The Beijing News:

Since last year, the tax departments have severely cracked down on tax-related legal violations and exposed some typical cases, drawing wide social attention. What are the plans going forward in this regard, and what are the specific arrangements for case exposure? Thank you. 

Luo Tianshu:

Thanks for your question. The tax departments have always focused on both constantly improving tax and fee services and strictly fighting against malicious legal violations such as tax evasion and fraud. Tax inspection departments nationwide investigated and punished 128,300 illegal taxpayers in accordance with the law in 2022, retrieving 195.5 billion yuan in tax losses of various kinds and publicly exposing nearly 900 typical tax-related cases of various types, strongly and effectively regulating the tax collection order. 

Looking ahead, the tax departments will follow the guidance of risk management based on precise and comprehensive analysis, combine punishment and clemency, and focus on improving the efficacy of regulation while ensuring deterrence through punishment. In this way, we aim to render tax law enforcement effective and mighty with a human touch and resolutely safeguard the national taxation security and the legitimate rights and interests of law-abiding enterprises. 

First, we will focus on tax-related risks and promote targeted governance in an orderly manner. We will continuously improve the dynamic supervision system of "credit plus risk." In terms of general tax-related legal violations, the tax departments will successively take five comprehensive steps. The first three are reminding and alerting, urging to rectify, and talking and admonishing, which will grant more taxpayers opportunities to rectify themselves and demonstrate the warmth and flexibility of tax law enforcement. Of course, for those who refuse to rectify or repeatedly break the laws, we will take the fourth step of filing an inspection case in accordance with the law. Regarding serious cases, we will take the last step, publicly exposing them to showcase the might and rigor of law enforcement. 

Second, we will closely monitor tax fraud through the use of falsified invoices and work together to enforce strict punishment. We will continue to collaborate with six departments, including the Ministry of Public Security, to crack down on serious illegal activities that do not create wealth for society and disrupt market order, such as issuing falsified invoices by "fake companies", receiving export rebates through "false exports" and taking advantage of tax concessions through "false declarations." We will strike a heavy blow to illegal activities as soon as they appear and continue to intensify our efforts to eradicate such activities.

Third, we will ensure the implementation of tax relief policies and conduct inspections to address problems promptly. The tax authorities will carry out special campaigns to ensure the implementation of multiple tax policies and crack down on tax-related intermediaries who engage in false advertising and malicious tax planning to firmly prevent the "red envelopes" of tax relief policies from falling into the hands of criminals. At the same time, we will investigate our own problems. Tax officials found to be derelict in their duties in tax evasion and fraud cases, especially those who collude internally and externally or engage in cheating, will be punished severely once discovered. We will also shore up the weak links in tax management after we find them through inspections and address both the symptoms and the root causes of the problems.

Today, the STA and tax authorities at the provincial and municipal level will also announce seven typical cases of tax-related violations. Please pay attention to them. Thank you.