Recently, the internet has been flooded with various sensational and absurd rumors about the "Golden Tax Phase IV", falsely stating how the "Golden Tax Phase IV" should target high-income people in order to win high traffic and achieve the purpose of promoting and selling a certain product. However, in fact, there is no official document specifying the launch time and functions of the "Golden Tax Phase IV". We can only get a glimpse of its construction progress and functions from the news released by the General Administration about the "Golden Tax Phase IV". Here, the author collates and summarizes the information about the "Golden Tax Phase IV" that has been confirmed by the State Administration of Taxation, in order to restore the true identity of the "Golden Tax Phase IV" to the readers.

1、 "Golden Tax Phase IV" didn't come

The reason why the "Golden Tax Phase IV" has aroused heated discussion is that Wang Jun, the Director of the General Administration, made a speech at the third "the Belt and Road" Tax Collection and Management Cooperation Forum on September 22. Wang Jun mentioned that "the Chinese tax authorities are developing the" Golden Tax Phase IV "(smart tax), which will be completed by the end of this year. So, is the "Golden Tax Phase IV" really coming? In fact, the official level has never specified the online time of the "Golden Tax Phase IV". However, the phrase "Four phases of the golden tax, here comes" has appeared many times in these two years.

In the past two years, Director Wang Jun has repeatedly mentioned and elaborated on the "Four Issues of the Golden Tax" in various conferences or publications. Through studying Director Wang Jun's speeches and publications in the past two years, the author has extracted information about the development progress and online time of the "Golden Tax Phase IV" to share with readers.

（1） In 2021, the fourth phase of the Golden Tax was included in the key work and the top-level design was completed

1. "Golden Tax Phase IV" construction is listed as the "key work" of the tax system

"The fourth phase of the golden tax" was first proposed at the national level on December 31, 2020. In his New Year's speech in 2021, Director Wang Jun of the General Administration mentioned that "2021 is a year of special importance in China's modernization process,... and efforts are being made to promote various tax reforms and the construction of the fourth phase of the golden tax". "

The second time it was mentioned was when Director Wang Jun of the General Administration visited the Special Office of the General Administration in Beijing in early March 2021 for research, and when giving instructions on the work of the Special Office, he mentioned, "We need to further improve the system design,... to play a protective role in the electronic reform of special tickets and the construction of the" Golden Tax Phase IV ", and better serve the tax modernization construction in the new development stage."

On March 26, 2021, the State Administration of Taxation issued the "Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on Deepening the Study and Implementation of the" Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Collection and Management ", which emphasized that" key work such as the construction of the fourth phase of the Golden Tax System should be taken as an important measure to implement the "Opinions"

On September 30, 2021, Director Wang Jun mentioned at the study (expansion) meeting of the theoretical learning center group of the Party Committee, "We should pay close attention to the implementation, closely combine the implementation of the Outline with the implementation of the Opinions, closely combine the construction of the fourth phase of the Golden Tax, closely combine the current key work, and reflect the spirit and requirements of the rule of law in tax work."

It can be seen that before November 2021, the State Administration did not provide an introduction to the functions and development progress of the "Golden Tax Phase IV", but only mentioned in several speeches that the construction of the "Golden Tax Phase IV" had been regarded as a "key work".

2. "Golden Tax Phase IV" completed top-level design

On November 16-17, 2021, Director Wang Jun attended the 50th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Tax Management and Research Organization and gave a keynote speech, explaining the objectives of the "Golden Tax Phase IV".
On December 31, 2021, in his New Year's speech, Director Wang Jun of the General Administration mentioned in his work summary for 2021 that "scientifically grasp the development trend of tax collection and management methods from" tax collection "to" tax declaration "to" tax calculation ", carefully plan a smart tax blueprint, and form a comprehensive top-level design for the construction of the fourth phase of the Golden Tax."

