——Tax Awareness and Modern Tax Law
As a citizen, why do we pay taxes? This is often a seemingly superficial question. Our society always promotes that "paying taxes is honorable" and "paying taxes in accordance with the law is the obligation of every citizen", but intentionally or unintentionally avoids the key question of "why we need to pay taxes."
Since the beginning of the ancient Chinese slave society that "everything in the world is the land of the king, and the shores of the land are the ministers of the king", the emperor collected various taxes and servitude from his subjects in order to Satisfying the needs of one's own enjoyment and ruling the country has become a common practice and a matter of course. This kind of tax imposed on the common people is one-way, obligatory, and compulsory. The emperor and his huge state machine have the right to tax. The unconditional enjoyer. The relationship between taxpayers and the state apparatus is that of paying tribute and demanding tribute.
In modern democratic countries, political power comes from citizen elections. The democratically elected government manages the country on behalf of all citizens. Taxation is still the most important source of government revenue to maintain government expenditures and support the normal operation of the government. . Taxation, as a mandatory contribution or transfer of government revenue from individual citizens and legal entities, actually reduces taxpayers' disposable income to meet the needs of government expenditures, but this is required by the overall interests of taxpayers. This overall benefit should be reflected not only in the public services and public products provided by the government, but also in the government's participation in the redistribution of social wealth through a good tax system to correct market operations or other reasons. The resulting unfair distribution of wealth prevents the polarization of the rich and the poor from triggering violent social conflicts.
This recognized principle of modern taxation involves two key issues, one is the relationship between taxpayers and the government, and the other is the relationship between the tax system and justice.
The relationship between the government and taxpayers is a relationship of service and being served, not a relationship of ruling and being ruled. In layman's terms, the actions of officials at all levels should make taxpayers feel that I am paying taxes to enjoy the services provided by the government, not to hire someone to stand above me and show off my power. The services that the government should provide are nothing more than two aspects. The first is to protect every citizen's personal and property safety and freedom of conduct from unwarranted intrusion by any person or organization. Dostoevsky said in the book "Youth": "I pay taxes to society. It is so that I will not be stolen, beaten, or killed, and no one will dare to make demands on me. "The second is to provide citizens with a good living and development environment, Will. When Duran talked about taxation in ancient Athens in "Greek Life", he said that the Athenians in the golden age forgave the state's harsh levies because the state gave them unprecedented development opportunities. Undoubtedly, broad development opportunities must be premised on security. From this point of view, although Athens more than 2,500 years ago did not have a sophisticated tax law theory, as the first democratic society in human history, the nature of the government to serve the people was clear and perceptible, because Her people can perceptually experience the negative protection and positive development opportunities provided by the government - the latter not only requires broad freedom and broad participation rights in society, but also requires developed public education, culture and facilities. **Products - these two types of services. In contemporary democratic countries, security protection and development opportunities are what every citizen can clearly demand from the country as their own rights.
Therefore, the state provides every citizen with adequate legal protection and public goods, ensuring that every citizen has extensive rights. In return for such services, citizens should consciously assume the obligation to pay taxes. As is legitimate, rights and obligations should be consistent. Failure to pay taxes is like being a "passenger who evades fares" and should be subject to moral condemnation and legal sanctions.
The so-called tax awareness is actually a complete combination of rights and obligations. However, the tax awareness commonly talked about in our country only emphasizes that citizens should fulfill their tax obligations, but does not mean that citizens should enjoy rights. A single word difference reveals huge differences in social structure and concepts. Taxpayer awareness reflects the truth about citizens spending money to purchase government services. Simply emphasizing tax awareness reflects a pattern of social relations that is not much different from demanding tribute and paying tribute. Taxpayer awareness is the basis of citizen awareness and is divorced from rights. However, the awareness of paying taxes is still connected by an umbilical cord with the concept that "everything in the world is not the king's land".
Putting aside the incomplete tax awareness, based on taxpayer awareness, government taxation is necessary. But for the people who pay, there is not only the issue of cost, but also the issue of whether the tax burden is fairly distributed among individuals and classes. In addition, in addition to meeting fiscal needs, the government also participates in the redistribution of social wealth through taxation, which also involves justice. A good tax system can not only minimize the cost for people to purchase government services, but also correct the unfair distribution of wealth; a bad tax system can increase the burden on the people and aggravate unfair distribution.
