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Legal relationship of tax-related certification
The legal relationship of tax-related certification is not the legal relationship of tax administration, but the legal relationship of procedure, including criminal litigation, civil litigation, administrative litigation and tax collection management. According to the analysis of procedural legal relationship, the legal relationship of tax-related certification in the Basic Standard of Tax-related Certification that we are drafting now belongs to the narrow sense of tax legal relationship. The legal relationship of tax-related authentication includes the following three contents:
1. Normative subjects-certified tax agents and other participants.
The subjects of tax-related certification business include certified tax agents, certified units, prospective users and other participants (such as certification assistants). The authentication business shall be carried out by a registered tax accountant according to the entrustment, and the client may be the authenticated unit or the expected user. The authenticated unit and the expected user may or may not be the same party. Certified tax agents who perform authentication business belong to other participants in tax collection and management activities, appear as witnesses, appraisers and inspectors, and have no legal interest in the collection results, so they are independent. A certified tax accountant is not a party to tax collection and management, and does not involve the substantive rights and obligations of tax collection and management.
2. The object of specification-related facts of tax-related authentication.
The purpose of CPA's participation in tax collection management is to assist both tax collectors and taxpayers to verify the authenticity of the verified items and correctly handle the facts of tax collection. Certified tax agents have the right and obligation to provide testimony truthfully, make expert conclusions truthfully and conduct an inquest seriously. Therefore, the object of the legal relationship of tax-related judicial expertise is the fact of judicial expertise, not including the request of substantive rights.
3. Normative content-rights and obligations of certified tax agents and other participants.
The right that registered tax agents enjoy in the collection and management is to truthfully provide testimony, material evidence, appraisal records and inspection records. The obligation is to provide services accurately and truly, and no malpractice or perjury is allowed. The rights and obligations of certified tax agents in the process of authentication are procedural rights and obligations, not substantive rights and obligations.
Risks existing in tax-related certification
(1) The actual effect of tax-related forensic business remains to be seen.
Because the tax-related authentication business mainly provides taxpayers with legally effective certificates, the implementation effect of the authentication business report is an important indicator to examine the ability of tax agency business. In some economically backward areas, the tax authorities did not strictly follow the explicit provisions of the national tax law. In order to achieve the goal of taxation, they tax enterprises in advance, which harms the actual interests of enterprises and affects the smooth progress of their production and business activities. On the contrary, delaying tax collection from enterprises increases the possibility of tax avoidance and encourages enterprises to evade taxes. At the same time, some grass-roots tax authorities lack the awareness of tax-related certification, fail to form a correct understanding of tax-related certification, and the differentiated management effect of enterprises that have completed tax-related certification is not obvious, which leads to the damage of enterprises' interests, and enterprises question the effectiveness of tax-related certification, which adversely affects the tax agency's promotion of tax-related certification business and increases its difficulty in promoting tax-related certification business.
(2) No standardized business standards for tax-related certification have been established.
Due to the particularity of tax agency business and the complexity of tax-related authentication business, improving the risk prevention awareness of tax-related authentication business plays an important role in improving the business quality, which is conducive to the smooth development of tax-related authentication business, further improving the quality of business completion, improving the social reputation of the firm, increasing the number of customers and improving the operating efficiency of the firm. Although the country pays more and more attention to tax work, compared with developed countries and regions, the relevant policies and regulations are still lacking, and the wading business process lacks standardized guiding standards, which directly increases the complexity and irregularity of the tax-related forensic business of the firm. There are differences in tax policies in different parts of China, which indirectly increases the difficulty of tax-related forensic business of tax agents. Tax-related forensic business urgently needs to establish standardized business indicators and standards to further promote the development of tax-related forensic business.
(3) The tax-related certification industry is highly competitive.
With the rapid development of China's economy, enterprises in China are also developing rapidly. The state attaches great importance to enterprise tax payment, which has spawned the emergence of many tax accounting firms. Every year, many tax agencies are established, and the market competition is further enhanced. Managers of many enterprises have a weak sense of paying taxes, are quite resistant to paying taxes, fail to form a scientific understanding of paying taxes, and ignore the importance and compulsion of paying taxes. In enterprise management, they blindly incorporate tax payment into the financial department, attach importance to the increase of enterprise benefits and ignore the importance of tax payment, thus adopting various means to evade taxes. At present, some tax accounting firms seize this characteristic of enterprises and help them verify some false financial information to help them achieve the purpose of tax evasion. This behavior not only deviates from the professional ethics of certified public accountants, but also violates the laws and regulations of the state on the management of certified public accountants. The fierce competition in the tax-related authentication industry is partly due to the unfair competition means adopted by some tax accounting firms, which reduces the competitive advantage and competitiveness of law-abiding firms with strict professional ethics and high professional level.
(4) The fees for tax-related forensic services are relatively low.
Many enterprises have developed very rapidly, the scale of enterprises has been expanding, and there are more and more tax-related matters. Without professional tax intermediary service institutions, enterprises are likely to have loopholes in tax management and damage their fundamental interests. Therefore, many enterprises will handle water-related business through tax agents, which will improve the operational efficiency of enterprises and be conducive to the smooth progress of enterprise tax work. Through the firm, enterprises can form a reasonable plan for their own taxes and improve the management level of tax-related work. Generally speaking, the workflow of tax-related authentication business is very complicated, which requires a comprehensive investigation of the production and business activities of enterprises. The initial investment is large and the time is long. However, in order to increase the tax-related authentication business of the firm, the tax-related authentication business charges are still low, and the investment and return of the tax-related business cannot be directly proportional, which affects the business interests of the tax agency. With the gradual expansion of the business scope of tax-related certification, the charging standard of tax service needs to be further improved.
