New Perspectives on Tax Modernization

Author: Luo YuHong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-01
Features: Modernization is both an endlessly desirable and aspirational goal, and a painstaking and diligent pursuit. Tax modernization is an indispensable component of China's modernization. If we compare China's modernization to a whole "chess game," then tax modernization is a "chess piece." With the continuous implementation of the new tax system reform since 1994, domestic tax authorities at all levels have, in the process of mastering the three key aspects of "taxation according to law, strict team management, and science plus management," each applied their methods and fully exerted their capabilities, achieving significant progress in various aspects of tax administration reform, tax management, informatization construction, and taxpayer services. What is particularly gratifying is that tax work has successfully transitioned from long-established traditional practices and models to a modern direction: establishing a tax system that basically meets the requirements of a market economy, gradually shifting from a tax system structure under traditional planned economic conditions to one adapted to modern economic development; capturing the soul of tax work, i.e., taxation according to law, transitioning from a traditional tax revenue-oriented approach to one guided by tax legalism; establishing a new strategic focus on taxpayer services as the core of tax administration, gradually shifting from a traditional "control-oriented" tax management that emphasized supervision and constraints to a "service-oriented" tax management that prioritizes service; enhancing the depth and intensity of informatization construction, transforming from traditional manual, loose, and extensive tax collection management to modern, network-based, and intensive tax collection management; and determining the tax development direction of human-centered management, shifting from a materialistic focus solely on tax revenue collection and excessive emphasis on "raising funds" to a human-centered approach that values both "raising funds" and "attracting and nurturing talent." The vivid and concrete practices of tax work have provided rich material for the major issue of tax modernization in domestic tax authorities.
With the acceleration of China's modernization process, some tax authorities in domestic regions such as Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai have proposed goals for building modern tax authorities. Some scholars have also begun to focus on researching and analyzing the trends, conditions, and indicators of building modern tax authorities. However, what exactly is "tax modernization"? Currently, neither the academic theoretical community nor the practical field of tax has a precise definition, nor is there a ready-made theoretical framework to draw upon. Even when scholars discuss tax modernization, they mostly focus on the level of tax management.
Living in Guangzhou, a city at the forefront of reform and opening-up and rapidly modernizing, I have been deeply influenced by the atmosphere of a modern city while actively participating in modern construction and social development. Together with thousands of employees from the Guangzhou Local Taxation Bureau, I have proposed the shared vision of "building a Guangzhou Local Taxation Bureau that satisfies the public and leads the nation in modernization." In this book, I did not confine myself to existing perspectives and levels but, based on modernization theories from scholars at home and abroad, primarily selected Professor He Chuanqi's "Theory of the Second Modernization" from the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a foundation. Closely linking the current realities of tax work, I pioneered the "Theory of the Second Tax Modernization" and established nine categories of 48 indicators for evaluation.