税收的本质是什么?这个问题似乎无需探讨,因为翻开我国的任何一本税收教科书都可以找到答案。即:税收是国家为实现其职能凭借政治权力对公民的强制的、无偿的征收。这个定义在传统的计划经济体制下没有错。但是,自从党的十四大明确提出建立社会主义市场经济体制,作为其中重要一环的税收领域在理论基础上也就应当借鉴西方税收理论中有益的部分。 从市场经济的角度,以国家和财政活动的根本目的的是为市场的基础性作用提供公共服务的观点来看,我国传统的税收理论的缺陷是明显的。即它只强调了国家可以凭借手中的权力强制性的征税,但是忽视了纳税人有对国家(即政府)制约的一面;强调了国家有对公民无偿征税的权力,却忽视了这是建立在国家必须为纳税人提供各种公共服务基础之上的一面。对此 What is the nature of taxation? It seems that this question does not need to be explored, since any tax textbook that opens in our country can find the answer. That is: Taxes are compulsory and unpaid levies on citizens by virtue of their political power in order to realize their functions. This definition is not wrong under the traditional planned economy. However, since the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China explicitly proposed the establishment of a socialist market economic system, the taxation field, as an important part of it, should draw lessons from the beneficial parts of western taxation theory on a theoretical basis. From the perspective of market economy, the defects of our country’s traditional taxation theory are obvious from the point of view of providing public services for the fundamental role of the market with the fundamental purpose of state and fiscal activities. That is, it only emphasizes the mandatory taxation of the state by virtue of the power in hand but ignores the taxpayer’s restriction on the state (that is, the government). It emphasizes that the state has the power to tax the citizens for free but neglects this Based on the state must provide taxpayers to provide all kinds of public services based on the side. This