Making taxes fair
(China Daily)Updated: 2006-11-10 10:20
This should not have been the case. It damages the basic principle of taxation: Fairness. If one part of the society pays taxes in full while the other at a discount, it becomes unfair to the former group.
The new initiative is aimed to fill that gap, but, paradoxically, lack of confidence in the public taxation system will hinder its smooth implementation.
From a wider perspective, tax revenue expenditure constitutes a major influence on attitudes towards taxes.
When people feel that they are provided with more and better public facilities and services, they are more willing to pay. If they are not very clear about the whereabouts of their payments, or they do not feel their payment is paying off, they get frustrated and less willing to pay.
In building a harmonious society, China is engaged in an uphill battle to solve many social problems, such as helping people gain access to affordable medical services, education and housing.
The social drive of building a harmonious society is, at first glance, not closely related to tax collection, but it is.
The government needs to make our fiscal input more transparent, placing its spending, budgetary or non-budgetary, under public surveillance.
And it must pour as much public funding as possible into improving people's well-being so that taxpayers are glad to pay taxes.
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