In late July, the financial director of a listed manufacturing company in the east sat in his office, flipping through inspection notices.

He took stock of the changes in taxation over the past three years: the pressure of taxes and fees has visibly increased, and this year alone, the amount of various retroactive tax payments has exceeded 10 million yuan; The R&D expense deduction policy that once supported science and technology innovation enterprises is now undergoing comprehensive review; The tax havens and fiscal refund channels that were once prevalent in various regions continue to tighten; After the transfer of social security to tax collection, the verification of payment base has become increasingly strict year by year.

This financial manager's feeling is not an isolated case. Under the requirements of unified market construction, starting from 2024, various regions will clean up tax havens and standardize tax incentives; In the field of Internet, in 2025, the State Council issued the Provisions on the Submission of Tax related Information of Internet Platform Enterprises, and the State Administration of Taxation immediately issued a supporting announcement; In the field of overseas income, taxpayers' overseas income and offshore trusts are included in the scope of taxation; In terms of listed companies, in the first half of this year, nearly a hundred listed companies successively issued tax payment announcements

This ongoing change releases the message that tax administration is entering a new phase. Multiple interviewees mentioned that this stage is not a short-term phenomenon, but an inevitable trend towards the legalization and maturity of tax administration. Therefore, tax related entities need to further regulate their tax related behavior and not hold a "lucky mentality".

Professor Liu Zhikuo from the School of Economics at Fudan University summarized the core logic of tax collection and management at this stage as "collecting all receivables and enjoying all benefits".

There are technological reasons that have propelled tax collection and management into a new stage, such as big data and AI technology breaking down information barriers between enterprises, platforms, and banks, and the concept of "using data to manage taxes" has fallen from the forefront of tax collection and management; There are also objective requirements for economic development. At present, maintaining fiscal balance and promoting the construction of a unified large market are important tasks for economic development. In addition, the reshaping of international tax rules such as the global minimum tax has also provided an external environment for tax administration to enter a new stage.

Ye Yongqing, a partner at Anli Law Firm, said that the entry of tax collection and management into a new stage represents the improvement of collection and management capabilities and the progress of rule of law. However, in the short term, if the rules are not improved in a timely manner, it is also easy to trigger tax and enterprise disputes, which puts pressure on enterprises to rapidly increase compliance costs. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, the pressure is particularly prominent in the short term and needs to be included in the overall consideration of institutional construction.

Observation of a Financial Manager

Ten years ago, the financial work of this manufacturing company was far less strictly regulated than it is now.

At that time, tax law enforcement in various regions had some flexibility. The financial manager mentioned above still remembers that small taxes such as stamp duty are rarely retroactively recovered, and the audit standards for the qualification of high-tech enterprises and the collection of research and development expenses are relatively loose; Many places have introduced tax incentives and fiscal refund policies for attracting investment, which provides enterprises with flexibility in handling matters; At the practical level, it is a common phenomenon for employees to pay social security based on the minimum base.

Nowadays, this situation has completely changed with the establishment of digital invoices, gold tax systems, and cross departmental data sharing. The person in charge stated that every order, payment, and invoice of the enterprise will be synchronously entered into the tax database, and information will be exchanged and compared between the human resources and social security departments, banks, and market supervision departments. This causes slight deviations in contracts, funds, bills, and business data, and the system will automatically pop up risk warnings.

The change first appeared at the level of tax incentives provided by local governments. In the past, when companies applied for R&D additional deductions, they could smoothly enjoy the exemption once the materials were complete; Nowadays, the inspection traceability period is longer, and inspectors will check the R&D personnel's working hours, equipment allocation, and project approval materials item by item. Some companies have declared and enjoyed preferential treatment years ago, but after several years, it has been determined that the collection is not compliant. They not only need to reduce the deduction amount, but also need to pay taxes and late fees.

The social security sector is also under pressure. The above-mentioned person in charge told reporters that previously, the market generally declared the social security base according to the minimum wage standard, and cash payment of salaries was also quite common. But after the integration of personal income tax data and social security system, various regions are gradually implementing the consolidation of social security base. At present, more than 70% of employees need to participate in insurance according to their real wages, and the long-term goal will cover more than 90%.

