The biggest difference between tax management and tax planning is that tax management studies how to strengthen tax collection and management, while tax planning studies how to avoid taxes reasonably, and the research directions of the two are opposite. The simplest summary of tax planning is to divide the tax avoidance of enterprises into red zone, yellow zone and green zone. Tax avoidance in the green zone is permitted by national laws and policies, and it is illegal to enter the red zone. Therefore, the focus of its research is the Yellow Area and how to play the "edge ball" and try to pay less or no national or local fiscal taxes without violating the law and discipline.

From the perspective of employment, tax management focuses on fiscal and taxation authorities or regulatory departments such as auditing and accounting firms, and tax planning is of course aimed at business owners.