How can a difficult taxpayer shop tax?

● In 2010, China’s online transaction volume reached 498 billion yuan, of which nearly 400 billion yuan occurred in Taobao ● Taxes on online stores can regulate the e-commerce market and assist consumers in protecting their rights ● However, online shopping is difficult to pass on to consumers after taxation The Mainland’s “net taxation on online shops” has faced many difficulties in terms of taxation and fees, as well as actual operations. This problem also plagues the Hong Kong SAR and other countries in the world.

Hong Kong Online Shop "No taxation"

Members can't control, “comment” comes to the forefront The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a fast-growing area for e-commerce. Local major shopping websites are highly active and most consumers are already accustomed to online shopping, despite complaints and disputes. There is no clear supervision system for online transactions, but people still like to choose fast and convenient online shopping. Because in current "online shopping is not taxed" in Hong Kong, consumer associations often jump out to serve the people. In this way, it seems to be a unique "landscape" for the local side while complaining about hot buying.

2010 complaints increased by 230%

According to Hong Kong’s “Choice” magazine, which was reported in May 2011, the Hong Kong Consumer Council received 439 online shopping complaints in 2010, an increase of 230% compared with 132 cases in 2009.

In the case mentioned in the report, an overseas complainant ordered a lawn mower worth HKD 20,000 from a large shopping site, and after depositing instructions to the designated officer, he never received the goods. The company contacted the company and received no response. It turned to the shopping site for help. However, the site only removed the company and refused to follow up or pay compensation. The Consumer Council tried to contact the company concerned and it was replied that it did not have the company. The three Hong Kong people interviewed by the reporter once said: “The dissatisfaction is certainly there, but the online purchase price is indeed a lot cheaper, but also can buy a lot of out-of-print goods.”

The Consumer Council helped online shopping rights reporters interview with a lecturer from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Mr. Liu who specializes in social research. He said that Hong Kong’s lawmakers and government officials have not made recommendations or proposals on regulatory measures such as taxation on online stores. This is because the actual transaction amount of online sales is very difficult to confirm and it is difficult to establish taxation standards. In this case, the Consumer Council often accepts many disputes and rights protections to help the buyer get compensation.

The Consumer Council often reminds Hong Kong consumers of various safety matters that should be observed before trading online. However, the Consumer Council can only deal with consumer issues in Hong Kong and consumer disputes with overseas companies. It is not the scope of the Consumer Council's mediation.

Foreign online shops are also taxed in Europe and the United States. Big differences in income in Japan. In other countries where e-commerce is more developed, it is basically tax-free to open stores on the Internet. Many countries have also adopted relevant laws and regulations to define and protect taxation. Then, what standards and basis are used for foreign online stores?

United Kingdom: The tax rate is consistent with the entity management In August 2002, the UK’s “Electronic Commerce Law” came into effect. It clearly stipulated that all online sales of goods must be subject to VAT, and the tax rate is consistent with the entity's operations. The “non-differentiated” levy is applied and is divided into 3 levels. The standard rate (17.5%), preferential tax rate (5%) and zero tax rate (0%). According to the type of goods sold and the place of sale, different tax rates apply. Annual sales of more than 58,000 pounds, you must go to the taxation department for VAT registration. If it is not exceeded, no hard requirement will be made.

United States: Virtual goods are not taxed The United States passed the Internet Tax Free Act in 1998. The simplest and most basic principle of the bill is that virtual goods (such as software and music) should not be taxed, but general commodities must be taxed according to the entity's operating standards. The bill has a three-year extension period and was later extended twice until it is still in use. However, the U.S. High Court ruled that since both the U.S. federal and state governments can legislate to collect taxes, if any corporate entity is not in a certain state, consumers may not be able to deal with the company if they are buying or selling by mail or online ordering. Levy of consumption tax. For example, an online store that sells a $59 shirt online to a customer at its physical company location must pay a $2.95 consumption tax to the local tax department. If he sells this shirt to other states without physical stores, warehouses and production lines, there is no need to pay tax there.

