1In June, 1998, the EU member states slightly inferior to the United States in the scale of e-commerce development published the Report on Protecting Value-added Tax Revenue and Promoting the Development of E-commerce, and reached an agreement with the United States on exempting tariffs on e-commerce (selling electronic digital products on the Internet). However, the European Union also forced the United States to agree to levy indirect tax (value-added tax) on digital products sold through the Internet, and insisted on levying value-added tax (existing tax) on e-commerce transactions of EU member States to protect the interests of its member States.
In developing countries, e-commerce has just started. Developing countries attach great importance to the research and formulation of international e-commerce tax policies. Most developing countries hope and advocate imposing tariffs on electronic commerce (electronic digital products), thus setting up barriers to protect national industries and safeguard national rights and interests.
II. Opinions and suggestions on studying and formulating China's e-commerce tax policy
At present, e-commerce in China is in the process of changing from concept to reality. According to the statistics of relevant departments in China, the national e-commerce transaction volume from 65438 to 0999 is about 200 million yuan, and its payment methods include online payment and cash on delivery, which is roughly equivalent to the annual turnover of two large shopping malls. Here, combined with the specific situation of e-commerce in China, we put forward some opinions and suggestions on the research and formulation of e-commerce tax policy.
1. China's accession to the WTO is just around the corner. First of all, we should make a decision whether to agree to the unanimous resolution of the WTO to exempt online transactions (intangible products). What countermeasures should be taken? Are online transactions (intangible products) exempt from customs duties? Do you regard intangible products as tangible products and continue to levy tariffs? Or take intangible products as labor services and collect value-added tax according to the practice of the European Union? Or treat the income from intangible products trading as royalties and levy withholding tax? This requires the relevant departments of our government to respond as soon as possible on the basis of comprehensive analysis of national fiscal revenue and the development of national industries.
2. China should formulate preferential tax policies for domestic e-commerce. At present, we should conduct a comprehensive and in-depth study on the taxation of e-commerce. But we should not focus on how to collect taxes. Therefore, in
In a certain period of time, China should not tax e-commerce which is still naive in China. In the case of international tax exemption for e-commerce, the taxation of e-commerce in China is not conducive to the development of e-commerce in China. In addition, with the current level of technology in China (also in the world), the cost of taxing e-commerce is very high, and it is technically impossible. In addition, China has not yet established a comprehensive tax team that understands both e-commerce technology and tax policy. More importantly, China has not yet established and improved supporting laws related to e-commerce.
Judging from the specific operation form and development progress of e-commerce, global e-commerce will not have a strong impact on China's tax revenue for the time being. Tangible physical transactions involved in e-commerce can still be managed by the customs. For digital products on the network, such as software, database products, audio-visual products, etc. , tax collection and management can also take corresponding measures.
There will be no e-commerce tax in the world for two or three years. China should use this precious time to formulate and establish preferential tax policies for e-commerce in China. Among them, we should not only formulate preferential policies for e-commerce, but also formulate preferential policies for high-tech industries closely related to e-commerce.
(1) Give tax incentives to enterprises (Internet service providers) that establish e-commerce trading centers and provide e-commerce services, such as exemption from business tax;
(2) Give preferential policies to new service industries based on e-commerce, such as reducing or exempting business tax;
(3) encourage enterprises to use e-commerce to sell international products or services (such as increasing the export tax rebate rate) to improve the international economic competitiveness;
(4) Investment enterprises should update their internal technologies to improve the degree of automation and informatization; In particular, enterprises carry out btob e-commerce construction and give tax incentives, such as implementing investment credits;
(5) Give tax incentives to enterprises that directly sell their own products through e-commerce, such as reducing or exempting relevant taxes;
(6) Using tax policies to promote the development of high-tech industries with information industry as the main body, including life sciences, genetic engineering, new energy, new materials, space technology, marine development technology, environmental technology and other pollution-free and sustainable industries. In a word, the implementation of preferential tax policies for China's just-started e-commerce will not affect the national fiscal revenue, but will also promote the healthy and rapid development of China's e-commerce.
While studying and formulating e-commerce tax policies, we should also strengthen the electronic construction of tax collection and management and establish a high-quality tax team. In a sense, after the e-commerce tax policy is determined, e-tax collection and management and the construction of high-quality tax team are decisive factors, which is the inevitable requirement of the network economy characterized by e-commerce for tax work.
