The Effectiveness and Countermeasures of Preferential Policy of Small and Micro Enterprise Income Tax

Abstract：To promote China's small and micro enterprises healthy and sustainable development， the State Council promulgated and expanded tax incentives for small and micro enterprises， the paper analyzes the small and micro enterprise income tax preferential policies in the implementation of A City， points out that the deficiencies exist in the implementation process of the policy， and puts forward recommendations to improve and perfect small micro-enterprise income tax preferential policy.

Key words：Small and micro enterprises； Corporate income tax； Tax incentives

Since the 2008 economic crisis， the global economy has been in recession. The small and micro enterprises， originally in a weak position， are facing worse predicament of development in the downturn of macroeconomic environment. To help small and micro enterprises become bigger and stronger， the State Council implemented \"the preferential tax policies \" in 2010， it is regulated that annual taxable income amount of small enterprises less than 30，000 can enjoy 20% preferential tax rate and its taxable income should be calculated by 50%. In 2012， this taxable income amount was expanded to 60，000 and to 100，000 in 2014. In 2015， \"small and micro enterprises with taxable income less than 200，000 can enjoy 20% preferential tax rate and the business income taxes shall be levied at half， small and micro enterprises with taxable income between 200，000 to 300，000 can enjoy 20% preferential tax rate \"

1. the status of small and micro enterprises enjoying preferential tax

In the first half of 2015， the number of the small and micro enterprises declared prepayment of the business income tax is 55782， among which 4368 enterprises are profitable Companies， 4365 enterprises enjoy the policy，

the actual benefit rate is 99.93%， tax savings are 22.4465 million， the average tax savings are 5100.Less than 10% of small and micro enterprises

are profitable in the first half of 2015. The number of enterprises enjoy the preferential tax is significantly lower both in absolute number and proportion.

2. the existing preferential tax policies

（1） the identification scope of small and micro enterprises is harsh

First， the preferential tax policies of business income taxes are different with the identification scope of the Ministry of Industry. According to the Ministry of Industry， the small and micro enterprises identified as： \"Employees are less than 50 people and operating income less than 5 million.\" And in the preferential tax policies of small and micro enterprise， \" The total assets of industrial enterprises are less than 30 million， other enterprises less than 10 million； the employees of industrial enterprises are less than 100， and other enterprises less than 80， the annual taxable income should be less than 0.3 million.\" In A City， the taxable income rate of small and micro enterprises is generally 8%～10%， that is， the income of small and micro enterprises are generally limited to 3 million. There is a huge difference from the definition of which the small and micro enterprise income is defined as less than 5 million by Ministry of Industry. Such as an enterprise with 15 employees， annual revenues of 4 million and 10% profit rate， according to the standard of Ministry of industry， it belongs to small and micro enterprises， and in accordance with the standard of enterprise income tax law， it can not enjoy the preferential policy of enterprise income tax. This is unfair to part of small and micro enterprises especially high-tech enterprises. Compared with the traditional industry， high-tech enterprises are more dependent on modern technology with fewer employees. Although they belong to the industries encouraged to develop by country， it may not enjoy this policy due to income restriction.

Second， individual industrial and commercial households are not within the scope of tax incentives. In A City， the number of individual industrial and commercial households have tax registration in Local Taxation Bureau has exceeded 530.000 and it is 9 times of the number of small and micro enterprises. Due to the special form of the enterprises， individual industrial and commercial households pay personal income tax. The tax incentives are rare and the tax burden of individual industrial and commercial households is significantly greater than that of small and micro enterprises. For example， annual taxable income of an individual industrial and commercial household is 10，0000， the individual income tax should be 20250. And the small and micro enterprises in line with the conditions only pay 10000 for corporate income tax.

（2） small and micro enterprises’ understanding of the tax incentives is not enough

First， most small and micro enterprises implement generation of accounting system and the business owners do not care about tax policy. The tax related matters were entrusted to accountants whose professional quality is generally not high. They lack the initiative to learn tax incentives policies and the high liquidity make it easy for tax information fault； second， the publicity of tax incentives by grass-roots tax authorities is not sufficient， tax staffs lack enthusiasm to propagate.

（3） Preferential ways of tax of small and micro enterprises are still single

The main preferential income tax enjoyed by small and micro enterprises now is a kind of reduction rate. For example， the current taxable income of small and micro enterprises less than 200，000 can enjoy 20% preferential tax rate and the business income taxes shall be levied at half. The mode is too single and it is limited to do at the end of the operation of enterprises. It is not released in the running process of the enterprises and belong to \"rewards granted afterwards\". The small and micro enterprises are involved in many industries， the operating environment and profit model is also different and the possibility to be profitable is at the beginning is very small. a single profit reduction can not be applied to all small and micro enterprises.

