The tax refund (exemption) for exported goods is an integral part of the overall national tax system, and the establishment of its policy framework cannot be separated from the basic principles established by the overall tax system, including the principle of the efficiency of taxation, which refers to the role of taxation on the effective operation of the economy; the principle of fairness, which refers to the principle of the taxation to promote the fairness of the redistribution of national income; the principle of finance, which refers to the principle that taxation should guarantee the financial revenue of the national government; the principle of the rule of law, which means that the determination of taxation should follow the way of legalization and the way of the legalization. Taxation should ensure the financial income of the national government; the principle of legal system, that is, the determination of taxation should follow the way and manner of legalization. However, the export tax rebate Because of its own limitations, focus, it has its own inherent principles to follow, including:
(a) the principle of international practice, that is, the principle of fair tax burden
The so-called principle of international practice, refers to a sovereign state to participate in the international economic and trade activities and the international division of labor, in order to promote the development of the country's foreign economic and trade activities, the implementation of certain policies and measures to comply with certain international norms. Certain international norms. Due to the differences in politics, economy, history and tradition of countries, the tax systems of countries are different. Some countries take direct tax as the main tax, some take indirect tax as the main tax, while some countries do not implement indirect tax system, and the tax burden of the same goods in different countries is also high and low. This kind of international tax difference, for international trade, will inevitably result in different tax burdens on the cost of exported goods, thus making it impossible for the products of different countries to compete fairly in the international market. To eliminate this effect, it is necessary to export goods in accordance with international practice, the refund (exemption) of indirect taxes levied by the country.
(2) Territorial Management Principle
The so-called territorial management principle, also known as the territorial principle, means that a country has the right to exercise jurisdiction in accordance with its own tax laws over economic behaviors occurring within the scope of its territory (field), and this principle of determining the scope of jurisdiction exercised by the concept of territory is called territorial management principle. An independent sovereign State enjoys full autonomy in taxation, including the right to tax and the right to reduce or exempt taxes. With regard to exported goods, a country has the right to decide, without prejudice to the interests of other countries, to refund or exempt the exported goods of the item from taxes paid domestically. This is a concrete manifestation of national sovereignty, which the international community must respect. The turnover taxes of all countries in the world are formulated according to the principle of territorial management. The tax exemptions in China's VAT and consumption tax regulations are only applicable within China, but not outside. Therefore, the corresponding export tax rebate is also applicable to the principle of territorial management.
(3) The principle of levying and refunding
The so-called levying and refunding is to return all the flow tax burden of the export tax rebate goods to the exporters, because if the levying is too much and the refunding is too little, and there is no complete refund of the tax, the competitiveness of China's goods in the international market will be affected, which is unfavorable to the export of the goods. On the other hand, if the levy is small and the refund is large, the export tax rebate will become a financial subsidy in disguise, losing the original meaning of the export tax rebate, and at the same time, it will also cause international trade disputes and retaliation by foreign countries, which is also unfavorable to the export of goods in China. Therefore, the establishment of this principle on the export tax rebate in the amount to determine a limit, according to this principle, the actual tax rate may be lower or higher than the nominal tax rate.
(4) Macro-control Principle
When the state formulates the policy of tax refund (exemption) for export goods, it must conform to the international practice of tax refund (exemption) for export goods, and it must also embody the economic policy of the state, i.e., embodying the principle of macro-control through the functional role of taxation. For example, the export of goods purchased from small-scale VAT taxpayers is generally not subject to tax rebate, but certain traditional goods purchased, taking into account the large proportion of their exports and their production and procurement of special factors, are specially permitted to be given a tax rebate in order to protect the production and development of China's traditional export goods; precious goods such as gold jewelry, jewelry and jade, the export of designated business enterprises can be processed for the tax rebate, and the export of non-designated business enterprises shall not be processed for the tax rebate, so as to adapt to the current stage of the tax rebate, and to meet the requirements of the current stage of the tax system. For the tax rebate, to adapt to the actual situation of the current stage of export trade management, and effectively prevent the export of tax evasion; for a small number of international and domestic price differentials and export more profitable goods and international restrictions or prohibited exports of goods, as well as not included in the financial management of the export enterprises of the goods of individuals carrying out of the country and so on, will not be refunded, in order to regulate the profitability of the export of goods and to prevent the outflow of resources.
