Xi Must End This Silly 30-Year-Old Tax Treaty
The system is ruining China’s public finance and is the root cause of the nation’s biggest economic problems.
Taxation without representation.
Photographer: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images
So what if China levies taxes on private jets and golf clubs? Clawing money out of the very rich isn’t going to push the country off a fiscal cliff.
Expectations are rising that a tax reform is on the agenda at next week’s Third Plenum, a once-in-five-year conclave of top officials charting China’s economic future. A complete overhaul of consumption taxes — till now limited only to a handful of items such as tobacco, refined oil and alcohol — may be on the table. Municipalities might be allowed to impose levies on luxury services to broaden their income stream, according to local media reports.