Precautionary measures against tax-related judicial risks
(a) to strengthen the supervision of tax authentication business of tax agency.
Tax-related certification business can help enterprises guard against tax risks and effectively protect the operating efficiency of enterprises. Some enterprises' financial department personnel lack tax knowledge, and there are loopholes in tax-related business, which makes the tax payment behavior of enterprises not in line with the relevant provisions of the national tax law, and there are enterprises paying less or not paying taxes. Therefore, enterprises will be fined by the tax authorities, which will have a certain impact on the reputation of enterprises, affect the operation of enterprises, reduce the operating efficiency of enterprises, and adversely affect the survival and development of enterprises. When conducting tax-related authentication business, individual tax accounting firms, in order to increase the firm's business volume, violate the relevant laws and regulations of the state and issue untrue authentication reports to help enterprises evade the investigation by tax authorities. The state must strengthen the supervision of the tax-related authentication business of the firm, ensure that the tax-related authentication business is carried out in accordance with national laws and regulations, and make an objective and true evaluation and proof of the tax-related matters of enterprises. If there is a false certification problem in the firm, it will cause certain damage to the national interests, affect the work of the national tax authorities, and further encourage the unhealthy trend of tax evasion in society. The state should attach importance to the supervision of tax-related authentication business, improve the level of tax-related authentication business, and strictly supervise it from beginning to end to ensure the truthfulness and accuracy of tax-related authentication reports.
(two) to improve the professional level and moral quality of certified tax agents.
It is very important for enterprises and tax authorities to guard against the business risks of tax-related authentication. From the enterprise's point of view, preventing the risk of tax-related certification can reduce the unnecessary losses of the enterprise, ensure the safety and integrity of the business interests of the enterprise, grasp the tax situation of the enterprise in time, and ensure that all economic businesses of the enterprise are carried out according to law and protected by Chinese laws, thus safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise. If an enterprise lacks a standardized internal financial management system, it will increase the possibility of financial risks, reduce the level of financial management and affect the efficiency of capital utilization. Through tax-related authentication business, enterprises can improve the management level of internal financial work, strengthen managers' comprehensive understanding of the financial situation of enterprises, and be conducive to the correct formulation and effective implementation of business policies. From the perspective of tax agency, the agency must improve the level of internal control, strengthen the management of tax-related authentication business, and attach importance to the role of professional ethics of registered tax agents. Tax agents play an important role in the whole tax-related authentication business, so the professional level and professional ethics of tax agents have an important impact on the smooth completion of the whole tax-related authentication business. Tax agents represent the image of the whole firm, and the firm must regularly retrain registered tax agents, strengthen professional ethics and ideological and moral education, and prevent tax-related forensic business from failing due to personal reasons of tax agents, which will adversely affect the reputation of enterprises and firms. Tax agents must operate in strict accordance with business processes, abide by the practice norms of tax-related certification business, do a good job in tax-related certification, and guard against tax-related certification risks.
(3) Handling professional liability insurance for registered tax agents.
Financial managers in some enterprises have very weak tax knowledge and lack systematic tax management training. Enterprises need to use tax intermediary services for enterprise tax management. The state strongly supports enterprise tax management, encourages enterprises to attach importance to the role of tax intermediary services, and improves the level of tax management. Tax-related authentication business can not only help the country prevent the risk of tax loss, but also help enterprises reduce the risk of tax management. When the firm negotiates the tax-related authentication business, it will also encounter the risk of liability compensation, which will reduce the work efficiency of certified tax agents. According to the relevant requirements of the State Administration of Taxation, the firm needs to apply for professional liability insurance for certified tax agents, establish professional risk funds, improve its risk avoidance ability, reduce the loss compensation caused by personal business mistakes, reduce the operating losses of the firm, promote the healthy and stable development of the firm, shape a good social image, increase tax-related forensic business, and improve the international competitiveness of our tax agency.
(four) to strengthen the research of tax laws and policies, and enhance the ability of risk prevention.
Although China has strict requirements for certified tax agents, there are still some problems in their professional ethics. The workload of tax-related certification business is very large, so it is necessary to conduct a detailed investigation on the operating conditions of the certified enterprises and conduct accurate tax-related certification business on the premise of grasping the overall situation. Some registered tax agents have a weak awareness of tax law and are too utilitarian. They are eager to undertake the tax-related certification business, but have not conducted a detailed investigation on the certification enterprises, and they have no overall understanding of the certification enterprises at all. The tax-related authentication business must conduct in-depth investigation and analysis of the basic situation of the authenticated enterprise, conduct occupational risk assessment, and consider whether to accept the entrustment of the authenticated enterprise according to the characteristics of the enterprise industry and the purpose of entrustment, combined with its own working ability. Certified tax agents must strengthen the study of national tax laws and policies, improve their ability to guard against tax-related forensic business risks, and prevent tax-related forensic business failures and firm losses due to their own reasons.