（本文發表於《中國日報》2018年6月7日）
The State Administration of Taxation, China's top tax authority, has told local tax authorities to thoroughly investigate alleged tax evasion by top celebrities in the film and television industry after an online post exposed the co-existence of "yin and yang" contracts in the entertainment sector. Many celebrities sign two contracts－one real with the real (higher) amount they receive, and the other with a lower payment and perks which they use to evade paying the due tax.
According to China's taxation laws, individual income tax (IIT) is deducted from the salary of employees by the employers and paid to the government. But the tax levied on the entertainment industry, including celebrities, is different from IIT for salaried people, because the service contracts in the sector could involve payments of dozens of millions of yuan.
One of the reasons some individuals intentionally or unintentionally evade tax is the lack of sufficient knowledge of the taxation laws. Especially those some celebrities who earn huge amounts and have big fan following should realize the importance of paying the due tax and never evade tax.
The problem is that "yin and yang" contracts are not uncommon; they are used even in the real estate sector, which should prompt the tax authorities to strictly enforce the taxation laws. The administrative authorities, on their part, should educate the people about the importance of paying the right amount of tax in time and warn them that intentional tax evasion is a crime, for which they will be punished. This will help the public better understand and respect taxation laws and regulations.
It may take some time to establish a comprehensive IIT system, for which not only the efforts of the tax department but also the cooperation of other departments are required.
According to the general direction of individual income tax reform, an IIT mechanism that combines comprehensive and classified taxation systems is likely to be gradually introduced.
The system of imposing different amounts of tax on people earning the same amount of money simply because their income channels are different should be changed. For instance, salary income and remuneration for labor are both labor income, but different tax rates are imposed on them in many cases. This is unfair for people whose only source of income is remuneration for labor.
For the time being, the authorities could accelerate the merger of different kinds of income for labor, such as salaries and remuneration for labor, to collect tax using the same method.
In the future, tax will be levied based on household income and the tax authorities could grant some special tax deductions for expenditure on children's education and eldercare. In the next stage of the reform, the highest and lowest tax rates for IIT are expected to be reduced, which will boost the economy, and reduce the tax burden of the high-income group.
Taxpayers should be made more aware of the taxation laws. Now big data have made it easier to identify some hidden sources of individuals' income. And in the future, the tax authorities are expected to use personal identification card numbers to trace more hidden sources of individuals' income.
Since it has become easier for the tax authorities to know a taxpayer's actual income, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to evade tax.
So it's time the taxpayers realized that paying tax according to the law is not only in their own long-term interest, but also will help build a harmonious relationship between the tax authorities and the taxpayers.
賈康介紹
第十一屆、十二屆全國政協委員、政協經濟委員會委員，華夏新供給經濟學研究院首席經濟學家，中國財政科學研究院研究員、博導，中國財政學會顧問，中國財政學會PPP專業委員會主任委員，國家發改委PPP專家庫專家委員會成員，北京市等多地人民政府諮詢委員，北京大學等多家高校特聘教授。1995年享受政府特殊津貼。1997年被評為國家百千萬人才工程高層次學術帶頭人。曾受多位中央領導同志邀請座談經濟工作（被媒體稱之為“中南海問策”）。擔任2010年1月8日中央政治局第十八次集體學習“財稅體制改革”專題講解人之一。孫冶方經濟學獎、黃達—蒙代爾經濟學獎和中國軟科學大獎獲得者。國家“十一五”、“十二五”和“十三五”規劃專家委員會委員。曾長期擔任財政部財政科學研究所所長。1988年曾入選亨氏基金項目，到美國匹茲堡大學做訪問學者一年。2013年，主編《新供給：經濟學理論的中國創新》，發起成立“華夏新供給經濟學研究院”和“新供給經濟學50人論壇”（任首任院長、首任秘書長），2015年-2016年與蘇京春合著出版《新供給經濟學》專著、《供給側改革：新供給簡明讀本》、以及《中國的坎：如何跨越“中等收入陷阱”》（獲評中國圖書評論學會和央視的“2016年度中國好書”），2016年出版的《供給側改革十講》被中組部、新聞出版廣電總局和國家圖書館評為全國精品教材。2017年領銜出版《中國住房制度與房地產稅改革》、《新供給：創新發展，攻堅突破》、《構建現代治理基礎：中國財稅體制改革40年》等。根據《中國社會科學評估》公佈的2006～2015年我國哲學社會科學6268種學術期刊700餘萬篇文獻的大數據統計分析，賈康先生的發文量（398篇），總被引頻次（4231次）和總下載頻次（204115次）均列第一位，綜合指數3429，遙居第一，是經濟學核心作者中的代表性學者。
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