The financial manager mentioned above believes that standardizing tax collection and management is a long-term direction of rule of law, and this will not change. The problem lies in the current cycle of weak domestic demand and continuous contraction of corporate profits, which amplifies the pressure brought by policy adjustments. Some manufacturing companies have been able to maintain stable revenue scales, but their profit margins have been declining year by year. On one hand, customers continue to lower prices, and raw material costs remain high. On the other hand, the rigidity of tax and social security expenditures brings certain practical pressures. The addition of rigid expenditures such as social security directly squeezes cash flow, and many companies have turned to outsourcing positions, flexible employment, and automated production line transformation to hedge against rising labor costs, "he said.

Changes in tax collection and management by the tax department

A self media entrepreneur also felt the pressure of stricter tax management. In July of this year, after receiving notification from the local tax department, he went to the tax inspection office where the company was registered to report his income and tax situation.

After arriving at the tax inspection department, he found that the entire office was extremely busy, with phone rings ringing one after another. Almost every staff member was constantly making phone calls, reminding taxpayers of risks and urging them to handle them as soon as possible. During the brief time he waited on the side, this scene repeated itself.

In order to avoid being identified as a shell company, he prepared a large amount of materials, including business situation explanations, business logic sorting, and revenue flow details, but the actual communication was surprisingly simple, less than ten minutes after the report.

The other party directly said, "Pay personal income tax." "How much do you pay?" he asked.

But the number reported by the other party was much lower than his estimate. As for the tax payment, he had expected that in recent years, the income settlement methods of major Internet platforms have become increasingly standardized, and the We Media in the platform is also facing increasingly strict tax compliance requirements.

The above-mentioned self media personnel analyzed afterwards that the tax department should have discovered the abnormal situation through big data screening. Some intermediary agencies provide invoicing services for many enterprises, which are usually concentrated in a certain industrial park. Once the tax system identifies a company with a large number of invoices in that area, it will automatically trigger a risk warning.

A person who has worked in the tax system for more than 20 years clearly feels the changes in the collection and management methods in recent years. He has undergone multiple reforms in the tax administration system. He believes that with the iteration of AI intelligence and information technology, tax administration has achieved a qualitative leap in data acquisition and intelligent analysis capabilities. In the past, verifying the matching degree of enterprise production capacity required manual comparison of multidimensional data such as electricity, labor, and materials, which consumed a lot of energy; Nowadays, through preset algorithm models, the system can automatically scan and generate risk suspicion points.

After years of construction, the digital invoice system, unified electronic tax bureau, and tax big data system have gradually improved. Tax collection and management have shifted from mainly relying on invoices, declaration forms, and manual experience to relying on data analysis, credit evaluation, and risk management; Shift from emphasizing post inspection to combining pre counseling, mid event reminders, and post investigation; From one-way management, shift towards equal emphasis on standardized law enforcement, precise supervision, and tax services.

The change in technology has also led to a shift in regulatory logic, from the previous "point by point" approach, which involved individual investigations and case extensions, to a "point by point" approach. Taking the deduction of R&D expenses as an example, the system can rely on more than ten core indicators to scan the entire data in batches, accurately target high-risk enterprises for key monitoring, and greatly enhance regulatory targeting.

The above-mentioned tax officials further explained that each tax administrator has jurisdiction over hundreds of tax paying enterprises, which cannot be managed under the traditional model and poses high risks to law enforcement and integrity. Nowadays, relying on the principle of "using data to manage taxes", the accuracy of data has been greatly improved. Administrators must "go with doubts" when checking accounts, and enterprises must "speak to the data" when responding to inspections. This mechanism of "no risk, no disturbance, early detection of risks" not only improves management efficiency, but also makes tax law enforcement more standardized and transparent.

The new technology has also brought about some differences in the perceived individual tax burden of enterprises.

In the first half of this year, he was called to the office by a local leader who asked why the company believed that "business is difficult to do" and the sense of gain was not strong while the invoicing volume reflecting business growth increased? Why is the tax growth rate still higher than the invoicing volume and electricity consumption?

His explanation is that although the economy is indeed growing and corporate revenue is also increasing, the pressure brought by the "explicit cost of compliance" is more direct. He gave an analogy: it's like driving a vehicle. In the past, there was a lack of monitoring, and drivers could answer and make phone calls freely, not fasten their seat belts, and cross the road; Under the supervision of big data, all behaviors must comply with regulations, and violations will result in deduction of points and fines, naturally leading to an increase in operating costs.

