A man in his fifties asked me this question: "Although tax planning is not illegal, does planning itself harm national interests?" So it is necessary to talk about the significance of tax planning here.
(1) is conducive to maximizing the interests of taxpayers. From the taxpayer's point of view, tax planning can reduce taxpayers' taxes and help taxpayers maximize their financial benefits.
Tax planning through the comparison of tax plans, choose a lighter tax plan, reduce the taxpayer's cash outflow or reduce the current cash outflow, increase disposable funds, which is conducive to the development of taxpayers.
Tax planning can prevent taxpayers from paying the bottom line "unjust tax".
In modern society, the tax laws of many countries, especially some developed countries, are becoming more and more complicated, and many taxpayers know little or nothing about tax laws, so it is very easy to pay more taxes.
The sound process of China's market economy is also the process of continuous improvement of the tax law system. The perfection of tax law is accompanied by the increasing complexity of tax law. If the tax law is not thoroughly studied, it is possible to evade taxes and pay more taxes.
In fact, some enterprises, even large enterprises, do not have a good grasp of the tax law.
I once took a class in a highway bureau. There is a building materials enterprise under the Highway Bureau, which has been producing building materials from waste coal cinders for several years. According to the enterprise income tax regulations, those who use "three wastes" as raw materials can be exempted from income tax, but enterprises have been reporting and paying taxes.
Through in-depth study of tax law, tax planning can at least avoid paying "unfair taxes"
(2) It is beneficial to better grasp and implement tax laws and regulations. In order to help taxpayers reduce more taxes, tax planners always pay attention to the promulgation of national tax laws and regulations, and pay attention to the latest tax policies anytime and anywhere.
Once the tax law changes, tax planners will take corresponding actions immediately from the pursuit of taxpayers' greatest financial interests, seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and quickly integrate tax intention into the business activities of taxpayers' enterprises.
In this respect, tax planning objectively plays a role in implementing tax laws and regulations faster and better.
It is precisely because tax planning can find the immature places in the tax law in time, so it uses the loopholes in the tax law to seek benefits for itself, and at the same time reminds the tax authorities to pay attention to the defects of the tax law at all times.
The state should weigh the weight and fill the loopholes in legislation and tax collection and management.
In this regard, tax planning has played a role in promoting the improvement of tax law.
(3) Conducive to the optimal allocation of resources In countries with mature market economy, only large enterprises with standardized management will generally be equipped with specialized tax planning professionals.
Through professional planning, the financial interests of taxpayers, including after-tax profits, can be maximized by fully considering the impact of taxation in the whole process of enterprise operation.
Under the condition of market economy, the level of profit determines the flow of capital, which always flows to the industries and enterprises with the greatest profit, so the flow of capital represents the flow of physical assets and labor, and actually represents the flow and allocation of resources in the whole society.
Resources flow to large enterprises with standardized management and realize economies of scale, which can realize the optimal allocation of resources in the whole society.
Below I combine the significance of tax planning in the above three aspects and discuss with the questioner as follows: First, the modern legal society embodies the balance of power among various stakeholders.
As an independent interest subject, taxpayers have the right to safeguard their own interests, including the right to choose and take actions according to the "non-impermissible" and unspecified contents in the law.
Of course, as the main body of tax revenue, the state also has the right to take a series of improvement measures such as revision and adjustment through legal procedures in view of the defects exposed by the tax law.
If we give up this power and adopt moral preaching and administrative orders, the effect is likely to be bad.
First of all, it is weak and ridiculous for the government, as the party whose tax interests are changing, to ask the other party to protect its own interests with moral advice, because the era of planned economy in which individual interests are subordinate to collective interests and collective interests are subordinate to national interests has passed, and the legal society respects "independence of interests" and "checks and balances of power"; If administrative orders are used to offset and reduce the impact of tax planning, it may be effective in the short term, but in the long run it will damage the legal basis and violate the constitutional purpose of "ruling the country according to law".
Second, the act of tax planning shall not harm the national interests.
The national interest here should be clearly defined as the government's fiscal revenue interest.
The important content of tax planning is to achieve the purpose of saving taxes legally and not paying "unjust tax" by studying tax law, which is in line with tax law and does not harm the government's due fiscal revenue.
If taxpayers don't learn enough about the tax law, the tax burden will increase, which will lead to the decline of profits, the weakening of investment ability and even bankruptcy, which will really harm the overall interests of the country and society.
Third, tax planning is conducive to ensuring the long-term interests of the country.
The premise of tax planning is to respect the seriousness of tax law, which is conducive to gradually establishing the authority of law in the whole society, which is the cornerstone of a legal society.
If we treat the law as a joke and solve the problem by inviting people to dinner, that is the collapse of the foundation.
The more people study and implement tax planning, the heavier the position of law in people's consciousness, and of course, the more conducive to social progress.
Tax planning is conducive to the flow of funds to enterprises with good efficiency and standardized management, thus optimizing the allocation of resources and benefiting the overall interests of society.
The categories of law and morality are essentially different and cannot be confused.
Therefore, people should not use administrative orders and moral will to adjust and make up for the shortcomings of laws in actual economic activities, let alone regard the interests and moral standards of certain market subjects as laws.
Tax planning is legal, although it will be inconsistent with government policies to some extent in some areas, but this inconsistency is normal in a legal society and within the scope of legal tolerance, and people's accusations against it at least have no legal basis.
Judging from the situation of all countries in the world, tax planning enjoys a legal status. The attitude of governments to tax planning has never been weakened or reduced by administrative orders and moral power, but by adjusting, modifying and perfecting the tax law to accelerate and promote the perfection and construction of the tax law.
Similarly, public opinion also supports or agrees with tax planning, which is regarded as an important way to improve the tax law.
Therefore, we should admit that tax planning is legal and protected by law, and we should devote ourselves to research and use it boldly in tax practice.