Personal income tax reform is a barometer for social fairness

The 13th National People's Congress Standing Committee is now reviewing a draft amendment to the Personal Income Tax Law. Guangming Daily comments:

The draft amendment has caught wide attention because the new threshold of monthly income for personal income tax will be 5,000 yuan ($773), compared with the current 3,500 yuan. Also expenses such as paying for children's education and the treatment of serious diseases, rent and mortgage interest payments will be deductible for the first time.

It is necessary to amend the law now, since it has been seven years since the personal income tax threshold was raised from 2,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan, and these changes will effectively relieve the tax burden on those with lower incomes.

The draft amendment is intended to ease the financial pressure on low-and lower-middle income families that bear comparatively heavier financial burdens than those with higher incomes.

Also, taxing different sources of income as a whole rather than in different categories will effectively plug the loopholes in the current personal income tax system, by which wealthy people, who have many sources of income, shift their income to the categories of income that invites much lower tax rate. The amendment makes it more difficult for them to evade tax in this way.

Should the amendment be adopted, it will still need to be carried out strictly as written. So it is not yet the right time to applaud the draft amendment as a success, as there remains a long way to translate the legislature's will into reality.

The process of overhauling the Personal Income Tax Law requires the redefinition and clarification of these concepts that cause anxiety in middle-income groups. The stability of this group not only means the stability of taxpayers, but also the stability of society and the predictability of social development.