It's the annual tax refund season, report every cent honestly.
[2] According to the State Taxation Administration, the annual tax refund period has arrived again. On March 1, the annual settlement of 2021 individual income tax will officially begin. To improve tax processing efficiency, the tax authorities have introduced an appointment-based tax service, and the process for handling tax refunds differs from usual. This year, taxpayers who need to complete the settlement between March 1 and March 15 must log into the Individual Income Tax APP within the specified dates to make an appointment, while those doing so between March 16 and June 30 do not need an appointment.
[3] Recently, a piece of information has been circulating widely in various WeChat groups: enterprise employees can use the Individual Income Tax APP to apply for pre-tax deductions for business vehicle and communication subsidies. Since the Individual Income Tax APP provides settlement services based on the principle of "lawfulness and integrity," this has led a large number of people who do not meet the conditions for these two tax refunds to submit refund applications. But what will the consequences be?
The Tax Collection and Administration Law of the People's Republic of China
第63条
[4] Taxpayers who forge, alter, conceal, or unauthorizedly destroy account books or vouchers, overstate expenses or understate or omit income in account books, or refuse to declare or make false declarations after being notified by tax authorities, resulting in non-payment or underpayment of taxes, are guilty of tax evasion. For taxpayers who evade taxes, the tax authorities shall recover the unpaid or underpaid taxes and late fees, and impose a fine of 50% to five times the unpaid or underpaid taxes; if the act constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be pursued according to law.
[5] Article 64, Paragraph 1
[6] Taxpayers or withholding agents who fabricate false tax bases shall be ordered by the tax authorities to correct within a specified period and fined up to 50,000 yuan. Taxpayers who fail to file tax returns, resulting in non-payment or underpayment of taxes, shall have the unpaid or underpaid taxes and late fees recovered by the tax authorities, and be fined 50% to five times the unpaid or underpaid taxes.
Article 201 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China
If a taxpayer uses fraudulent means such as forging, altering, concealing, or destroying account books or vouchers without authorization, listing more expenses or not listing or understating income in the account books, refusing to declare after being notified by the tax authorities, or making false tax declarations, and fails to pay or underpays the tax payable, with the amount of tax evaded accounting for more than 10% but less than 30% of the tax payable and the amount of tax evaded being more than 10,000 yuan but less than 100,000 yuan, or if the taxpayer has been given two administrative penalties by the tax authorities for tax evasion and again evades tax, the taxpayer shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined not less than one time but not more than five times the amount of tax evaded; if the amount of tax evaded accounts for more than 30% of the tax payable and the amount of tax evaded is more than 100,000 yuan, the taxpayer shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined not less than one time but not more than five times the amount of tax evaded.
[1] The author's perspective
The author reminds taxpayers that before submitting materials, they must pay attention to the truthfulness and accuracy of the information they fill in. Once data errors are found, they should be corrected immediately, and they should not harbor a fluke mentality, thinking that minor discrepancies will not be detected or that the law cannot punish everyone. In the past, many people have tested the law, whether it was the once-popular star Fan Bingbing or the top live-streaming host Viya, none of them could escape legal sanctions. Now is the era of big data on the internet; the information filled in by taxpayers will be recorded and stored in the system. It may not be found today, but that does not mean it can be hidden forever.
According to the above legal provisions, once tax evasion is detected, not only must the tax be paid in full, but additional fines will also be imposed. In serious cases, criminal liability will be pursued according to the law. Therefore, do not take shortcuts or falsely report amounts; otherwise, what awaits you can only be late fees, fines, or even criminal detention or fixed-term imprisonment with fines, and the result will certainly outweigh the gains.