As can be seen, in two speeches at the end of 2021, Director Wang Jun added a description of the "Golden Tax Phase IV", clarified some relevant concepts related to the "Golden Tax Phase IV", and made public for the first time the progress of the "Golden Tax Phase IV has completed the top-level design".

（2） In 2022, the fourth phase of Golden Tax is expected to complete "development"

  "In combination with the implementation of the Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Collection and Management issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the People's Republic of China, we should adhere to the principle of linkage between everything and seeking progress while maintaining stability, basically complete the construction of the fourth phase of the technical framework and main application of the Golden Tax, synchronously promote the reform of tax business, promote the comprehensive integration of performance management, digital personnel and responsibility systems, and internal control platforms, and promote the digital transformation of tax collection and management in China to rank among the international tax departments." " "Combining the implementation of the special work of" learning to inspect and reform "with key tasks such as accepting and cooperating with the central inspection, implementing the new combined tax and fee support policy, deepening the reform of tax collection and management, and promoting the construction of the fourth phase of the golden tax system,..."

In August 2022,   "We will continue to improve the fourth phase of the Golden Tax technical framework, strengthen the construction of main applications, effectively improve the modernization level of tax collection and management, and provide solid support for improving the effectiveness of tax services in national governance."

On September 22, 2022, Director Wang Jun mentioned in his speech at the Third "the Belt and Road" Tax Collection and Management Cooperation Forum that "the Chinese tax authorities are developing the" Golden Tax Phase IV "(Smart Tax), which will be basically completed by the end of this year."

In his speech on September 22nd, Director Wang Jun of the General Administration used the term "basically completed the development". As we all know, when a system goes online, it must complete comprehensive development and undergo multiple tests and adjustments to pass the final acceptance. It can be predicted that the "Golden Tax Phase IV" will not be put into operation in the next few months, and rumors about the "Golden Tax Phase IV really coming" will not hold water.

2、 "Golden Tax Phase IV" is a system

Under the impact of numerous marketing articles, the "Golden Tax Phase IV" has already been characterized by many people as "a raging beast", and its true identity function has been blurred. But actually? From the development process of the gold tax system and the article "Smart Tax: Past, Present, and Future" published on the official website of the State Administration of Taxation, it is not difficult to see that the real body of the "Gold Tax Phase IV" is a "smart tax" system.

（1） Evolution of the Gold Tax System

After the tax sharing reform in 1994, China started the construction of the Golden Tax Project. Among them, the first phase of Golden Tax focuses on VAT special invoices, applies the VAT special invoice cross audit system, and starts the era of "managing taxes by invoices"; Golden Tax Phase II focuses on value-added tax invoice invoicing, certification, tax declaration, and audit, and implements a full chain regulatory system; The third phase of Golden Tax aims to build a new tax collection and management system oriented towards the main business, workflow, and job responsibilities of tax collection and management. Therefore, the Golden Tax Project is already an information system that covers all types of taxes, supports online business operations by tax personnel, and provides taxpayers with tax related matters. It can be said that the Golden Tax Phase III is also strong enough.

In March 2021, the Central Office and the State Office issued the Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Collection and Management, confirming that "smart tax" will become the direction of further deepening the reform of tax collection and management, thereby opening the prelude to the top-level design and development of the fourth phase of the Golden Tax. Compared to the previous three periods, the fourth period of the Golden Tax presents the following characteristics:

1. The first phase of the Golden Tax focuses on the verification of the authenticity of VAT invoices, while the second phase of the Golden Tax focuses on the "point to line" management of the issuance, declaration, and review of VAT special invoices, while the third phase of the Golden Tax focuses on the "line to area" management, building a new pattern of tax collection and management for all taxes, all links, and all institutions. The fourth phase of the golden tax in the new development stage aims to build multiple information sharing among government departments, financial institutions, taxpayers, and tax departments, and achieve multi-dimensional, comprehensive, and full-process tax co governance of tax risks.

