During his latest Internet chat with netizens, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that the government would raise the tax-free threshold for individual income tax this year. Wen made the above statement on Sunday when he had a two-hour long session hosted by Xinhuanet.com answering questions from netizens.
The current 2,000 yuan per month threshold was established in 2008. With the inflation going on and real estate price flying high, there are rancorous complaints among people about the current tax regime, which is believed both obsolete and unfair to the midium-and-low income people.
When being asked whether he had lost heart in checking roaring price of urban home prices, Wen said that he was still trying and confident that, with effort, the prices would return to a reasonable level. When talking about Liu Zhijun, the former Minister of Railway, who was recently arrested on corruption charges, Wen said Liu’s case attested to the government’s determination to punish corruption.
This is third consecutive year Wen has held an online chat in the run up to the ‘liang hui‘, the annual sessions of China’s legislative bodies.
- Peninsula Metropolitan News (Chinese): China plans to raise personal income tax threshold.