| Tax body delays report on number of tax filers |
SHANGHAI, Apr. 5 -- China's State Administration of Taxation is delaying an announcement on the number of people filing tax returns because some local taxation bureaus haven't yet been linked to computer network, administration spokesperson Li Linjun said today.
The administration had scheduled the announcement for next Tuesday to reveal the total number of Chinese taxpayers whose annual income was more than 120,000 yuan (US$15,527) and who had filed personal income statements for the first time.
About 255,000 high-income residents in Beijing had filed personal income statements to the taxation authority by April 2 -- the deadline for filing personal income tax returns in China, the Oriental Morning Post reported today.
They mainly work in the sectors of finance, insurance, telecommunications, electricity and real estate, the report said.
However, the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau said in an earlier report that there are 350,000 people in the capital who earn more than 120,000 yuan a year.
The city's personal income tax returns reached 8.59 billion yuan from January to March, growing 29.7 percent from a year earlier.
Guangdong Province accepted 283,187 tax filers by the deadline, and more than 100,000 filers were from Shenzhen, the report said.
A total of 30,000 people filed their personal income statements to the Tianjin taxation bureau which was close to the number expected.
China's personal-income levels are in 11 categories, and taxation rates range from five percent to 45 percent. Income derived from manuscripts, interest or dividends is subject to a fixed 20 percent rate.
The new requirement to report annual income will ensure that those who earn the most pay the most and will help narrow the gap between rich and poor, authorities said.
But some people have questioned whether the penalties are high enough to ensure compliance and whether the procedures are too cumbersome for all taxpayers to follow.
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