The characteristics of tax refund (exemption) for exported goods
(1) Tax refund (exemption) for exported goods is a kind of income refund
Taxation is mandatory, gratuitous, and fixed to mobilize funds from national income according to the law, i.e., to participate in the distribution of the surplus products in the national income in a form. And export goods refund (exemption) tax as a specific system of taxation and taxation of the general characteristics of different, it is the export of goods, will be collected in the domestic segments of the indirect tax refund to the tax burden on a kind of income refund behavior, it is with the tax to raise funds for the purpose of exactly the opposite.
(II) export goods refund (exemption) tax has a regulating function of singularity
export goods refund (exemption) tax, is to make China's exports of goods to participate in the international market competition at the cost of the price of the tax is not included, is a policy measure. It is characterized by a single regulating function of encouragement and exemption in comparison with the two-way regulating function of other levy systems where encouragement and restriction coexist and revenue and exemption coexist.
(2) The tax rebate (exemption) of export goods is an international practice in the category of indirect tax
Countries that implement indirect tax system, the specific indirect tax policy is different, but in terms of the indirect tax system of zero-rating of exports, the countries are consistent. In order to implement the zero-rating of indirect tax on export goods, some countries use the tax exemption system, some countries use the tax rebate system, and some countries use the rebate and tax exemption system side by side. The purpose is to refund or exemption of indirect taxes on export goods, in order to achieve the price of export goods according to the tax burden does not contain indirect taxes to participate in the international market competition, in the specific tax rebate (exemption) policy, it has a close link with the levied indirect tax system, each country has the specific provisions of each country, and leave the tax system, the tax rebate (exemption) of export goods will have no specific basis.
Three, the role of import and export tax
(a) export goods rebate (exemption) is to encourage the participation of domestic goods in international competition is a powerful measure
The implementation of zero-rated role is to avoid double taxation on export goods, the basic principle of value-added tax (VAT) is that the tax is ultimately borne by the consumer. The ultimate consumers of exported goods or services are purchasers in the importing country, and the importing country taxes such purchasers. If zero-rating is not applied to exports, it will inevitably result in double taxation. At the same time, zero-rating is also an important measure to promote the development of international trade. Zero-rating not only exempts value-added tax (VAT) at the final stage of export, but also makes it possible to export goods or services without any tax by means of tax refunds. Entering the international market at tax-free prices will enhance the competitiveness of domestic products. Of course, when other turnover taxes are levied, export tax refunds can also be implemented, but it is difficult to achieve accurate tax refunds. Therefore, the implementation of the export tax rebate policy is in line with international practice, to promote the development of China's market economy, to promote the process of integration of China with the international economic cycle is of great significance.
(2) Import and export tax policy is an important economic means for the state to regulate the macro-economy, and effectively promote the healthy and stable development of the national economy
Taxation is an important economic lever to regulate the national economy, and with the pace of international economic integration and China's accession to the WTO process accelerated, as a major part of the national economy, the international trade economy is growing rapidly, and its pulling effect is becoming increasingly significant. Therefore, how to adjust the import and export tax policy to effectively promote the healthy and stable development of the national economy has become an important part of the government's macroeconomic management under the conditions of market economy. From the next section, we introduce the historical process of export tax refund (exemption) policy, we can see that the import and export tax in each period of time on the national economy of different regulatory role. Especially in recent years, the implementation of the country's economic soft landing policy, active fiscal policy and other aspects of the import and export tax policy in a timely manner to make major adjustments in the increase in foreign exchange reserves to curb inflation, stabilize the economic situation, against the Asian financial turmoil as well as to stimulate economic growth and so on has played a very important role.
