards making subject and undetermined force of law,lack of scientific evidence and realistic basis in formulating discretion standards,ineffective implementation of discretion standards,defective approaches of solving disputes of tax administration are extensively illustrated.Besides,causes of the above problems are also disclosed.To be specific,the old tax procedural law cannot meet the needs of modern tax governance;the tax system focuses on “proving services”rather than “management”;a backdoor is reserved in the system of tax collecting and managing;abuse of power is resulted from information asymmetry;and tax law enforcement officers make choices as "economic persons".Lastly,countermeasures are proposed from the legislative and administrative levels for the governance of discretion in tax administration in China.