Rich Chinese skip taxes

A majority of high-income earners in China have not lodged tax returns as the deadline hits today, the South China Morning Post reported. A revised income tax law came into effect in 2006 and called for mainlanders and people living in China for more than a year to lodge personal income tax returns. Monday marked the deadline for the first year of the revised program but, according to the State Administration of Taxation, only 1.37 million people had filed returns as of last week. That is only 16-19% of the 6 to 7 million high-income earners estimated by authorities, the newspaper reported. At the end of 2005, mainland China had 75 million registered taxpayers but authorities had detailed information on only 20 million of them. The government has launched myriad media campaigns targeting taxpayers but most believe they don't have to report or that they are simply invisible to authorities.