China refutes WB, says tax burden lower than global average

With a recent World Bank report ranking China 12th in the world in terms of total tax rate, a Chinese official has asserted that the country's macro tax burden was lower than the world average in the past few years.
Lou Jiwei, former finance minister and now head of the National Council for Social Security Fund, said the World Bank's micro methodology differed from common practices in terms of the scope of indicators and choices of data.
Lou said that using the World Bank's method to compare tax burdens among different countries did not make much sense, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The report jointly released late last year by the World Bank and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers records taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-size company must pay in a given year.
The report said China's total tax rate was 68 per cent in 2016, much higher than the world average of 40.6 per cent.
Lou said when comparing tax burdens among countries, a key figure was the macro tax burden rate, or the ratio of a country's tax revenue tonominal GDP.
In both 2014 and 2015, the macro tax burden in China stood at only around 30 per cent, lower than the world average, Lou said.

The Ministry of Finance said last month that more tax breaks and fewer administrative fees would be extended for businesses this year to lower costs for companies.