As an important component of enterprise operating cost, tax burden affects enterprise operating results and investors' income to a large extent. In business practice, we will find that overseas or domestic listed enterprises often set up a very complex corporate structure and complex transaction mode. In addition to the complexity of enterprise structure and transaction mode, the types of enterprises are also diversified, setting up multi-enterprise types of shareholding platforms or business modules such as partnerships, limited companies, and joint stock companies. What is the intention of designing such a complex transaction model and adopting such a diverse business type? The reason why the design of such a complex transaction model is based on the consideration of the company's business on the one hand, and the consideration of the business tax burden on the other hand. At present, in the operation of domestic enterprises, most of the enterprise structure and business model are arbitrary, and there is no legal or tax design or arrangement. Whether it is enterprise structure or business model, operators should not only consider from the perspective of commercial feasibility and legal compliance, but also evaluate from the perspective of tax burden cost, in order to maximize business results and investor returns.

As far as the tax burden cost of enterprise business model is concerned, enterprise operators should focus on VAT, enterprise income tax and individual income tax. Taking the two business behaviors in the current business model innovation, price killing and free gift as an example, although price killing and free gift can obtain extraordinary passenger traffic, improper handling will greatly increase the tax burden cost and lead to tax risks. Instant price is essentially a kind of discount sales behavior, according to the corresponding regulations, the behavior does not involve the income tax issue at present, but it will touch the VAT issue. China's provisional Regulations on value-added Tax provide that "where the price of goods or taxable services sold by taxpayers is obviously low and there is no justifiable reason, the sales amount shall be verified by the competent tax authorities". Therefore, operators need to have legitimate reasons when determining the business behavior of price killing, otherwise the tax authorities will think that the pricing is unfair and adjust the price, and check and levy value-added tax. In this way, the commercial purpose can not be realized due to the increase of tax burden cost, and the tax risk will be caused.

In addition to the price of seconds to kill, there is a more common non-conventional business behavior "free gift". Compared with the instant price behavior, the free gift line is more complicated, not only involves the VAT problem, but also involves the personal income tax problem. China's provisional regulations on value-added Tax provide that "the goods produced by oneself, commissioned processing or purchased free of charge are presented to other units or individuals as sales, and VAT shall be levied." Therefore, although the enterprise has no income when it is given free of charge, it still needs to levy VAT at fair prices. In addition to value-added tax, in certain circumstances, free gifts will also involve personal income tax issues. According to the Individual Income Tax Law and relevant provisions, regarding the individual income tax issues related to enterprises and units giving cash, consumption vouchers, goods, services, etc. (referred to as gifts) to individuals by means of discounts, gifts, and lucky draws in marketing activities, the provisions are as follows:

(1) Where an enterprise presents gifts to individuals in the course of selling commodities (products) and providing services, individual income tax shall not be levied under any of the following circumstances: (1) The enterprise sells commodities (products) and provides services to individuals by way of price discounts or allowances; (2) The enterprise gives gifts while selling goods (products) and providing services to individuals; (3) Enterprises give feedback gifts to individuals whose cumulative consumption reaches a certain amount according to consumption points.

(2) Where an enterprise presents a gift to an individual under any of the following circumstances, the individual receiving the income shall pay individual income tax according to law, and the tax shall be withheld and paid by the enterprise giving the gift: (1) In the business promotion, advertising and other activities, the enterprise randomly presents gifts to individuals other than the unit, and the income from the gifts obtained by the individuals shall be subject to the individual income tax rate of 20% in full according to the item of "other income"; (2) Where an enterprise presents gifts to individuals other than its own unit during annual meetings, symposia, celebrations and other activities, the income from the gifts obtained by the individuals shall be subject to individual income tax at the full rate of 20% according to the items of "other income"; (3) The enterprise will give additional opportunities to customers whose cumulative consumption reaches a certain amount. The individual's winning income will be subject to the individual income tax rate of 20% in full according to the "accidental income" item. Therefore, business operators in the business model innovation or determine the business model, is free gift, or adjust the price of paid sales, business operators should be careful. If it is indeed to be given free of charge, it must be regarded as sales for tax treatment, but at this time if there is income is not a loss, the income can be discounted. If there is no input, you need to carefully evaluate the business model, because there will be no revenue in the case of VAT tax burden; At the same time, there will be complex personal income tax issues involved. In the current business practice, based on the differences in the current tax policies of different places, adjustments to specific business models within the scope of policies will also greatly affect the realization of business purposes. Therefore, it is very necessary for operators to evaluate the tax burden cost of the business model, optimize the business model within the scope of policies, and maximize the realization of business purposes when they innovate or determine the business model.