(1) To meet the requirements of economic informationization and tax collection and management informationization, we should formulate unified tax collection and management business processes that conform to the characteristics of modern network economy and network society. Computer technology and information technology not only provide high-tech products and information-bearing processing means, but also give birth to efficient management science on this basis. It can change the organizational structure, enhance management functions, innovate management ideas and improve management methods. We should use this science to establish a new operation and management system of tax information system and form a new tax management model.
(2) Accelerate the tax collection and management and the informatization construction of the national economy, establish an information sharing network with customs, financial institutions, enterprises, industry and commerce and even foreign governments (at present, this network has been initially formed), and effectively monitor the production and trade activities of enterprises.
(3) Build a city-level modern tax monitoring system and tax collection and management system based on WAN, which fully realizes information sharing among departments (at present, China's tax authorities have established national, provincial and prefecture-level WAN, and are extending to county-level tax authorities), and on this basis, build a sound national macro-tax collection and management, analysis, forecasting and planning information base.
(4) Summarize the experience of the "Golden Tax Project" which has been built and operated by the tax authorities, with computer cross-checking of VAT invoices, anti-counterfeiting and tax-controlled cash registers as the main contents, and develop, design and formulate it according to the technical characteristics of e-commerce.
Monitor the tax collection and management software and standards of e-commerce, and make technical preparations for the future collection and management of e-commerce.
(5) Strengthen the education and training of tax cadres, so that the majority of tax cadres can not only understand the knowledge of information network, but also be familiar with the e-commerce tax collection and management business, and gradually establish a high-quality tax team to adapt to the new situation.
Three. Thoughts and principles of studying e-commerce tax policy
At present, in the process of studying e-commerce in China, there are two tendencies: one is "grim theory", which holds that e-commerce poses a serious challenge to the current tax system and should be greatly reformed; One is the "simple theory", which holds that the current tax system is completely applicable to e-commerce without any modification or supplement. We think they are both biased. We believe that the principles and ideas of studying the tax policy of e-commerce should be as follows: First, based on the existing tax laws and regulations, supplement and improve them to adapt to the development of e-commerce. As a new trade mode different from traditional commerce, e-commerce still carries the goods and services that people often use in the existing society. Its content and essence have not changed. The current tax laws and regulations and their tax principles are social norms of social production and trade activities, which are basically applicable to e-commerce. We should continue to use the current tax laws and regulations and their tax principles to explain, analyze and study the tax problems of e-commerce. The second is to understand and grasp the characteristics and essence of e-commerce, and study and formulate policies and measures for tax collection and management. Everything exists in space and time. E-commerce is no exception. Although the "virtualization" of e-commerce transactions makes people feel that e-commerce transactions are not limited by space and time (in fact, e-commerce only shortens the transaction time and cancels and reduces physical places such as office buildings, shops and warehouses), people (buyers and sellers), money (loans) and things (tangible and intangible) in e-commerce transactions still exist in a certain space and time, and will never be affected by electronization. Everything has its main interrelated links. Among the three links of e-commerce: information flow, capital flow and logistics, capital flow is the main link. In the study of e-commerce tax policy, we should grasp the relationship among "people", "money", "things" and especially "money" (for example, the idea of establishing a regulatory payment system in Europe and America is a useful inspiration), and study and formulate corresponding tax collection and management policies and measures. Everything is interdependent. Since people can create network communication technology to transmit a large number of digital information flows, they can also invent methods and measures to manage and control digital information flows. The development of information technology and network technology also provides advanced technical means for tax collection and management, and brings advanced and efficient modern management technology. Thirdly, in the process of international legislation (including tax laws and regulations) of e-commerce, there is a trend that international legislation precedes domestic legislation, and developed countries such as Europe and the United States dominate, which we should attach great importance to and pay close attention to. We should use various channels to extensively collect the documents and materials related to e-commerce taxation in various countries (Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries have issued many documents related to e-commerce taxation policies, such as the E-commerce Taxation Guide of the European Union, the Electronic Account Book Preservation Law of Japan, the E-commerce and Taxation-Periodic Report of the oecd, and the Global E-commerce Taxation Choice Policy of the United States) and closely follow them. In short, as long as we establish correct ideas and principles, pay attention to the development of e-commerce in the world and China, investigate the technical characteristics of e-commerce, study the tax system and collection and management problems that may be brought about by e-commerce, and at the same time strengthen the cooperation of relevant departments and strengthen the research on e-commerce tax policies, we can formulate e-commerce tax policies that adapt to the inherent laws of e-commerce and conform to tax principles.