中国财税改革40年:基本轨迹、基本经验和基本规律

China's Forty Years of Fiscal and Taxation Reform:The Main Path,Fundamental Experiences and Basic Laws

中国财税体制改革40年的历程,以改革的阶段性目标区分,可以大致归为五个既彼此独立又互为关联的阶段。其间所存在的一条上下贯通的主线索是,它始终作为整体改革的一个重要组成部分,服从于、服务于整体改革的需要。伴随着由经济体制改革走向全面深化改革的历史进程,不断地对财税体制及其运行机制进行适应性的变革:以"财政公共化"匹配"经济市场化",以"财政现代化"匹配"国家治理现代化"。具体而言,就是以"公共财政体制"匹配"社会主义市场经济体制",以"现代财政制度"匹配"现代国家治理体系和治理能力"。这一成功实践的背后,则是建立在深刻认知财税体制及其运行机制客观规律基础上形成的理论支撑:经济的市场化必然带来财政的公共化,国家治理的现代化要求和决定着财政的现代化。站在新的历史起点上,围绕财税体制h改革的焦点、难点和痛点打一场攻坚战,加快建立现代财政制度,是中国特色社会主义新时代财税体制改革的必由之路。

Summary： With the advent of the 40th anniversary of China＇s reform and opening-up policy, a systematic summary of the policy has been a hot topic in Chinese academic circles since the beginning of 2018. Unlike normal reflective research, this article aims to summarize the basic experiences under China＇s fiscal and taxation reform and discover the basic laws of the past forty years＇ reform, while not simply reiterating historical traces or listing achievements. Bearing these goals in mind, the future direction of the fiscal and taxation reform will also be figured out. It is argued in this article that China＇s fiscal and taxation reform, as an important part of its overall reform, has always been subordinate to and served the needs of the overall reform during its course so far. This is the main clue to an understanding of China＇s fiscal and taxation system reform. As such, we can easily trace the trajectory of fiscal and taxation reform in China. （1） From 1978 to 1994, administrative decentralization and profit-transfer retention （fangquan rangli） from the central to sub-national governments dominated reform strategy, aiming to create good conditions for the whole economy to escape the planned economy. As a result, the Chinese government＇s financial capacity--especially at the central level--was dramatically weakened; this was regarded as the cost of reform. This situation pushed the Chinese government to consider continuing fiscal and taxation reform via institutional innovation rather than surrendering profits. These efforts helped to set up an initial fiscal framework suitable for a market economy. （2） After 1998, the task of building a comprehensive institutional framework for public finance was added to the reform agenda. It focused on non-tax revenue, fiscal expenditure and financial management that failed to be fully considered and incorporated into the previous reform package. This meant China＇s fiscal and taxation reform was switched from a piecemeal, partial change to a comprehensive, global one. （3） At the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the previous reform strategy centering on economic marketization was replaced with the general objectives of comprehensively deepening reform, because of the view that the reform and opening- up policy was in a critical stage and entering deep water. The target of the new strategy is to modernize China＇s state governance system and governance capacities by linking its economic system, political system, cultural system, social system and ecological civilization system reforms. Establishing a modern public finance system compatible with modern state governance is the goal of the new round of fiscal and taxation reform. From the past adaptive reform we learned that fiscal systems must be changed gradually, accompanied by historical transitions from economic system reform toward comprehensively deepened reform. China＇s fiscal and taxation system reform practice has been successful so far mainly because of decision-makers＇ deep cognition and strict following of the objective law of the fiscal and taxation system and its operating mechanism when they plan and advance reform. This objective law can be summarized as follows： the marketization of the economy inevitably brings about a public finance system, and the modernization of state governance requires and decides on the modernization of public finance. The direct expression of the new round of the fiscal and taxation system reform in President Xi Jinping＇s report at the 19th CPC National Congress emphasized its focuses, difficulties and pain points. We expect that at this new historical starting point, the only way for successful fiscal reform for the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to accelerate the establishment of a modern fiscal system by fighting an uphill battle centered on the focuses, difficulties and pain points of fiscal and taxation system reform.