The history of "separate collection" of the five social security items by the social security handling department and the tax department for a long time is coming to an end. The mobilization and deployment video conference on the transfer of responsibility for the collection and management of social insurance premiums and non tax income jointly held by the State Administration of Taxation and other five departments recently made it clear that since January 1, 2019, the tax department will uniformly collect all social insurance premiums and non tax income transferred first.

The benefits of the tax department's unified collection of social security are obvious: the unified collection of power and responsibility will make the collection of social security more standardized. The tax department can improve the efficiency of social insurance fund collection and management by taking advantage of its own wage information, enterprise invoices, tax inspection, tax security and other advantages, which helps to solve the loopholes in the payment of social insurance premiums in some enterprises before. Some enterprises do not provide social insurance for employees, or do not provide full social insurance for employees, which is expected to change; In the long run, the unification of social security fee collection will also lay the institutional foundation for the future national planning of basic pension of pension insurance.

However, the collection of social security by the tax authorities has also aroused the concern of many enterprises, especially SMEs. The unified tax collection of social insurance means that there will be no hiding place for enterprises to pay less or no social insurance premiums in the future. The payment of social insurance premiums in strict accordance with the rate and base will increase the employment costs of enterprises. It is obviously not advisable for enterprises to pay less or fail to pay social security, because this means that the legitimate rights and interests of workers are not effectively protected, and it is unfair for enterprises that pay social security honestly. However, objectively speaking, it is also a fact that the overall rate of social insurance in China is not low. After the unified collection of social security, how to implement it needs to consider the actual burden of enterprises.

For a long time, the society has high expectations for the reduction of social security fees, and even some enterprises and employees regard social security as a burden. A very important reason is that the internal incentive of the social security system is insufficient. Since 2016, China has implemented the policy of phased reduction of social insurance rates, which was originally intended to promote supply side structural reform, reduce enterprise costs, enhance enterprise vitality, and promote sustainable and healthy economic development. In the first half of this year, scores of social security fee reduction were released in many places. At the same time, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Notice on Continuing to Periodically Reduce the Social Insurance Rate, and decided to continue to postpone the implementation of the policy of periodically reducing the basic pension insurance rate of employees, which is about to expire.

No matter who collects the social security, the key is that enterprises and individuals have the ability and willingness to pay. It is better to let enterprises reduce the burden more and let employees get more cash. The executive meeting of the State Council held on August 30 decided to promote new measures to support the development of the real economy, and it is expected to reduce the tax burden of enterprises by more than 45 billion yuan in the whole year. The meeting required that all departments should take the initiative to take measures to reduce the burden of market entities, so that enterprises and the masses can feel it.

The unification of social security collection methods is closely linked with cost reduction, employment protection and people's livelihood promotion, which can be described as "pulling the whole body together". Faced with the dilemma of reducing enterprise costs and sustainable operation of social security funds, we need to "stabilize" the way of social security collection, comprehensively consider the impact of fund collection, the pressure of population aging on fund payment, and regional differences in fund income and expenditure. In the process of tax collection reform, it should also be carried out simultaneously with the policy supporting reforms such as the reduction of social security fees and the extension of payment years. In the specific collection, enterprises that have been in arrears for a long time and maliciously in social security fees are included in the management of social integrity publicity, warning enterprises to pay social security fees on time according to law. On the other hand, we should do a good job of "subtraction" in reducing the cost of enterprises, strictly implement the national policy of reducing the social insurance rate, and make sure that it should be reduced as much as possible. For enterprises with real difficulties in operation, preferential payment shall be given to enterprises to the greatest extent within the policy scope, and the collection intensity shall be gradually increased through reasonable transitional arrangements to give SMEs buffer time and space for survival and development.