Editor's Note on Introduction of Foreign Individual Income Tax System: The draft amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law was submitted to the highest legislature of China for the first time on 23rd. In recent years, the dispute about the reform of tax system and the tax threshold has been constant. This website specially broadcasts several articles on the tax collection system of representative countries, so that the majority of netizens can understand the tax collection situation abroad and also provide reference for China's tax reform. The United States-the financial source is mainly the tax paid by the rich. The United States gradually raises the tax rate according to the personal income, so as to reduce the burden of low-income people and control the excessive income growth of high-income people. The most basic principle is to pay more taxes for more income, and pay taxes first and then refund taxes for those with low income. First, the United States pays personal income tax not only considering personal income, but also attaches great importance to the number of other family members, especially children. Second, high-income earners are the main body of personal income tax payment in the United States. The huge financial source of the American government every year is mainly paid by the rich who account for a small number of people, rather than the ordinary working class who account for the vast majority of the total taxpayers. Singapore-one of the countries with the lowest individual tax rate Singapore is one of the countries with the lowest individual income tax rate. It implements a 13-level progressive tax rate, that is, the income of the previous year is taxed cumulatively after deducting appropriate items. Before April 15th of each year, all taxpayers must truthfully fill in the income of the previous year in the tax declaration and registration form, and report it to the IRS in time. Singapore's tax system is based on the source of income. Singapore's current tax rate is 0% to 22%. Taxable items include: income earned in Singapore; And overseas income received in Singapore; Overseas income received by non-resident individuals in Singapore does not need to be taxed in Singapore. Japan-Constantly Reducing the Tax Burden The Japanese government has been trying to reduce the national tax burden after the war. It has not only raised the starting point of tax exemption one after another, but also greatly reduced the highest tax rate and tax rate grades, reducing the burden of the general public, especially high-income people, increasing the consumption and investment capacity of the people and promoting economic development. Japan's Income Tax Law stipulates that, for residents in Japan, in addition to fixed wage income, all income such as manuscript fees, investment dividends, donations, inheritance, land and housing rental must be taxed. The Japanese government has also established a set of strict, scientific and perfect tax collection, inspection system and inspection team, and hell to pay, the tax evader, and the vast majority of citizens have the consciousness and consciousness of paying taxes according to law. Australia-a perfect tax collection system Australia is a federal country, and personal income tax is collected by the federal government. After years of development, Australia's income tax collection system has been relatively perfect, and there are many experiences for reference. From July 1 this year, the tax rate of annual income of A $6,001 to A $21,600 was reduced from 17% to 15%; The threshold of 42% tax rate is raised from A $58,001 to A $63,001; The threshold of 47% was raised from A $70,001 to A $95,001. From July 1st next year, the threshold of 42% will be raised to A $70,001; The threshold of 47% will be raised to A $125,001. France-High-income earners pay more taxes. According to French law, any person whose family or main place of residence is in France (that is, living in France for six consecutive months) and who has major professional activities or major economic interests in France, regardless of whether he is a French national or not, must declare personal income tax on his income (including income in France and income abroad). Those whose annual income is below 4 19 1 euro are not required to pay personal income tax; The annual income is between 4192 and 8242 euros, and the tax rate is 7.05%; 19.74% between 8243 and 14506 euros; 29.14% between 14,507 and 23,489 euros; 38.54% between 23,490 and 38,218 euros; 43.94% between 38,219 and 47,131 euros; The annual income exceeds 47 13 1 euro and the tax rate is 49.58%. Germany-Reduce the tax burden of residents year by year According to German law, all permanent residents in Germany and foreign residents who are not resident in Germany but whose source of income is Germany must pay personal income tax. Income tax varies according to the amount of personal income. The more income, the higher the tax payment ratio, and the proportion of personal income tax should be adjusted every year. The payroll tax in personal income tax alone accounts for one-third of Germany's fiscal revenue. The proportion of personal income tax payment in Germany shows a downward trend. In 1998, the highest personal income tax rate was 53% of personal income, but by 2005, the highest personal income tax rate had dropped to 42%, and the lowest personal income tax rate had also dropped from 25.9% in 1998 to 15% in 2005. South Korea's government and the ruling party are considering a new plan to increase taxes, the East Asia Daily reported on the 8th. According to this plan, Koreans will pay an average of 2.85 million won (1 USD 1030 won) to the state next year, which is 260,000 more than this year, which is caused by the adverse effects of the sluggish domestic demand in South Korea and the depreciation of the US dollar this year. The tax rate, one of the main arteries of the national economy, will be raised, which has aroused strong repercussions from all walks of life. ■ The "individual tax" policy strives to conform to the provisions of the income tax law of South Korea. Income earned through labor requires income tax, which is divided into two categories: A and B. A income includes monthly salary, salary, bonus, various wage subsidies, retirement salary and other normal income of ordinary people; B income refers to the wages obtained from foreign organs or international institutions, and the wages or similar remuneration obtained from foreigners or foreign legal persons stationed in Korea. In Korea, the "hard-working income" part of personal income tax is paid according to the wage standard and actual income. The general tax standard is that the annual income10 million won is 8%, the higher the income, the higher the tax rate, and the tax rate of 80 million won or more is 35%. This includes comprehensive real estate tax with the nature of property tax, inheritance tax and gift tax. In order to take care of low-income people and vulnerable groups, South Korea has taken measures such as exemption, low tax rate and income deduction in collecting personal income tax. The "exemption points" of personal income tax in Korea are families with annual income below15 million won (based on the standard of a family of four) and individual business operators with annual income below 4.82 million. The deduction of income refers to giving