Australia: Taxes based on product prices Open shop in Australia. Tax collection is inevitable. Individuals who open an online shop need to pay registration fees and transaction service fees to the online platform. Every seller puts a new product in the online store and they will have to pay a fee. The price will depend on the price of the product. After the transaction is completed, the transaction service fee of 2% to 5% of the transaction price shall also be paid. When you use a third-party payment system such as Paypal, you also need to pay a fee. Small shop personal shop usually does not require tax returns, unless the transaction amount exceeds AUD 1,000, but the owner is subject to personal income tax, and the amount of the payment depends on the owner’s total income for the year. However, if the owner spends more this year, he will also enjoy the government tax rebate.

Japan: Taxes for millions of income before taxation Japan's Special Business Referral Act stipulates that the income from network operations is subject to taxation, and indeed some Japanese are paying taxes in accordance with the law. According to statistics, most online shops with annual revenues of less than 1 million yen in Japan do not pay taxes, while those with annual revenues of more than 1 million yen are mostly consciously reporting taxes.

Wuhan's first levy of 4.3 million "scared away" group of shopkeepers recently, Wuhan City, the State Taxation Bureau opened the first personal shop online tax bills, Taobao Women's Online Shop "My One Percent" tax of more than 430 million, including VAT, Corporate income tax and late fees, etc. The incident caused all sorts of arguments, according to some media reports, the incident even led to part of Wuhan's online shop began to change the registered address, quietly moved. On June 29, Wuhan State Taxation Bureau focused on making public responses to two issues.

First of all, this time the "shop" was acquired as an entity. The Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Taxation clarified: "My 1 percent" women's clothing store, physical store name is Wuhan Pou Nai Garment Co., Ltd., and in 2009 the tax registration was conducted at the Tax Bureau of Wuhan National Tax Bureau, and the production and operation of clothing business was a value-added tax. Small-scale taxpayers have a sales income of 105 million yuan in 2010.

Second, there are tax liabilities for goods transactions. The Wuhan State Taxation Bureau stated that taxpayers, irrespective of the mode of transaction of their labor services and the form of settlement, have a duty to pay taxes as long as they realize the behavior of goods transactions. Zhou Guangchun, director of the Office of the State Taxation Bureau of Wuhan City, said that even if tax is imposed on online stores, the tax burden on small and medium-sized online stores will not be heavy and may even be exempt.

The “Beijing model” paid taxes first and then on December 1, 2007, the “Beijing Informationization Promotion Regulations” began to be implemented. Beijing Municipality took the lead in establishing that online businesses should obtain business licenses in accordance with the law and was called the Beijing model in e-commerce supervision. Personal shop license system. On March 6, 2008, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce issued an e-commerce supervisory consultation draft, which detailed the specific application scope of the online shop opening. The draft comment clearly stipulates that all e-commerce operators who aim for profit must register and can only operate after obtaining a business license. In fact, the Beijing model's request that Internet operators apply for licenses may be the first step towards taxation in the future. Although it is only local regulations, it seems to indicate that the era of taxation of online transactions is coming.

Previously, some media randomly surveyed hundreds of users on some well-known e-commerce sites, and 80% believed that online store supervision should be based mainly on easing. 36% of people believe that the biggest impact of the introduction of the personal online store license system is that the cost of opening stores is rising. 39% believe that the number of online shops will decrease, and only 10% think that it is conducive to industry supervision. Fifty-seven percent of people believe that the definition of profit is the biggest obstacle to the existence of a personal online store license system, and 82% believe that the implementation of the license system is a precursor to the full taxation of personal online stores.

Online shop taxation is a "double-edged sword"

favorable:

Consumers are very satisfied with the unique advantages of consumer rights shopping online shopping, which is convenient, quick, easy to order, and cheap, but the online shopping on the shopping site is uneven. Since there is no real object, the pictures and the promotion of the goods are in the specifications. There are often differences in terms of size, quality, consumer interests, and disputes between businesses and consumers.