He said, "Essentially, tax compliance is no different from traffic law enforcement and public security prevention and control in the public security system, both reflecting the modernization of social governance

As for the increase in invoicing volume, he believes that it is partly due to the "crowding out effect" brought about by compliance. With the implementation of prize invoices and national subsidy policies, previously un invoiced income has been forcibly included in regulation, resulting in a contrast between the prosperity of book data and actual perception.

In his view, there is currently no significant adjustment in the tax system and tax rates, whether it is the "Tax Collection and Administration Law of the People's Republic of China" or the recently introduced "Value Added Tax Law of the People's Republic of China", most of which are minor adjustments. In recent years, what has truly undergone significant changes is at the level of tax administration and management. With the empowerment of big data and AI, tax supervision has shifted from "person to person" to "data governance", which is the core technological background for the increasing pain of enterprises.

Ye Yongqing summarized the characteristics of the new stage of tax collection and management: the overall tax collection and management system has shifted backwards, the collection and management of tax incentives has increased, and the risks of tax investigation and adjustment have significantly increased.

The Necessity of Compliance Era

In recent years, tax collection and management reforms have continued to deepen, and a series of reform documents have been issued one after another. The 2015 "Plan for Deepening the Reform of the National and Local Tax Collection and Management System" focuses on "cooperation between national and local taxes"; The 2018 Reform Plan for the National and Local Tax Administration System focuses on the "merger of national and local taxes" and smoothly transfers the responsibilities of collecting social insurance premiums and non tax revenue.

In recent years, the emphasis on tax collection and management has been further strengthened. The Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Administration in 2021 proposed to significantly improve tax compliance and social satisfaction, significantly reduce collection and payment costs, and fully leverage the fundamental, pillar, and safeguard role of taxation in national governance. The 2025 National Taxation Work Conference proposed to strengthen the implementation of structural tax reduction and fee reduction policies, allowing all entitled benefits to be enjoyed quickly, and strictly cracking down on fraudulent benefits.

The National Tax Work Conference in January 2026 repeatedly mentioned 'compliance'. For example, "focusing on maintaining the rule of law and fairness, strengthening compliance management as the main direction", "striving to promote significant improvement in compliance and compliance of taxpayers and payers", "highlighting the guidance of compliance and compliance, insisting on integrating compliance management into optimized services, and improving compliance consciousness through the convenience of compliance".

This compliance requirement is aimed at a variety of tax related entities: Internet platform companies, some emerging industries or high-tech industries that enjoy tax incentives, and also some natural persons who have income overseas - overseas trust, insurance and investment income in overseas capital markets, which have attracted much attention recently, are all in this range.

Multiple cases exposed by the tax department in 2025 show that the amount of unreported and unpaid taxes on overseas income is relatively large. Ye Yongqing said that China has implemented the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) since 2017, which signifies that tax authorities have the ability to systematically track residents' overseas financial account information.

Professor Liu Zhikuo from the School of Economics at Fudan University said that digitization is just a tool, and the underlying goal of tax collection and management is to promote the legalization and precision of tax governance, no longer relying on flexible adjustment of tax burden through manual discretion, and to unify the implementation of tax law standards.

Liu Zhikuo said, "This round of tax collection and management upgrade is a financial and tax supporting measure to build a unified national market. Previously, local financial and tax competition fragmented the market, and enterprises laid out in different places for policy dividends, distorting the efficiency of factor allocation. With the popularization of digital collection and management and the standardization of tax incentives, the law enforcement scale in various regions tends to be consistent, and the actual tax burden continues to converge towards the theoretical tax burden. This move alleviates the vicious competition in local financial and tax, allows enterprise competition to return to production efficiency, and consolidates the financial and tax system foundation of the unified large market

In Liu Zhikuo's view, the continuous expansion of the rigid gap between local finance and revenue has forced the tax department to strengthen tax source management and improve tax collection efficiency. Clearing up illegal tax havens and digging deep into existing tax sources have become necessary measures to stabilize fiscal revenue.

In addition, the changes in the international tax situation also force the iteration of tax collection and management. In recent years, the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) initiative has continued to advance, CRS、 The systems of electronic invoices and real-time declaration are constantly improving, and the information sharing and risk investigation capabilities among tax authorities of various countries are continuously enhancing. The space that used to rely on information and time differences to avoid risks is becoming smaller and smaller.