（4） The tax incentives of small and micro enterprises lack consistency

Since 2010 until now， the tax preferential policies of small and micro enterprise income has been expanding the scope gradually， but at the same time highlighting the problem that the policy lacks continuity. The present preferential tax policy has not yet ended， more preferential tax policies would appear. Although such initiatives has expanded the benefit scope， it also caused inconsistent of the policy and increased the difficulty in policy advocacy and implementation.

3. the suggestions to improve the small and micro enterprises preferential tax policies

（1） to expand the scope of small and micro enterprises

In order to realize the fairness in overall tax burden of small and micro enterprises， special forms of enterprises such as individual industrial and commercial households should be included in the preferential range. Individual industrial and commercial households follow the individual income tax law， the preferential tariff rates can be adopted on the basis of tax rate according to the actual situation. Referring to the standards of small and micro enterprise， preferential measure such as the halve of the tax rate should be enjoyed by partnerships and individual industrial and commercial households. The qualifications should be kept the same and the benefit scope should be expanded.

（2） Extend the preferential time enjoyed by small and micro enterprises at a loss

The current small and micro enterprise income tax concessions ended at the end of 2017. If small and micro enterprises are unable to make a profit before 2017， they would not enjoy preferential policy of enterprise income tax. For those enterprises just started， especially for small and micro enterprises established in a short period ， it is difficult to achieve profitability in one to two years. Therefore， before the end of 2017 small and micro enterprises that did not enjoy preferential income tax with a annual taxable income after making up for the loss less than 300，000 can enjoy a preferential income tax relief. This initiative is of great significance to the healthy development of small and micro enterprises which are just started and the reduction of the cash outflow.

（3） strengthen the incentives of capital cost tax

Factors such as the small business size， less collateral， weak profitability make it difficult for small and micro enterprises to obtain loans from banks and other financial institutions. Many small and micro enterprises choose to obtain loans from other external agencies， but the cost of financing is much higher than the bank rate in the same period ， the general financing costs is 3 to 6 times of interest rate of the bank loan interest rate in the same period. Business income tax stipulates that the interest payments of loan from financial enterprises by non financial enterprises can be deducted for the part that does not exceed the similar loan ratio. Enterprise income tax law， non financial enterprises to financial enterprise loan interest payments， not more than financial enterprises compared to the same loan rate part of the calculation of the amount can be deducted in accordance with， the exceeding part not allowed to deduct. In order to help small and micro enterprises to reduce costs， small and micro enterprises can obtained loans from non financial institutions and part of the loan interest rates can be deducted basing on the loan interest in financial institutions， . In the difficult environment of financing， strengthen capital cost deduction can effectively reduce the cost of small and micro enterprises in the start-up period and to help them tide over the difficulties.

（4） Do a good job in policy advocacy and post assessment

Small and micro enterprises sensitivity of the information policy is far less than that of large and medium-sized enterprises. The quality of employees is relatively lower and may not understand the preferential policies. Therefore， the publicity efforts need to be strengthened. Besides the news media， the tax authorities can make use of the annual settlement and tax guidance to sent policy to achieve better tax services. At the same time， as tax personnel of small and micro enterprises learning tax policy mainly rely on the propaganda of the grass-roots tax officials to a large extent due on the propaganda of the grass-roots tax officials， the small and micro enterprises preferential tax implementation can be listed in the tax personnel assessment tasks and improve the enthusiasm of tax personnel to conduct propaganda about tax policies.

Small and micro enterprises tax incentives should also be assessed timely. By doing this， the deficiency in the current work can get timely rectification and the preferential policies \"are entitled to enjoy\". Tax authorities can introduce the third party organizations to have regular visits to small and micro enterprises and achieve assessment of actual benefit enjoyed by the small and micro enterprises on the basis of understanding about the policies. 5.Draw lessons from the experience in the tax policy of other countries

In order to support the development of small and micro enterprises， various countries have introduced different tax policies. For example， Russia has implemented \"the integration of five taxes\" policy and levy consolidated taxes on small enterprises.

France and Britain stipulate small and micro enterprises can use more preferential tax policy of pre-tax deduction on fixed assets. 12 countries including Austria and Belgium

stipulate that the small enterprise income tax losses can be indefinitely carried down and made up backward. 5 countries including the United States and South Korea stipulate that small and micro enterprises can make up losses backward or apply for the income tax of the prior year to compensate for the loss and help the small and micro enterprises to obtain a large sum of cash flow. Most OECD members’ small and micro enterprises report the enterprise income tax quarterly， half yearly and yearly which reduce the tax-paying cost of enterprise.

4. Conclusion

Small and micro enterprises are generally in the early stages of development， business operation and accumulation is the key to become big and strong. And profitability and financial position in the entrepreneurship period is often unsatisfactory. Therefore， preferential tax policies should not only reflected in corporate earnings， but also be used throughout the daily operations of enterprises， to change the existing preferential tax policies after the deduction of a single situation. The single situation of deduction afterwards should be changed. A variety of preferential means such as deduction beforehand and extension of preferential period should be used to establish a stable legal system to escort for the small and micro enterprises’ sustained and healthy development.