As the saying goes, nothing is certain in this world except death and taxes. In modern society, neither individuals nor enterprises can avoid taxation. From abroad to home, tax collection and administration are becoming more and more strict, not only for enterprises, but also for individuals. Tax cost is an important part of enterprise operating cost. However, the level of tax cost affects the competitiveness of enterprises to a certain extent, and even affects the living space of enterprises in industries with low gross profit. In order to reduce costs, many enterprises usually reduce their tax costs through various ways in their operations. China's tax law system is complicated, and any careless tax-related behavior will lead to legal risks. Some enterprises in the operation of the tax law awareness is weak, the implementation of improper tax saving behavior, light will be investigated for administrative responsibility, heavy will be investigated for criminal responsibility, resulting in business in trouble. Tax evasion, tax evasion crime is one of the red lines of tax operators, operators need to pay close attention to. In today's era of big data, tax evasion will bring great legal risks to enterprises.

Tax evasion undermines the order of tax collection and management in our country, and is prohibited by law. Tax evaders will be investigated for administrative responsibility by tax inspection departments, and criminal responsibility by judicial departments such as public security. In practice, there are two types of tax evasion. The first type of tax evasion refers to the taxpayer's behavior of making false tax returns by means of deception or concealment, including but not limited to the establishment of false account books and accounting vouchers; Alter account books and accounting vouchers; Destroying and disposing of account books and accounting vouchers that are in use or have not expired without the approval of the tax authorities; To list more expenses in the books or not to list less income, etc. The second type of tax evasion is the behavior of taxpayers who do not declare tax to the tax authorities, which is mainly manifested as the legal entity that has received the industrial and commercial business license does not handle tax registration with the tax authorities; A legal entity that has gone through the tax registration process has business activities, but does not declare to the tax authorities or refuses to declare after being notified by the tax authorities. Only the above tax evasion is not enough to constitute a crime. In addition to tax evasion, the constituent elements of the crime of tax evasion also need to have a large amount of tax evasion, accounting for more than 10% of the tax payable, and the taxpayer's subjective intention, among which the larger amount refers to more than 50,000 yuan. According to the provisions of the Law on the Administration of Tax Collection of our country, a taxpayer who forges, alters, conceals or destroys without authorization account books or accounting vouchers, or lists more expenditures or less income in the account books, or refuses to declare or makes a false tax return after being notified by the tax authorities, and fails to pay or underpays the tax payable, is regarded as tax evasion. Where tax is evaded on a taxpayer, the tax authorities shall recover the amount of tax not paid or underpaid, the fine for late payment, and impose a fine of not less than 50 percent but not more than five times the amount of tax not paid or underpaid; If the case constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law. Where a withholding agent fails to pay or underpays the tax that has been withheld or collected by means mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the tax authorities shall recover the tax that has not been paid or underpaid, the fine for late payment, and impose a fine of not less than 50 percent but not more than five times the amount of tax that has not been paid or underpaid. If the case constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.

The so-called crime of tax evasion refers to the behavior of taxpayers who make false tax returns or do not declare tax returns by means of deception or concealment, and avoid paying a large amount of tax. The crime of tax evasion in the criminal law of our country is evolved from the crime of tax evasion. In 2009, the Criminal Law Amendment (VII), drawing on foreign experience, amended the "crime of tax evasion" to "crime of tax evasion", no longer using the word "tax evasion", and the crime of tax evasion became history. There are significant differences between the crime of tax evasion and the crime of tax evasion in the aspects of legislative ideas, legislative techniques and constitutive elements. In particular, the 2009 amendment to the crime of tax evasion, which provides for a special provision for first-time tax evasion offenders not to be criminally liable, is a major legislative advance. Because according to the provisions of the crime of tax evasion, an enterprise such as tax evasion reaches a certain amount, proportion, once found, regardless of whether the enterprise actively pays taxes and late fees, accept a fine, will be convicted. This will most likely lead to the sentencing of business operators, which will lead to the bankruptcy of enterprises, laid-off workers, and the failure of national tax collection. Obviously, this kind of treatment is not good for the country, society, enterprises and myself, and is not conducive to building a harmonious society. In 2009, the revised Criminal Law stipulates that taxpayers who evade paying taxes to the prescribed amount and proportion standards, although constituting a first offense of a crime, may not be investigated for criminal responsibility if they meet the following conditions: First, after the tax authorities have issued a notice of recovery according to law, they shall pay the tax payable and pay the late fee; Second, it has been punished by the tax authorities. The first condition is easy to understand, and it is necessary here to give a special explanation of the meaning of the second condition, "punished". During the deliberation of the draft Amendment (VII) to the Criminal Law, the Law Committee conducted a special study on the issue of whether a party to tax evasion can file an administrative lawsuit against the "administrative penalty" (fine decision) of the tax authority, and the committee unanimously concluded that: Since the amendment is a special provision for lenient treatment of tax evaders who have already committed crimes and should have been investigated for criminal responsibility, there is no question of whether the parties involved in tax evasion pay the taxes and late fees first, and then fight administrative litigation with the tax authorities on whether the so-called administrative fines are necessary or reasonable. Therefore, the "has been administratively punished" here not only means that the tax evader has received the administrative penalty (mainly administrative fine) decision of the tax authority, but more importantly, the tax evader himself has actively paid the fine and fully accepted the administrative penalty decision of the tax authority. This is an important criterion to judge whether a tax evader will repent for his criminal behavior. If the taxpayer who has already committed the crime of tax evasion refuses to actively cooperate with the tax authorities, the tax authorities shall transfer the case to the public security organs for filing and investigation into the criminal judicial procedure, and investigate the criminal responsibility of the parties. In addition, the taxpayer in the public security organs after filing and then pay the tax payable, pay late fees or accept administrative penalties, does not affect the investigation of criminal responsibility. Of course, China's criminal law stipulates that this special provision does not apply to the parties who have received criminal punishment for evading tax payment within five years or have been given two or more administrative penalties by tax authorities, nor does it apply to withholding agents.