Ye Yongqing said that this change is not unique to China. Global economies are strengthening tax administration and tightening tax management, especially in the field of international taxation. Taking cross-border e-commerce as an example, countries are gradually phasing out their original preferential measures and shifting towards strict tax management. There are three main driving factors: the global economy is shifting from integration to fragmentation, and countries are shifting towards external tax power expansion under the demonstration effect of the United States; The economic downturn brings universal fiscal pressure, and governments around the world need tax revenue to offset imbalances in income and expenditure; The information transparency brought about by international tax information exchange mechanisms such as CRS (Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Tax Information) provides a foundation for strengthening tax management.

Liu Zhikuo also believes that strengthening tax supervision globally is a common trend, and the fundamental reason is that economic activities themselves have undergone changes. The rapid development of platform economy, cross-border transactions, digital assets, and flexible employment has made it increasingly difficult for traditional tax collection methods that rely on enterprise declaration and post inspection to cover real tax sources. On a deeper level, countries are facing pressure to increase fiscal spending. Compared to generally raising tax rates, it is easier to be accepted by society by plugging loopholes, reducing tax evasion, and improving the implementation rate of existing tax systems, "he said.

Tax Administration and Tax Rates

In response to the current trend of tax collection and management, the financial manager mentioned above has formulated a step-by-step strategy, mainly in the field of social security, to first ensure the minimum requirements, while outsourcing positions such as cleaning, security, drivers, and some non core orders, and suspending formal recruitment to avoid full social security payment obligations. However, it is difficult to find effective measures to deal with taxation.

Liu Zhikuo believes that the impact of compliance management on different enterprises is not the same. Standardizing tax collection and management for enterprises that operate in accordance with the law and declare truthfully will not change their statutory tax burden, but will help reduce the undue advantages of illegal operators; For enterprises with incomplete internal management and declaration errors, short-term investment is required to improve the system and internal control, but long-term investment can reduce the risks of tax arrears, penalties, and disputes; For enterprises that engage in illegal activities under the guise of long-term underpayment or "planning", the actual payment amount may increase, but this only brings the burden back to the legal level and is not a general increase in taxes.

In the view of many researchers, in the new stage of tax collection and management, adjustments should not only be made to the collection and management methods.

Ye Yongqing said that when corporate income and profits decline, even if the tax rate remains unchanged, the burden of taxes and social security will significantly increase. Therefore, the key is to adhere to the organization of income based on actual tax sources and not collect "excessive taxes and fees"; Less disturbance to low-risk enterprises and precise supervision of high-risk issues; Continue to implement targeted support policies, reduce the institutional transaction costs of enterprises through unified standards, automatic pre filling, and risk reminders. Under this model, the overall tax collection and management capabilities of the tax department have rapidly increased; however, on the other hand, grassroots work has shifted from self-management to risk response to central assigned matters, with overall rigidity strengthening and the tax collection and management system becoming more rule oriented. Communication and exchange between tax and enterprise parties are restricted, and the possibility of reaching consensus in areas with unclear rules has significantly decreased, "said Ye Yongqing.

Ye Yongqing put forward suggestions from the perspective of institutional support, believing that the digital tax management system has paved the technical path for the tax reform of "low tax rate, wide tax base, and strict collection and management". In the past, it was in an imbalanced state of "high nominal tax rates and low actual tax collection rates" for a long time. The tightening of tax collection and management is only the first step, and subsequent structural tax reduction measures are needed to hedge the pressure on enterprises. Value added tax, as the largest tax type, can directly reduce the cost of the entire industry chain by moderately optimizing the tax rate; Corporate income tax can be moderately reduced within the statutory range, while improving the rules for cost and expense deduction to minimize the risk of retroactive payment caused by tax differences.

The financial manager mentioned above gave a more intuitive appeal: they hope that policy adjustments can adapt to the current weak economic environment, temporarily postpone the pace of comprehensively consolidating the social security base, no longer trace the tax incentives that have been verified by the tax and technology departments in the past, avoid the impact of centralized clearing on the company's cash flow, and continue the idea of "cultivating tax sources".

(Author Du Tao)