Make personal income tax fairer

Some delegates attending the annual Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, suggested China should increase its monthly personal income tax from the current 3,500 yuan ($556) to 5,000 yuan. Although the vice-director of the General Administration of Taxation rejected the suggestion, China should actively think of other means to relieve people's tax burdens, says an article in Nanfang Daily. Excerpts:

After increasing the personal income tax threshold from less than 3,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan last time, the number of taxpayers shrank from about 90 million to the current 30 million.

However, the decline in the number of taxpayers does not mean the decline of the government's personal income tax revenue, which is expected to hit 636 billion yuan in 2013, increasing 9.3 percent year-on-year, higher than the growth of the GDP growth objective .

China should consider levying personal income taxes on family basis, rather than on individuals. For example, under the current situation, if the only breadwinner of a family makes slightly more than 3,500 yuan a month in a big city, he must pay the tax despite his financial burden to support the whole family.

China's rigid tax policies do not consider the real-life burdens for taxpayers' and only pay attention to their incomes.

Chinese taxpayers never know where their money is used and there is no tax-return policy at all.

There are many forms of gray income for the rich that are still not taxable. The rich have more means to evade taxes. This is against the principle of fair taxation.