2. The traditional working mechanism relies more on taxpayers' "invoices" or "return forms" and other declaration data. The fourth phase of the Golden Tax is based on data driven, focusing on promoting the multi-channel capture and flow of tax data, thereby intelligently sensing law enforcement, service, and regulatory needs, and responding sensitively and automatically. The tax management method is transitioning from "extensive" to "intensive".
3. The main application body of traditional tax informatization is the tax department, so the golden tax project presents an obvious instrumental nature. The information flow of tax collection and payment relationship is one-way, and the tax department seeks to improve the efficiency of tax collection and management more. The fourth phase of the Golden Tax focuses on taxpayers' contributions, and aims to significantly improve tax compliance and social satisfaction to build a smart tax, with its value returning to tax data interaction services.

（2） Functions of the "Golden Tax Phase IV" (Smart Tax)

From the article "Smart Tax: Past, Present, and Future" published on the official website of the State Administration of Taxation, it can be summarized that the functions of the "Four Issues of Golden Tax" (Smart Tax) are as follows:
1. Through intelligent collection and efficient management of tax data, the tax law enforcement process can be controlled, results can be evaluated, violations of discipline can be investigated, and responsibilities can be pursued. This will promote tax authorities to move from "managing tax by ticket" to "managing tax by number", and achieve accurate law enforcement and supervision.

2. Through intelligent collection and intelligent monitoring of tax data, taxpayers can achieve self monitoring, self identification, self response, and self prevention of tax risks, promote tax services from passive compliance to automatic compliance, and achieve legal tax payment and fine services.

3. Through intelligent collection and presentation of tax data, it is possible to achieve data co construction, data sharing, data collaboration, and data governance for other tax related parties such as finance, customs, market supervision, public security, and payment platforms. It is also possible to promote relevant government departments to provide tax related party information based on their statutory tax obligations, and achieve digital government and tax co governance.

In short, the function of the fourth phase of the Golden Tax, which is different from the third phase, is that the fourth phase can provide greater convenience for taxpayers, while also making it easier to identify tax violations to facilitate tax collection and management by tax authorities.

3、 "The four phases of golden tax" are not targeted at specific industries, fields, or groups of people

From the perspective of the strength and breadth of tax authorities' efforts to identify taxpayers' tax risks based on big data in the past two years, we have entered the "era of strict supervision" of taxation. Improving the level of tax collection, management, and compliance of taxpayers is an inevitable requirement for deepening tax management reform and improving tax governance capabilities. The "Golden Tax Phase IV" is only one of the tools, not the reason, to achieve this requirement. From the perspective of the purpose, top-level design, and functions of the construction of the fourth phase of the Golden Tax mentioned above, after the fourth phase of the Golden Tax went online, China's tax collection and management has shifted from "controlling taxes by tickets" to "managing taxes by numbers", which is a requirement for the overall tax compliance of taxpayers, rather than a specific industry, field, or population.
The "Golden Tax Phase IV" is not "unfriendly" to a specific industry, field, or population, but "unfriendly" to tax related violations in various industries. Rather than taking risks and seeking solutions, taxpayers might as well do a good job of tax compliance from now on. For example, for enterprises, it is possible to complete the construction of a tax compliance system as soon as possible and establish a complete financial and tax system; Conduct regular tax self inspection and timely identify tax risks; Equipped with specialized tax and legal departments to do a good job in daily risk control. Taxpayers should apply their own compliance to adapt to the upcoming era of "four golden tax periods" to promote the modernization of the national tax governance system and governance capabilities.

summary

Many people's panic and anxiety about the four words "Golden Tax Phase IV" stems from the deliberate inculcation of incorrect information by marketers and the lack of a more detailed introduction to the Golden Tax Phase IV at the official level. By sorting out the only information on the "Golden Tax Phase IV" on the website of the State Administration of Taxation, the author hopes to uncover the mystery of the "Golden Tax Phase IV" for readers and help them find a proper perspective to understand the "Golden Tax Phase IV".