In addition to the assessment of the tax burden cost of business model operation, it is also necessary to evaluate the tax burden cost through which the business model is landed, because different business types will not only affect the tax burden cost of the business entity, but also greatly affect the tax burden cost of investors' income. Different types of enterprises, operating entities operating tax burden is different, the final income of investors is also different. As far as the types of enterprises are concerned, in the practice of business operation, the commonly used types of enterprises mainly include sole proprietorship, partnership and company. From the perspective of enterprise income tax, the company is the subject of tax payment within the scope of China's Enterprise Income Tax Law, and 25% enterprise income tax is applicable in principle, except for non-resident enterprises, high-tech enterprises, small and micro enterprises and other special cases; The dividend and bonus income obtained by individuals from the operation of a company shall be subject to a proportional tax rate of 20%. Therefore, as far as the operating income is concerned, the company's shareholders will involve the problem of double tax burden. However, the sole proprietorship and partnership are not the subject of tax payment within the scope of the Enterprise Income Tax Law, and the enterprise income tax is not levied. The sole proprietorship is the taxpayer of its investment, and the partnership is the taxpayer of its partner. At the same time, China's Individual Income Tax Law stipulates that the operating income of individual investors obtained from the operation of sole proprietorship enterprises and partnerships is subject to an excess progressive tax rate of 5%-35%. Therefore, investors in sole proprietorships or partners in partnerships are not subject to double taxation as far as operating income is concerned. Therefore, the same business model, the use of different types of enterprises, not only the operating body of the tax burden cost is not the same, investors income tax burden cost is also different. It should be emphasized here that although different business types have different operating tax burdens and investor income tax burdens, different business types are not good or bad. An advantage in tax costs does not mean an advantage in other areas such as law. A sole proprietorship enterprise is an enterprise established by an individual investor in accordance with the Sole proprietorship Enterprise Law; The investor shall bear unlimited joint and several liability for the debts of the enterprise. A partnership enterprise is an enterprise in which partners jointly invest, operate, share benefits and share risks according to the Partnership Enterprise Law. General partners have unlimited joint and several liability for the debts of the business, and limited partners have limited liability for the debts of the business, except for special limited partnerships. A company is an enterprise jointly funded and established by the shareholders in accordance with the Company Law and shares the benefits; The shareholder shall bear the risk of the company's debts within the limit of the subscription amount. From the legal point of view, the sole proprietorship investor shall be jointly and severally liable for the debts of the sole proprietorship enterprise; The general partner of the partnership shall be jointly and severally liable for the debts of the partnership, except the limited partner; The shareholders of a company shall bear limited liability for the debts of the company to the extent of the amount of capital contributed. In the specific business model, which type of enterprise is adopted depends on the business purpose. As far as the business entity is concerned, if the business purpose is to become bigger and stronger and enter the capital market, we recommend the type of company; If the purpose of the business is to operate on a small budget and profit comes first, we recommend considering a sole proprietorship or partnership. In addition, the platform companies based on the purpose of shareholding are different.

As Sir Tom Tomlin, a British MP, put it in the 1930s in Commissioner of Taxes v Lord Winston: "Every man has the right to arrange his own business. You can't force him to pay more tax if there are certain arrangements under the law that allow him to pay less tax." For example, the same is 1 million operating income, after the company pays the enterprise income, the shareholders' after-tax income is 600,000 yuan, while the partnership does not pay corporate income tax, and the operator's after-tax income after dividends is 715,500 yuan. The same business scale, different business models, different types of enterprises, the final benefits of operators are different. Therefore, when making business model innovation or determining business model, business operators should evaluate the business model from multiple perspectives such as business, law and tax burden, so as to make the business model arrangement that is most conducive to the realization of business purposes and maximize the realization of business purposes.