Die Einkommensteuer aus Industrie- und Handelstätigkeit

Abstract

In February 1979 the People's Daily of Peking announced important changes affecting commune and brigade enterprises with respect to income-tax derived from trade and commerce. Generally, enterprises not owned by the state are called upon to pay this tax. China's income-tax system is presented against this background. The first part of the essay provides a survey of the historical development of taxes dating from the founding of the People's Republic of China to 1962. In January 1963 the National Council issued new income-tax regulations for individual establishments, co-operative sales agencies, small trade and transport co-operatives, which are probably still in effect today and which are discussed in detail in the second part of the essay. Income-tax regulations for commune and brigade enterprises were only established in 1966. The proportional tax-scale, which came into use in this context, has been replacing a progressive scale in some provinces since 1974-75. More detailed information about the latter is presented for the city of Tianjin. In the closing section a connection is made between tax changes for commune and brigade enterprises, and the effort of the Chinese leadershipto increase the extent of mechanisation in agriculture.