增值税留抵退税的体系定位与制度优化

System Positioning and Legal Optimization of VAT Refund

2022年4月起实行的大规模留抵退税政策在为企业纾困解难方面发挥了关键作用。在增值税立法不断推进的背景下,留抵退税在财税法体系中如何定位成为一个关键问题。留抵税额既未减免也未递延纳税人的应纳税额,非严格意义上的税收优惠。在纳税人视角下,纳税人可选择留抵退税或结转抵扣,因而申请留抵退税的权利为纳税人选择权。在国家视角下,留抵退税属于增值税基准税制的一部分,既非财政支出也非税式支出,应从增值税收入中直接划拨。目前的留抵税额存量对财政收入有重要影响,应通过专项拨款的方式解决。应从保障纳税人选择权、建立风险防控机制、建立央地分担机制、完善制度细节四个方面进一步明确留抵退税制度。

Since April 2022,the large scale implemented VAT refund policy has played a key role in relieving the difficulties of enterprises.Against the backdrop of the continuous advancement of VAT legislation,how to position the VAT refund in the fiscal and tax law system has become a key issue.VAT refund is neither tax deduction nor tax defer;therefore,it is not a tax relief in the strict sense.From the perspective of taxpayers,they have the rights to claim refunds or offset excess input VAT credits against future output VATs,so the right to claim refunds is the taxpayers’option.From the national perspective,the VAT refund is part of the VAT benchmark tax system.It is neither fiscal expenditure nor tax expenditure,and should be allocated directly from the VAT revenue.However,the current stock of VAT excess credits has an important impact on fiscal revenue and should be addressed through special allocations.The VAT refund system should be further clarified in four aspects:securing taxpayers’option,establishing risk prevention and control mechanism,establishing central and local sharing mechanism,and improving VAT refund system details.