China’s finance minister vows fiscal taxation reforms

China’s Finance Minister Xie Xuren vowed to speed up fiscal and taxation reforms through moves like promoting property tax reforms. Xie said that the target is to build a multi-type, multi-link and multi-layer taxation system based on circular tax and income tax, as well as property tax, environmental resources tax and others, according to China’s (Xinhua) News Agency. Taxation should function better to optimize economic structures and transform development patterns through specific measures such as expanding value-added tax and reducing business tax, Xie said. Meanwhile, taxation should serve to adjust income distribution, especially with the help of promoting personal income tax reforms, Xie said. Xie stressed efforts to upgrade local taxation systems to add local governments’ income and to streamline distribution relations between governments at different levels.