個稅扶弱功能的制度性障礙及其緩釋──由個稅手段在新冠肺炎疫後因應中的缺位切入

Institutional Obstacles to the Weak Function of Individual Taxes and Their Relief: Cut into the Gap in Response to the New Crown Pneumonia Epidemic by Means of Personal Tax

個人所得稅法雖被寄予「扶弱抑強」的功能預期，但其調節分配的主要作用場域在於合理調節過高收入，扶助弱勢群體的效用並不突出。新冠肺炎疫情發生之後，國家層面公布一系列稅收政策扶助弱勢群體，覆蓋多個稅種卻基本不涉及個人所得稅。這種狀況的發生並非偶然，而是有其深刻的制度原因。在納稅人無所得或所得未達寬免額的條件下，無論何種個稅優惠手段均無的放矢，貿然啟用還將誘致個稅逆向調節的不良後果。進言之，個人所得稅法出於技術層面考量而設定的納稅週期和納稅單位規則，削弱個人所得稅的「扶弱」功能，「負所得稅」制度的缺失則割裂個稅法律關係中「取」和「予」之間的聯繫，根本性地在個稅場域放棄「扶弱」這塊陣地。若說以年度為納稅週期和以個人為納稅單位的做法有其技術理性，逐步引入「負所得稅」的制度安排則可謂兼顧需要與可能。

Although the personal income tax law is expected to ’’support the weak and suppress the strong’’, its main field of adjustment and distribution lies in the reasonable adjustment of excessively high incomes, and the effectiveness of helping the disadvantaged groups is not outstanding. After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, a series of tax policies were introduced at the national level to help disadvantaged groups, covering multiple taxes but basically not involving individual taxes. The occurrence of this situation is not accidental, but has its profound institutional reasons. Under the condition that the taxpayer has no income or the income does not reach the allowance, no matter what kind of preferential tax means is not targeted, the rash use will also induce the adverse consequences of the reverse adjustment of the individual tax. In other words, the tax cycle and tax unit rules set by the Individual Income Tax Law based on technical considerations weaken the ’’help the weak’’ function of the individual tax, and the lack of the ’’negative income tax’’ system separates the tax legal relationship. The connection between levy and ’’serve’’ has fundamentally abandoned the position of ’’helping the weak’’ in the tax field. If the practice of taking the year as the tax payment cycle and taking the individual as the tax unit is technically rational, the gradual introduction of ’’negative income tax’’ system arrangements can be described as both needs and possibilities.