some preferential treatment or exemption from income tax, including some family living expenses, medical expenses, disabled people, tuition fees, insurance premiums, special manuscript fees and so on. Not long ago, a Korean media reported a very interesting phenomenon: in 2002, for example, among the more than 740,000 wage earners in Korea, 47.3% were exempt from income tax. The media believe that the reason for this phenomenon is that the government's income tax exemption standards are getting higher and higher, and more and more concessions are deducted, and various preferential tax policies of the government are also introduced one after another. But from another perspective, it also reflects the economic downturn, poor government supervision and other issues. People with average income don't pay income tax, which inevitably leads to the burden of other taxpayers and the loss of national tax revenue. In terms of tax payment, there is an "inequality phenomenon" between ordinary wage earners and individual operators. South Korean wage earners jokingly call them "glass wallets", which means that all their wages and incomes are open and transparent, and their income tax is directly deducted from their wages every month. However, the self-employed can do a lot of "hands and feet" when declaring their income. This is because some self-employed people do not declare truthfully, have no formal financial system, and enjoy the "benefits" of the country's small taxpayer preferential treatment and value-added tax preferential treatment. As a result, in the case of the same actual income, the tax paid by the working class is obviously higher than that of the self-employed workers. It is reported that in the second quarter of this year, the comprehensive income tax paid by self-employed workers in South Korea was much lower than that paid by ordinary workers. ■ The government has made great efforts to improve the tax system. In recent years, the income tax revenue of the Korean government has accounted for about 18% to 19% of the total tax revenue, which is lower than the 26% of OECD countries. In 2003, the proportion of taxpayers was only about 5 1% of all workers, which obviously affected the tax revenue of the country. In order to solve these problems, the relevant departments of South Korea recently submitted to President Roh Moo-hyun and the Special Committee on Tax Reform a "medium and long-term plan for expanding the proportion of taxpayers and normalizing the tax system". The plan proposes that in order to expand the tax base and taxpayers, the government should reduce all kinds of tax reduction and exemption and tax incentives. South Korean government officials also pointed out that the "exemption point" of income tax should be fixed in the future, so that with the rise of prices and wages, taxpayers will gradually increase every year, and tax revenue will naturally increase. In order to improve the fairness and rationality of the tax system, the Korean government is taking various measures such as preventing tax evasion, reducing the administrative expenses of tax departments, and vigorously popularizing and improving the income declaration system. Not long ago, the South Korean government published the "2006 tax reform plan". According to this plan, some benefits enjoyed by Korean taxpayers will be cancelled, and the increase of personal income tax may reach 15%. This far exceeds the standard of 5% to 6% annual wage growth rate of Koreans. Mexico has a low threshold to cultivate tax awareness. Mexico's personal income tax collection system is very distinctive. In short, it is a system that combines taxation and subsidies. While emphasizing that everyone has the obligation to pay taxes, it also effectively protects the interests of low-and middle-income people. In order to embody the principle that everyone is equal before the tax law, Mexico stipulates that the threshold of personal income tax is 0.0 1 peso (1 USD 10.86 peso), which means that theoretically all incomes of all people need to be paid income tax. ■ Protecting the interests of low-income people According to the Mexican tax law, anyone with a monthly income of less than 32,700 pesos can enjoy the tax subsidy provided by the state finance, and the minimum amount is equivalent to 30% of the actual tax payment. In addition, the official employees of state organs, enterprises and institutions can also enjoy a salary tax subsidy provided by the unit. These subsidies have led to a very interesting phenomenon, that is, paying taxes does not mean spending for the low-income class, but will bring more income. Take a person who earns 2,000 pesos a month as an example. According to the tax law, his actual tax payment is about 164 pesos. When he completes the tax payment procedures, he can receive 82 pesos and 360 pesos from the state and the unit respectively, so that his actual after-tax income actually reaches 2,278 pesos. This subsidy system effectively protects the interests of the low-income class. ■ Ruthless for tax evaders. The section on personal income tax in Mexican tax law is as long as 76 pages, and there are separate provisions in many fields. Complicated regulations often make many taxpayers at a loss. Generally, people above the middle class will hire accountants to help them deal with tax problems, while the middle and lower classes are facing great difficulties; At the same time, there are still many loopholes in the collection of personal income tax, so the phenomenon of tax evasion also occurs from time to time. For those who evade taxes, the tax authorities will send a written notice to them after discovering it, "inviting" them to pay taxes or explain the situation. Taxpayers must reply within 15 days after receiving the notice, otherwise they will face legal sanctions. Mexico's tax laws provide clear penalties for illegal acts. For example, if a natural person changes his address and fails to notify the tax authorities, he will be fined 246 1 to 4,922 pesos, while serious tax evasion will be punished with imprisonment and other criminal penalties. ■ When the reporter interviewed the Mexican State Administration of Taxation, the staff there said that in addition to collecting taxes, another important task of the tax department is to provide convenient services to the public to popularize relevant tax knowledge. To this end, the tax authorities in various offices provide free consulting services. Taxpayers can ask all kinds of questions by telephone or the Internet, or they can go to the office of the tax bureau for face-to-face communication with experts. In recent years, the electronic transformation of Mexico's tax system has also made great progress. In the past, most taxes in Mexico were paid every three months. When paying taxes, there were not only long queues, but also a lot of various forms to fill out. In 2002, the State Administration of Taxation of Mexico launched a tax card nationwide, which completely changed this situation. This kind of tax payment card is similar to an ordinary bank card, which records the taxpayer's name, tax number and other information and can be used nationwide. The use of tax payment cards has brought great convenience to taxpayers, at the same time, it has greatly reduced the workload and error rate of tax departments, and effectively avoided corruption in the tax payment process.