Adam Smith proposed the four principles of a good tax system: "individual tax payment ability, certainty, convenience and economy" have long become the legal cornerstone of modern tax law. "Personal tax payment ability" means that the tax amount must be determined based on the taxpayer's own affordability, reflecting fairness, and must not impose harsh or undertaxed taxes. "Real" means that taxation must be based on unshakable laws to make it clear to taxpayers What should be paid, how much should be paid, how to pay, and what institutions have the authority to collect taxes should be clearly defined to avoid arbitrary collection and extortion by tax collectors. "Convenience" refers to the simplicity of tax payment procedures.
"Economy" requires minimizing the cost of the tax collection process and avoiding the loss of tax revenue due to excessive tax collectors, excessive salary expenditures, corruption, enriching one's own pockets, arbitrary increases in taxes and other corrupt behaviors, so that the people pay more than the state requires. of income. These points mainly affect the level of people's burden, but also affect the fair distribution of social wealth. The most direct impact on justice is how to determine the amount of tax based on an individual's ability to pay taxes. Today, taxes in any country include indirect taxes and direct taxes. Indirect taxes are value-added taxes levied on consumer goods. Anyone pays the tax every time they purchase consumer goods. Taxes on consumer goods, which are suitable for consumers' ability to pay taxes and can correct distribution injustice, are based on ad valorem rather than quantity-based taxes. That is, high taxes are levied on high-end goods and low taxes are levied on popular and civilian daily necessities. Direct taxes mainly include income tax, inheritance tax and gift tax. The taxation method based on the individual's ability to pay taxes and has the effect of restraining and correcting unfair distribution of wealth is graded progressive tax, while regressive tax deviates from the individual's ability to pay taxes and aggravates unfair distribution.
The tax system in Western countries is mainly based on graded and progressive income tax. The greater the wealth base, the higher the tax rate. Therefore, the richer you are, the more you pay. This helps to suppress the polarization between the rich and the poor and overcome The over-concentration of resources caused by the market economy. Our country implements a tax system with turnover tax as the main body. The proportion of income tax collected has always been lower than that of turnover tax, resulting in the tax's function of regulating the allocation of market economic resources and curbing polarization greatly weakened; in the end, it will be passed on to each consumer. In terms of indirect tax collection, developed countries implement ad valorem taxation, levying high taxes on high-end products that only high-income earners can afford, and levying low taxes on daily necessities for the public, which reduces the indirect burden on low-income earners. Although our country imposes high taxes on high-end goods to a certain extent, at the same time, "taxation on daily necessities such as salt is regressive," which means that some of my country's indirect taxes have the property of increasing the burden on low-income people and deepening their survival difficulties. The postage charges that have been significantly increased again and again in recent years are of this nature. Third, in developed countries, the purpose of collecting taxes such as inheritance tax and gift tax is not to increase fiscal revenue, but to curb unearned gains and correct injustice. In Rawls's words, it is to "gradually and continuously correct wealth." errors in distribution and to avoid concentration of power that is detrimental to the fair value of political freedom and fair equality of opportunity.” To this end, high taxes are imposed. However, our country does not implement high inheritance tax and gift tax. Not to mention that the reality of the combination of power and money in our country has brought countless benefits to the rich. In terms of the current tax system, it is not an exaggeration to say that China is now a "paradise for the rich." And the next feature of the current tax system provides further evidence for this judgment. Fourth, the taxes our country levies on farmers are in the nature of a poll tax. In the 18th century, Hume pointed out that "the poll tax is a kind of arbitrary expropriation." Later, Adam. Smith also pointed out that poll taxes are either arbitrary, uncertain, or completely unfair; in countries that do not take the welfare and security of the bottom of society into consideration, poll taxes are extremely common (5). From the 18th century to the present, it has been a common view among tax law academics that the poll tax is the most unfair. Developed countries have not only abolished the poll tax long ago, but also declared it illegal. And our country’s taxes on farmers are not limited to Adam. Smith's criticism is both arbitrary and unfair, and the reality that money and power are often integrated in rural areas of our country also gives the rich the means and power to pass on their taxes to the poor, and even plunder them. The poor enrich themselves, forming an upside-down pattern of "robbing the poor and giving to the rich".
Laws are used to solve problems. Laws that cannot solve problems are not good laws. Our country’s lawyers always ignore this. Outdated laws are like dinosaurs, and dinosaurs are destined to die. A well-established market law contributed to its demise.