On July 20, 2018, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and The General Office of the State Council issued the Reform Plan for the National Tax and Local Tax Collection and Administration System (hereinafter referred to as the Reform Plan).  The "Reform Plan" earnestly implements the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and The State Council, and is a guiding document to ensure the steady and orderly progress of the reform of the national tax and local tax collection and management system.

The "reform plan" defines the guiding ideology, basic principles and main objectives of the reform of the state tax and local tax collection and management system, puts forward the main tasks of the reform, implementation steps and safeguard measures, and puts forward work requirements on the organization and implementation of the reform.

 We will build an optimized, efficient and unified tax collection and administration system to provide a strong institutional guarantee for high-quality tax modernization in the new era, better play the basic, pillar and guarantee role of tax revenue in national governance, and better serve the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, embark on a new journey to comprehensively build a modern socialist country, and realize the Chinese dream of great national rejuvenation.

The "reform plan" put forward four principles for the reform of the national tax and local tax collection and management system, namely: adhere to the overall leadership of the Party.  We must work for the benefit of the people. With taxpayers and payers as the center, we will advance the reform of tax handling and payment facilitation, fundamentally solve the problems of "running at both ends" and "checking at both ends", effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers and payers, reduce the cost of tax payment and payment, promote the optimization of the business environment, and build a service-oriented tax authority that the people are satisfied with, so that the people have more sense of gain. Adhere to optimization, efficiency and unity. We will adjust and optimize the functions and resource allocation of tax authorities, enhance policy transparency and consistency in law enforcement, and unify the standards for the collection and administration of tax, social insurance premiums, and non-tax income, so as to promote the construction of a modern economic system and high-quality economic development. We will continue to act in concert and prudently. We will fully implement the requirements for comprehensively governing the country according to law, unify and promote reform and the rule of law, give better play to the initiative of both the central and local governments, and achieve coordination in the work, personnel, efforts and hearts of state and local tax agencies, so that the ranks of cadres are stable, responsibilities are transferred smoothly, work is carried out steadily, and social effects are good.

The "reform plan" emphasizes that through reform, an optimized, efficient and unified tax collection and administration system will be gradually built to provide taxpayers and payers with more high-quality, efficient and convenient services, improve tax law compliance and social satisfaction, improve the efficiency of collection and administration, reduce the cost of collection, enhance the ability to manage taxes and fees, ensure that the function of taxation is fully played, and consolidate the important foundation of national governance.

The "reform plan" proposes that, in accordance with the requirements of first establishment and then breaking, not establishment and not breaking, adhere to unified leadership, hierarchical management, overall design, step by step implementation, adopt the first listing and then implement the "three fixed" provisions, first merge the state tax and local tax agencies and then receive social insurance premiums and non-tax revenue collection and management responsibilities, first provinces (regions, cities, and cities with separate plans, etc.) The following collectively referred to as the provincial tax bureau reform to do a steady and solid promotion of the city (prefecture, prefecture, league, hereinafter referred to as the city) tax bureau, county (city, district, banner, hereinafter referred to as the county) tax bureau reform steps, one key work, one time node to implement, to ensure the completion of the reform tasks by the end of 2018.

The "reform plan" requires strengthening the Party's leadership in the tax system, improving the institutional arrangements for strengthening the Party's overall leadership over tax work, and ensuring that the Party's leadership in the tax system is stronger and more powerful. Optimize the Party's leadership and organizational structure of the tax system, improve the discipline inspection and supervision system of the tax system, and further strengthen the discipline inspection and supervision work. Improve the working mechanism of party building, the State Administration of Taxation assumes the responsibility of party building in the tax system and strictly governing the Party, and local party committees are responsible for guiding and strengthening the construction of grass-roots party organizations and party members' education, management and supervision, group organization construction, and the creation of spiritual civilization in various tax departments, so as to form a joint force between Party committees at all levels and local party committees and their working departments to jointly grasp party building.

The "Reform Plan" stipulates the leadership and management system of the tax department, clarifying that after the merger of the State tax and local tax agencies, the management system will be dominated by the State Administration of Taxation and under the dual leadership of provincial party committees and governments, and focusing on the establishment and improvement of a system and mechanism with clear responsibilities, smooth operation and strong guarantee. Specific requirements were put forward in the aspects of cadre management, organization establishment management, business and income management, building a tax co-governance pattern, and serving economic and social development, clarifying the division of duties between the State Administration of Taxation and tax departments at all levels and local party committees and governments in tax work, which is conducive to further strengthening the unified management of tax work and rationalizing the relationship between the unified tax system and hierarchical finance. Give full play to the initiative of both the central and local governments.

The "reform plan" also makes specific deployment for key reform tasks such as completing the listing of the new tax agency, formulating the "three fixed" provisions for the new tax agency, transferring the duties of collection and administration of social insurance premiums and non-tax income, promoting the integration and optimization of tax and tax services and information systems, strengthening fund security and asset management, cleaning up and revising relevant laws and regulations, and clarifying relevant safeguard measures. Provincial, city and county tax bureaus are required to complete the centralized office step by step, the new institution is listed and the work is carried out in the name of the new institution. Strictly control the number of institutions, further optimize the tax organization system and collection and management responsibilities at all levels, improve the structural layout and force allocation, so that the establishment of institutions is scientific, functions and responsibilities are clear, and resources are allocated rationally. At the same time, it is clear that from January 1, 2019, social insurance premiums such as basic old-age insurance premiums, basic medical insurance premiums, unemployment insurance premiums, work-related injury insurance premiums, and maternity insurance premiums will be uniformly collected by tax authorities. In accordance with the principle of convenience and efficiency, the scope of transferring non-tax revenue collection and administration responsibilities to tax departments shall be reasonably determined, and non-tax revenue items retained according to law and suitable for transfer shall be transferred in batches and gradually promoted. It is required to integrate tax payment services and tax collection and management, optimize and improve tax and payment management information systems, and better facilitate taxpayers and payers.

The "reform plan" emphasizes that the State Administration of Taxation should do a good job of overall planning, the provincial Party committees and governments should fully support, the relevant departments should actively cooperate, and the provincial tax bureaus should carefully organize and implement, and put forward work requirements from four aspects, such as improving political standing, strict discipline requirements, supervision and inspection, and strengthening publicity and guidance, to ensure the smooth landing of various tasks.