Third, the full implementation of import and export tax policy to promote the development of China's foreign trade
China's tax rebates on export goods, so that the export of goods to the international market at a tax-free price, enhance the competitiveness of export goods, mobilized the enthusiasm of foreign trade enterprises to export, and the export trade volume has increased significantly over the years. Not only that, because the export tax rebate is with the degree of processing of export goods to determine the amount of tax rebate, so greatly promote the optimization of the structure of export commodities, so that the quality of export trade has also improved greatly. 1993 to 1997, China's exports of manufactured goods to an annual average of 18.5% of the rapid development of the proportion of total exports from 1993 to 86.9%; in 1997, 86.9% of the total exports from 1993; the proportion of the total exports from 1993 to 86.9%. Its share in total exports rose from 81.8% in 1993 to 86.9% in 1997; exports of primary products grew at a low rate, with an average annual growth of 7.1%, and its share fell from 18.2% in 1993 to 13.1% in 1997. Among the industrial manufactured products, the electromechanical products, due to the high degree of processing and the implementation of the policy of priority tax rebate, their exports have developed significantly, with an average annual growth rate of 24.9% from 1991 to 1997, and the proportion of the total exports rose from 19.6% in 1991 to 32.5% in 1997, surpassing textiles to become China's first category of export commodities. Therefore, the export tax rebate policy has become one of the most important means of regulating the export trade in China, and it has an indispensable role in the development of foreign trade.
(4) Cooperate with the reform of foreign trade system, promote import and export enterprises to improve economic efficiency
Since the reform of economic system, the reform of foreign trade system has been in the forefront. The State Council decided to collect the tax payable on imported goods and refund the tax payable on exported goods to enterprises, which clarified the relationship between the state and enterprises, broke the "big pot rice" system, promoted foreign trade enterprises to self-management, self-supporting, self-development, and self-restricted the transformation of the operating mechanism, and gradually established a modern enterprise system in the implementation of the shareholding system of foreign trade enterprises, the agency system, the agency system, the foreign trade enterprises and the foreign trade system. Under the new foreign trade system of implementing the shareholding system of foreign trade enterprises, the agency system and the development of production enterprises' self-supporting import and export, etc., as the survival of enterprises is closely related to economic benefits, foreign trade enterprises now not only focus on the expansion of the scale of import and export, but also pay great attention to the improvement of economic benefits. According to statistics, the total profit of the national foreign trade system in 1993 amounted to 10.897 billion yuan, and in 1994 it amounted to 11.907 billion yuan. In recent years, due to the adjustment of national policies to make profits have declined, but foreign trade enterprises have always been from the principle of efficiency, efforts to tap the internal potential, make full use of the existing tax policy and other related policies, and vigorously reduce the cost, so that in the increasingly fierce international and domestic competition continue to develop and grow.
(E) the implementation of import and export preferential policies to encourage the introduction of advanced technology and equipment, and promote the upgrading of industrial structure
Since the implementation of China's preferential policies on imported equipment, although the import tax exemption policy has been adjusted many times, but technological upgrading and foreign investment in imported equipment tax reduction and waiver policy is basically stable. In 1997 alone, the amount of imports enjoying tax exemptions amounted to more than $20 billion, and the reduction or exemption of import value-added tax and consumption tax amounted to about 30 billion yuan. The implementation of the relevant import incentives, so that the national economy and people's livelihood and industrial and agricultural production and construction of shortages, resource materials and high-tech and complete sets of equipment imports to maintain a rapid growth momentum, blind imports of the phenomenon has been effectively controlled, and promote the upgrading of industrial and product structure.
In summary, the development of foreign trade has penetrated into all areas of the national economy, the promotion of national economic development has been very obvious, import and export tax policy as an important element of the macro-control policy to promote the development of foreign trade is also increasingly important.