Tackling income tax evasion

Preferential policies do not stop the rich emigrating and they aggravate the unfairness in the distribution of wealth

At the just-concluded session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, Jia Kang, a member of the top advisory body, said the individual income tax is concentrated on people with low and middle incomes, as rich people are able to avoid paying it.

As a finance and tax expert with the Research Institute for Fiscal Science affiliated to the Ministry of Finance, some of Jia's comments on tax have sparked controversy in the past. However, his latest remarks are less controversial as it is indisputable that the middle- and lower-income groups have become the main source of individual income tax revenues. Such a tax structure has aggravated the unfairness in the country's income distribution and contributed to its failure to narrow the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor.