To Boost Tax Take, China Offers Rewards On 'Happy Draw'
Her braces sparkling against bright television studio lights, Pu Jian watched a small ball bounce between numbers on a roulette-like wheel. The 28-year-old was hoping for a bonanza on the "Happy Draw" show.
Directing the silly stunts, loud music and flashing lights were top officials of the Shanghai tax bureau. The contestants were all people who asked for receipts when they made a purchase at a store -- helping tax authorities build a paper trail in this cash-based society.
"Happy Draw" is one example of how China is trying to boost its tax proceeds -- a crucial step to modernizing its economy. Like many emerging economies, China doesn't collect taxes very effectively. It has been easy for small businesses to hide how much they're taking in and evade taxes.
That's important because most of China's $318 billion in national tax revenue last year came from business taxes -- the reverse of the U.S., where the government collected 83% of its revenue last year in the form of personal income taxes. The average Chinese paid just $16 in income tax in 2004.
To help figure out how much revenue restaurants, clothing shops and other small merchants are really making, China is counting on the nation's consumers. It is encouraging them to ask for an official receipt -- known as a "fa-piao" -- whenever they buy something.
The system works like this: Businesses need to buy books of official receipts, each of which has a portion for the customer and a stub retained by the merchant. If asked, the merchant must supply the customer with a receipt. Authorities keep track of which receipt books a business has, and they can check any time how many stubs are in the books. The more stubs, the more the business has sold. It's not a foolproof measure of sales, since many customers don't ask for a receipt, but it gives officials a hint of what a business's true revenues are -- and whether it might be evading taxes.
The key to the system is getting consumers to play along and ask for their receipt. That's why authorities in 90 Chinese cities have turned the customer portion of some kinds of receipts into lottery tickets. In most cases, there's a single scratch-off part that offers the chance to win instant cash. Shanghai adds a second part for the customer that gives the opportunity to compete for big money on television.
"This is an important measure to encourage customers to demand invoices," says an official of the China Tax Bureau. The Beijing municipal tax bureau paid $4.8 million in awards last year while scooping up an additional $120 million in taxes, according to the central government, which shares in the take.
Pu Jian , center, holds a check after her win on the Shanghai tax bureau's 'Happy Draw' show.
Helping tax authorities is a low priority for some. Chen Lian, a Shanghai artist, was able to negotiate a 6% discount on his $4,300 wedding banquet last year by agreeing to pay cash and not request an official fa-piao from the caterer. Many people get discouraged when they repeatedly scratch their receipts and see the message "thank you," meaning they didn't win anything.
Another problem with the system is fake fa-piao. Business people can buy them from street-corner hawkers and continue to understate their revenue even while seeming to oblige customers who ask for a receipt.
But dutiful receipt collectors are thronging to "Happy Draw." At the studio taping of the show, the walls reverberated to whistling screams of "YEE-huh, YEE-huh." Audience members dressed in identical blue rugby shirts with gold collars. Everyone clutched a receipt. People had gotten onto the show by entering their receipt number and mobile-phone number on an official Web site.
Plucked to come forward, Ms. Pu was pitted against an eager car salesman and a retiree who said she had never won anything in her life. During introductions, each contestant was asked the same question: How was the winning receipt obtained? The car salesman answered that his was for a cheap lunch.
"Wow!" exclaimed the male host. "Can you believe, with the invoice for a 10 yuan bowl of noodles, you have a chance at 500,000 [yuan]?" His co-host bulged her eyes in apparent disbelief.
Some prizes went to the winners of a game of chance. When contestants pressed the lever of a box meant to resemble an old-fashioned TNT detonator, a number popped out showing the size of a cash award. Other times it was skill, of a certain kind. Ms. Pu and the others were given oversized red shoes and asked to skip across lighted floor panels. She did it in the fewest steps and moved to the final round.
To keep the festivities honest, a dour government auditor stood in a corner in a crisp tan uniform, complete with golden shoulder crests.
When the program was aired the following week, it included commercials between the game-show action pressing the government's message about fa-piao. A commercial in the style of a documentary, shot in black and white, purported to show a secretary winning $600 from a receipt after a company dinner. A colorful cartoon showed an apartment's walls cracking and a chandelier falling from the ceiling just as the construction workers who had done the shoddy work headed home with their cash. The message: Insist on an official receipt, so you can track down such devious businesspeople.
Ms. Pu moved into the final round for a turn at the glittery "Happy Draw" roulette wheel. The small egg-like ball bounced wildly between the numbers. Finally it settled at 250,000 yuan -- about $30,000. Ms. Pu, who sells coated steel for a living, threw her head back and let her braces shine though in a triumphant smile. A cannon boomed. Confetti showered from the ceiling. Mr. Pu was handed an oversized check, tax-free.
中国鼓励消费者索要发票出新招
在一个摇奖电视节目录制现场，28岁的浦剑（音译）两眼紧紧盯著在轮盘数字间跳跃的一个小球，满心希望能赢得一大笔奖金。
主持这场摇奖的是上海税务局的最高官员，而参与者都是在商店购物时索要了发票的普通民众。消费者索要发票的行为有助于中国税务当局在这个现金为主要交易手段的社会中建立票据跟踪体系。
发票摇奖是中国政府努力提高税款收入的举措之一。和许多新兴经济体一样，中国的税款征收缺乏效率，小企业很容易就能掩盖实际收入、偷税漏税。
鉴于去年中国3,180亿美元的税收收入中大部分来自企业税、人均缴纳个人所得税仅16美元，加强企业税款征收具有非常重要的意义。美国的情况正好相反，去年美国83%的税收收入来自个人所得税。
为了掌握餐馆、服装店和其他小商铺的实际收入情况，中国政府鼓励消费者在购买商品后索要正式发票。
有奖发票体系的运作方式如下：由企业购买正式发票本，如果消费者索要发票，企业就必须提供发票，自己保留发票存根。税务当局会保留企业发票本的数据，随时核查发票本的存根数量。存根越多，销售额就越高。虽然这不是衡量销售额万无一失的指标，因为许多消费者不会索要发票，但还是能让税务官员对一家企业的真实收入有所了解，并粗略判断是否有偷税漏税行为。
有奖发票体系能否有效，关键在于消费者能否积极索要发票。因此，中国有90个城市的税务当局都将发票变成了某种形式的彩票。一般有奖发票上都有一处银膜覆盖、可刮开的地方，如中奖可兑现现金。在上海，税务当局又增加了一个环节，消费者还可以有机会参加大额的电视抽奖。
“这是鼓励消费者索要发票的重要措施，”中国国家税务总局的一位官员表示。北京市税务局去年支付了480万美元的奖额，税收收入则增加了1.20亿美元。
除了抽奖，中国在改善税款征收方面还做了很多事情。中国政府在声势浩大的打击偷税漏税行动中，拘捕了一些音乐和电影明星。政府还鼓励威士(Visa)和万事达(MasterCard)扩大在华业务，因为信用卡支付会留下资金转移的书面痕迹。目前，每两个中国人就持有一张信用卡或借记卡。
中国政府还通过衡量水电消费水平，找到那些生活水平明显高于公布收入的人们。但中国政府似乎回避了监督豪华轿车登记这一在其他国家通行的做法，可能是担心这会触及到一些政治权贵。
另外，一些消费者对于帮助税务机关征收税款也没有多少兴趣。上海艺术家陈连（音译）去年为4,300美元的婚宴赢得了6%的折扣，条件是以现金支付，不索取发票。许多人在多次刮开发票覆膜、看到“谢谢你”（即没有中奖）这样的字样后，索要发票的热情自然也会下降。
有奖发票体系的另一个问题是假发票。商人们可以从街角的小贩或网上买到假发票，这样的话，即使消费者索要发票，他们也能继续低报收入。
但在发票摇奖节目录制现场，参与者情绪高昂。他们人手一张发票，身著统一的蓝色服装振臂高呼。民众可以通过在官方网站上输入发票号码和手机号码赢得到现场参加节目的机会。
当摇奖节目隔周播出时，会加入推广有奖发票的一些广告，总而言之就是告诉你“索要发票，可以监督奸商”。
浦剑进入了摇奖的最后一轮，鸡蛋般大小的小球在各个数字间疯狂地跳动，最终停在了人民币25万元（合30,000美元）的地方。镀层钢板销售人员浦剑在五彩纸屑中接过了一张免税的、大大的支票。
