According to the website of the State Administration of Taxation, recently, the research group of China International Tax Research Association released the international comparative study on the annual settlement of China's individual income tax (hereinafter referred to as the report). Relying on good system design and fast and convenient information support, China's individual income tax shows certain international comparative advantages in five aspects. The report takes the national settlement and payment data in recent two years as the sample, and selects the United States This paper makes a comparative study on the individual income tax declaration data of six countries (regions) such as Canada, evaluates the actual effect of China's annual personal income tax settlement from an international perspective, and puts forward some suggestions on further improving China's annual personal income tax settlement system It is believed that China's second annual final settlement of comprehensive income tax of individual income tax has been successfully completed. The successful implementation of the two annual settlements is an important milestone in the reform of China's individual income tax system, especially the reform of natural person tax collection and management. —— China's comprehensive income advance payment system of individual income tax is highly accurate According to the declaration data disclosed by various countries, the report calculates the annual non compensation and non refund rate of various countries in recent years. In 2019 and 2020, the number of non refundable persons in China accounted for 42.96% and 35.20% respectively, with an average of 39.08%, much higher than the average non refundable rate of 7.26% in Australia in recent three years and 9.55% in Canada in 2019. The report believes that this shows the accuracy of China's withholding and prepayment system, In the process of annual settlement, a large number of taxpayers find that their withholding tax is completely consistent with the annual settlement tax payable. They only need simple confirmation to complete the declaration, which greatly reduces the tax burden. In addition, the survey data of tax rebate rate also support this view. The average annual tax refund rate of China's 2019-2020 annual average is 48.65%, lower than the 10 percentage points in the US and Japan, higher than the 6 percentage points in China's Taiwan region, which is 15 percentage points higher than that in the Hongkong Special Administrative Region of China. In view of the stable historical tax rebate rate of relevant countries (regions), the report It is believed that under China's current individual income tax system, the annual final tax rebate rate of individual income tax is at a reasonable level in the world, reflecting that China's individual income tax prepayment system is more accurate and efficient. While ensuring the balanced warehousing of tax revenue, the number of people who handle tax refund through annual final settlement is controlled within a reasonable range. —— China's tax rebate mechanism design highlights the concept of "taxpayer centered" The current withholding, prepayment and final settlement system effectively avoids the trouble of "paying more in advance and then refunding more", and makes most taxpayers accurately prepay taxes and enjoy reform dividends in advance in the withholding and prepayment link as far as possible. The average tax rebate per person in 2019 and 2020 is two yuan in the two year, which is much lower than the average tax rebate in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, China Hongkong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, China. From the perspective of tax system design, in order to improve the compliance of tax laws, some countries make tax rebate become the mainstream settlement method of annual settlement, which is certainly an effective measure. However, if the system design is unreasonable and inaccurate, it may also cause excessive tax rebate and occupy a large amount of taxpayers' funds, which may bring taxpayers a bad experience of "excessive tax burden". China adheres to the development concept of "people-centered", fully deduces and analyzes when designing the system, and controls the tax refund and tax refund rate within a reasonable range, which will help reduce the tax burden of taxpayers and enhance their sense of gain. —— China's electronic declaration rate is at a high level in the world China's electronic declaration rate is at a high level in the world. The application of individual income tax app in annual settlement is a milestone progress in the combination of "Internet +" and tax management. According to the "number of completed electronic declarations" published by the United States in each year, the electronic declaration rate of the United States can be calculated. The electronic declaration rate of personal income tax in the United States has gradually increased in recent six years, from 68.09% in 2015 to 87.50%, In 2020, the novel coronavirus pneumonia increased by nearly 15 percentage points (the new crown pneumonia epidemic is an important factor), and the average annual electronic reporting rate in six years was 73.51%. According to the two annual settlement data, China's electronic declaration rate is more than 95%, more than 20 percentage points higher than that of the United States. From the perspective of practical effect, the publicity of "individual income tax app" by the tax authorities has achieved good results. Most taxpayers use mobile app to declare and complete tax refund and supplement. Tax informatization has played a great role in the collection and management of individual income tax. —— The pre filling service of China's declaration form project is at a high level in the world The report examines the pre filling service level of each country by three sub dimensions: whether the obtained items are pre filled, pre filling rate and pre filling utilization rate. Data show that the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and other countries use pre filling services. Among the eight major income items in the United States, 6 items were pre filled, with a pre filling rate of 75%; Canada divides the income into 5 categories and 25 items, of which 18 items have been pre filled, with a pre filling rate of 72%; The Japanese declaration form lists 19 items of income in 10 categories, including 8 categories of comprehensive income, of which 2 categories are not pre filled, and the pre filling rate is 75%; Australia will score 10 items, of which 2 items are not pre filled, and the pre filling rate is 80%. China's final settlement in 2019 pre filled the wages, salaries, royalties and continuous labor remuneration under the comprehensive income, with a pre filling rate of 62.5%. In 2020, all four comprehensive income were pre filled, with a pre filling rate of 100%. From the perspective of pre filling utilization rate, China's final settlement in 2019 and 2020 reached 94.35% and 97.95% respectively, indicating that the pre filling projects are relatively accurate, and taxpayers generally use the pre filling services provided by the tax authorities. —— China's tax rebate time is faster than the international average The time of electronic tax refund declaration in the United States is 24 hours - 21 days, in some cases more than 21 days, and the paper declaration is 6 weeks - 8 weeks; The average tax refund time for electronic declaration in Canada is 2 weeks, and the tax refund time for paper declaration is 8 weeks. If you live outside Canada and submit a non resident individual income tax return, it takes up to 16 weeks to refund the tax; The duration of tax refund in Australia is 2 weeks for electronic declaration and 10 weeks for paper declaration. China's electronic declaration rate has exceeded 95%, and the corresponding tax rebate time is generally 3-14 days, with an average of 11.84 days, faster than the average level of the above countries. In short, after two annual settlements in 2019 and 2020, China's annual personal income tax settlement system has achieved sufficient data acquisition by third parties, simple declaration, high electronic declaration rate and reasonable tax rebate mechanism design in practice. The report also pointed out that although the implementation results of China's two annual personal income tax settlements exceeded expectations, there are still some areas that need to be worked out according to the requirements of the 14th five year plan and the opinions on further deepening the reform of tax collection and management issued by the central office and the state office. For example, the legislation on tax management of natural persons needs to be improved; How to optimize the setting of the maximum nominal tax rate and grade distance, so as to promote vertical equity; How to further improve the "one-man" information collection of natural persons. These problems need to be gradually improved, so as to achieve a new breakthrough in the quality and efficiency of tax service and collection and management. (outlook new era)