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More Work to Be Done Before Introducing Inheritance Tax: Official
More preparation has to be made before the inheritance tax is levied in China, according to the top official of the State Administration of Taxation (SAT).
"At present, a lot of preparatory work should be made before the enacting of inheritance tax in our country," Jin Renqing, director of the SAT was quoted as saying in the latest issue of the "Outlook" news weekly.
Jin listed a host of issues such as how to define taxpayers and their inheritances that should be settled before the introduction of the tax.
The official said that the inheritance tax will not affect the life of ordinary Chinese. The aim of the inheritance tax is to curb the excessive growth of wealth among a small group of individuals and redistribute social wealth.
Since the late 1980s, there have been calls for the levy of inheritance tax in China. The SAT has done a lot of research in this area.
Previously, Liu Zuo, deputy director of the Taxation Science Research Institute under the SAT said that China is now ready to enact inheritance tax laws.
Since the founding of New China in 1949 to 1990, China has introduced inheritance tax twice, but failed to actually collect it.
Things have changed a lot over the past decade with rapid economic growth, and the per capita income of the Chinese people is now more than 20 times than that 40 years ago.
The gap in income has also widened. Some 20 percent of the population now holds more than 80 percent of all savings deposits in the country, Liu said.
Liu said that the current economic situation also requires that the government narrow the gap between rich and poor in order to maintain social stability and stimulate consumption.
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