The investigation and punishment of tax evasion involves public security organs and tax inspection departments. Before the amendment of the crime of tax evasion, the tax inspection department and the public security economic investigation department have the right to go to the enterprise to investigate the case of suspected tax evasion. The traditional view among Chinese people is that if the police go to an enterprise to investigate a crime, the enterprise has real problems. When it is not clear whether the reported tax evasion exists or constitutes a crime, the intervention and investigation of the public security organs will inevitably have a negative impact on the reputation, production and business activities of enterprises or individual operators. In view of the great negative effect of the crime of tax evasion, the revised crime of tax evasion has been modified accordingly, providing a special clause that the first offender of tax evasion will not be investigated for criminal responsibility if certain conditions are met. The Provisions on Standards for filing and prosecuting Criminal Cases under the jurisdiction of Public Security Organs (2) of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of Public Security further clearly stipulates the criminal filing circumstances of tax evasion, and clearly specifies that evasion of tax payment is suspected in one of the following three circumstances, should be filed and prosecuted: (1) A taxpayer who, by means of deception or concealment, makes a false tax return or fails to make a tax return, evading payment of taxes, the amount of which is more than 50,000 yuan and accounts for more than 10 percent of the total taxable amount of each tax category, fails to pay the tax payable in arrears, fails to pay late fines or fails to accept administrative penalties after the tax authorities have issued a notice to collect the tax according to law; (2) the taxpayer has received criminal punishment or been given administrative punishment twice or more by the tax authorities for evading payment of taxes within five years, and evaded payment of taxes, the amount of which is more than 50,000 yuan and accounts for more than 10 percent of the total taxable amount of each tax category; (3) where the withholding agent fails to pay or underpays the amount of tax withheld or collected by means of deception or concealment, and the amount is more than 50,000 yuan. According to this, the above three kinds of tax evasion should be criminalized, entered into criminal judicial procedures, and investigated by public security organs; Other acts of tax evasion shall be investigated and punished by the tax inspection department.

There are two standards in the criminal law of our country for sentencing the crime of tax evasion. According to the provisions of the Criminal Law and relevant judicial interpretations, a taxpayer who evades paying a relatively large amount of tax (generally referring to the amount of tax evaded exceeding 50,000 yuan) and accounts for more than 10 percent of the amount of tax payable shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also be fined; If the amount is huge and accounts for not less than 30 percent of the tax payable, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall also be fined. The person who commits the crime of tax evasion shall be sentenced according to the aforesaid standards. In addition, the subject of tax evasion crime in our country can be either a natural person or a unit. In the crime of unit tax evasion, our criminal law carries out double punishment system. The so-called double penalty system refers to that for unit crimes, the unit is fined, and the directly responsible persons in charge and other directly responsible persons are sentenced to penalties in accordance with the provisions of the crime of tax evasion. According to the corresponding provisions of China's criminal law, in the unit tax evasion crime, on the one hand, the unit will be fined, on the other hand, the unit directly responsible for the supervisor and other directly responsible persons will be sentenced to punishment, the specific responsible person's sentencing standard is: If the amount of tax evaded is relatively large (generally refers to the amount of tax evaded exceeding 50,000 yuan) and accounts for more than 10 percent of the amount of tax payable, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also be fined; If the amount is huge and accounts for not less than 30 percent of the tax payable, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall also be fined.