Many consumers who like online shopping reflect that when they purchase goods from the Internet, especially those who cannot find defects in the short term, such as electrical appliances and artworks, once they have paid for the goods and found that the goods are defective and want to be returned, there are no invoices and other documents. There is often no way to defend rights.

Consumers usually want to return their own shipping costs, once and for all, the cost is not small, most people only forbear.

Taxation for the majority of online consumers is conducive to strengthening supervision, stabilizing the order of online transactions and safeguarding the interests of more consumers.

unfavorable:

Consumers can't buy "Cause"

Online store taxation has increased the operating costs of online stores. In the future, online stores can absorb this part of the cost by disguising price adjustments or other means. In other words, online store business is likely to pass on the extra cost to consumers.

The reporter interviewed the pat online shop owner from Shenzhen, she runs a full-time clothing store, although the monthly turnover is not too large, but the shop has a steady flow of passengers, small profits but quick turnover. She said that if she is taxed on a personal shop, she may have to raise the price of the product. If she loses her price advantage, she will be prepared to switch jobs. But she also said: "There are so many shopkeepers like me, and if they all have to increase their prices, they will certainly arouse the dissatisfaction of a lot of Internet users who are accustomed to Internet consumption. Therefore, I think that we have an online shop nationwide." Taxes are unlikely."

If the taxation leads to the price increase of goods, it will inevitably weaken the market competitiveness of online stores, which will undoubtedly further affect the survival of online stores.

The three major problems of taxation are difficult to distinguish from the purpose of opening stores. In the previous “Beijing model”, all e-commerce operators for profit purposes were required to register, and in fact, how to identify whether individual stores are for profit there is controversy. The main cloud of the slap mall shop said: "If the value of 500 yuan is something I discount to sell 200 yuan, is it profit-oriented? At present, Taobao, pat on many commodity prices are much lower than the actual value, how should we determine the profit Standards?” The editors learned from trading websites such as Taobao and Pat that for individual users, the network reminds users to pay tax consciously when signing agreements with them.

It is difficult to determine the taxes and fees based on online store transactions, and many times only through online messages, QQ contact, express delivery, most goods do not issue invoices or receipts at all, one month or one year of transaction information is difficult to be grasped by the management agency, so fundamental The inability to determine its turnover and profits has brought difficulties to the taxation of normal channels and the establishment of taxation standards. As a result, online merchants who actively pay taxes and provide invoices are basically few.

How difficult it is to collect detailed operations, who receives them, and how much they receive are all problems that cannot be solved in one place. If taxation of e-commerce transactions occurring on the Internet is conducted in accordance with the existing tax laws and regulations, the operation is very difficult. Such as the determination of jurisdiction, the definition of the taxpayer, the determination of the source of goods, the definition of personal transactions and so on.

At the same time, taxation on online transactions cannot rely solely on simple business registration. Back-office investment on registration channels, manpower, and financial resources is a huge system project. At present, the industry generally believes that because many network operators have not registered with the Administration for Industry and Commerce, there is no basis for collecting relevant taxes and fees.

In July, the “big gift package” tax exemption amount was officially raised on the eve of “July 1”. The people of the country received another “big gift package”. The National Commission of the Communist Party of China adopted the decision to amend the "Law on Personal Income Taxes," and the tax exemption was increased from 3,000 yuan originally drafted to 3,500 yuan. The decision will be implemented on September 1 this year.

60 million wage earners are exempt from tax, and the average white-collar tax exemption rate for monthly salary 4,500 yuan (excluding three insurance and one gold calculation) is as high as 88%.

This is the third time since the implementation of the current personal income tax law in 1994 to increase the amount of tax exemption, involving the largest amount of tax deductions. The "Personal Income Tax Law" adjusts the current 9-level progressive tax rate to 7 and the tax rate is 3% to 45%.

Many netizens were excited to raise the tax threshold by an unexpected 500 yuan. After all, for most people, it would be very content to pay less.

The tax adjustment, whether it is raising the threshold or reducing the first-rate tax rate, is based on public opinion. The legislature can eventually adopt the advice of the vast majority of people. Its significance is far greater than the increase in personal disposable income of residents.