The hottest link is on the line, and the tax rate

Environmental protection tax is expected to be introduced or moderately increased within last year

environmental protection tax is expected to be introduced or moderately increased within last year

June 8, 2016

[China paint information] the pace of environmental protection tax collection is getting closer and closer. It was learned that the environmental protection tax law research group of the State Council had recently conducted research on the relevant situation in Nanjing. According to the 2016 legislative work plan released by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the environmental protection tax law will be reviewed this month. If the process goes smoothly, the environmental protection tax law is expected to be introduced within the year, which marks that the "fee to tax" in China's environmental protection field will be confirmed and solidified in the form of legislation. The tax rate may be moderately increased according to the economic situation, and the bulk of the tax is expected to be left to the local government

in recent years, due to the severe environmental situation, environmental governance is moving from a single administrative means to a diversified means. As early as 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed to promote the tax reform of environmental protection fees. Until June 10, 2015, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council finally released the environmental protection tax law (Draft for comments) (hereinafter referred to as the draft for comments), which was jointly drafted by the Ministry of finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of environmental protection, to solicit public comments from the whole society. Later, the Ministry of Finance and relevant departments further revised it and submitted it to the State Council again at the beginning of this year

"it is imperative to promote the change of environmental fees into taxes." Yang Zhiyong, a researcher at the Institute of financial strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China's environmental protection charges have been 35 years old since 1979. Although the administration of collection and use has been gradually standardized, a series of problems have been encountered, which have affected the implementation of environmental protection policy objectives. This is largely due to the limitations of charging itself, which can not be overcome only by improving the charging management system. Compared with the charges that are flexible and easy to exploit loopholes, the taxation is undoubtedly more mandatory and the regulation is stronger

in addition to changing fees into taxes, appropriately raising tax rates is also the key point of reform. According to the draft, the tax amount of air pollutants and water pollutants per pollution equivalent is 1.2 yuan and 1.4 yuan respectively, and the tax amount of solid waste per ton ranges from 5 yuan to 30 yuan

in this regard, Su Ming, vice president of the Chinese Academy of financial Sciences, pointed out that under the current economic situation, enterprises are still very difficult. If the tax rate is arranged completely according to the level of environmental governance, enterprises can't afford it. "For example, if according to the governance needs, every amount of sulfur dioxide (belonging to air pollutants) needs to be taxed at least 3 yuan, but enterprises feel the burden is too heavy." He said, "according to the development of the situation, we cannot rule out the possibility of continuous improvement"

therefore, although the tax standard stipulated in the "opinion draft" is basically consistent with the current collection standard of sewage charges, the CCTV "brilliant China" documentary systematically publicizes the green transformation and development of Zhenjiang industry and other cases, and there is a lot of room for local regulation, and the punishment for excessive emissions is strengthened. The provincial people's Government may take into account the local environmental carrying capacity, the current situation of pollution discharge and the requirements of economic, social and ecological development goals, appropriately raise the applicable tax amount of taxable pollutants on the specified tax amount standard, and report it to the State Council for the record. Moreover, if the pollutant emission concentration is higher than the national or local pollutant emission standards, or the pollutant emission is higher than the specified total emission index, it shall be levied according to twice the local applicable tax standard; If the pollutant discharge concentration is higher than the national or local pollutant discharge standards, and the pollutant discharge is higher than the specified total discharge index, it shall be levied according to three times the local applicable tax standard

according to the draft, the key monitored (emission) taxpayers of environmental protection tax refer to taxpayers in key pollution industries such as thermal power, steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, coal, metallurgy, building materials, mining, chemical industry, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, light industry (brewing, papermaking, fermentation, sugar making, vegetable oil processing), textile, tanning and other key monitored enterprises in pollution industries. This means that once the environmental protection tax is levied, the above industries will be more significantly affected

at the same time, the pollution charge collection and management mode that used to be "self collected and self managed" by the environmental protection department will also be changed to the environmental tax collection and management mode of "enterprise declaration, tax collection, environmental protection coordination and information sharing"

Jiang Zhen, an associate researcher of the Institute of financial strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that environmental tax is a very professional tax, which cannot be fully collected and managed by tax authorities alone. For example, how to calculate the tax basis of taxable pollutants is a very professional field, and this should be fully considered in the collection process. In addition, in the "opinion draft", the tax rate fully takes into account the impact of the coaxiality of the pollutant type testing machine? Class, adopt the way of fixed tax rate to avoid excessive burden on enterprises, and in the design of environmental tax system, it can be adjusted according to the situation of economic operation and ecological environment protection. This itself is a process of constantly "trial and error" that the component is produced. Through this process, environmental tax is more easily accepted by all parties

it is also learned that the environmental protection tax is likely to be designed as a central local sharing tax in recent years, and the bulk of the tax is expected to be left to the local government. Experts pointed out that according to the principle of matching financial rights with expenditure, it is reasonable to leave the environmental tax to the local government. However, some insiders worry that some places may take it as a means to attract investment through tax incentives, which may affect the implementation effect of environmental tax

in Jiang Zhen's view, in addition to some tax system elements, the most important aspect of environmental tax legislation is the functional positioning of environmental tax, which is the basis and premise for determining the design of tax system elements and the collection and management mode. The draft clearly mentioned "to protect and improve the environment, promote social energy conservation and emission reduction, and promote the construction of ecological civilization". Tax system design and tax collection and management should be realized around this functional positioning. Therefore, the main function of the environmental protection tax law is to protect the ecological environment. Secondly, it is to play the role of market equity by raising income, protect and encourage enterprises, institutions and other production and operation to use advanced production technology, and reduce the problem of "bad money expelling good money" (that is, the pollution emission amplification has lower cost and more market)

in addition, environmental tax reform and other tax reforms should be coordinated to implement the requirements of "stabilizing the tax burden" put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee