【CHINA DAILY】A modern tax system should be considered
（本文2019年3月18日刊发于《中国日报》国际版头版）
When discussing China's proactive fiscal policies and itsoutlook for 2019, it is necessary to start with the country's generalmacroeconomic situation. That is because the subject involves overallsocioeconomic development and the implementation of top-level guidelines.
China'seconomy is facing hurdles brought by external uncertainties and challenges athome. Current fiscal policy needs to be more proactive in a bid to meetlong-term goals such as overcoming the middle-income trap and achieving morecomplete modernization by 2035.
Oneof the main focuses of proactive fiscal policy is to increase tax cuts. But taxreform should also be taken into consideration-that is, developing a moderntaxation system for the country.
Fromthat perspective, we need to be especially careful not to simply copy the taxreduction measures of the United States. The tax structures of China and the USare totally different, with indirect tax at the center of the former and directtax at the center of the latter.
OfChina's indirect taxes, the most influential is the value-added tax, which hasbeen the largest of its kind since the country used it to replace the businesstax. We need to lower the standard rate of VAT further. This is among thethings that we should consider in 2019.
Couldthe standard rate of 25 percent for corporate income tax also be reduced tosome degree? For small and medium-sized enterprises, half the tax will beexempted. That will last through the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20)period. But after 2020, we need to consider whether to continue with such a taxexemption or not, during the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).
Alongwith lowering the standard rate for corporate income tax, there should also bemeasures to spur research and development as well as innovation amongbusinesses. It should be emphasized that the lowering of indirect and corporateincome taxes is only part of China's tax reform. We must also consider how toimplement the central government's plan to gradually increase the proportion ofdirect tax.
Incomeredistribution plays an irreplaceable role in regulating and curbing thewidening of the income gap. But this is very difficult in China now that theproportion and role of all direct taxes in whole income are quite marginalized.Much attention has been paid to the issue of income distribution, butformulating a law-based tax redistribution mechanism under the principle ofstatutory taxation for income distribution for the country remains an arduoustask.
Meanwhile,progress has been made in implementing individual income taxes under the directtax system. In 2018, the law was revised and improved toward that effect. Butit is not enough, since the revision only integrates labor income and does notinclude nonlabor income.
Lastly,reform and opening-up must be supported by the financial authorities. This willalso involve teamwork by various other government departments.
贾 康 介 绍
第十一届、十二届全国政协委员和政协经济委员会委员，华夏新供给经济学研究院首席经济学家，中国财政科学研究院研究员、博导，中国财政学会顾问，国家发改委PPP专家库专家委员会成员，中国一带一路PPP项目开发委员会委员，中国成本研究会副会长，中关村公共资源竞争性配置促进中心首席经济学家，北京市、上海市等多地人民政府咨询委员，北京大学、中国人民大学等多家高校特聘教授。1995年享受政府特殊津贴。1997年被评为国家百千万人才工程高层次学术带头人。多次受朱镕基、温家宝、胡锦涛和李克强等中央领导同志之邀座谈经济工作（被媒体称之为“中南海问策”）。担任2010年1月8日中央政治局第十八次集体学习“财税体制改革”专题讲解人之一。孙冶方经济学奖、黄达—蒙代尔经济学奖和中国软科学大奖获得者。国家“十一五”、“十二五”和“十三五”规划专家委员会委员。曾长期担任财政部财政科学研究所所长。1988年曾入选亨氏基金项目，到美国匹兹堡大学做访问学者一年。2013年，主编《新供给：经济学理论的中国创新》，发起成立“华夏新供给经济学研究院”和“新供给经济学50人论坛”（任首任院长、首任秘书长），2015年-2016年与苏京春合著出版《新供给经济学》专著、《供给侧改革：新供给简明读本》、以及《中国的坎：如何跨越“中等收入陷阱”（获评中国图书评论学会和央视的“2016年度中国好书”）》，2016年出版的《供给侧改革十讲》被中组部、新闻出版广电总局和国家图书馆评为全国精品教材。根据《中国社会科学评估》公布的2006～2015年我国哲学社会科学6268种学术期刊700余万篇文献的大数据统计分析，贾康先生的发文量（398篇），总被引频次（4231次）和总下载频次（204115次）均列第一位，综合指数3429，遥居第一，是经济学核心作者中的代表性学者。