According to the deployment of the State Council, from May 1, 2016, the real estate industry, construction industry, financial service industry and life service industry across the country have been included in the pilot program of the VAT reform. This signifies that the “VAT reform” pilot program launched in Shanghai in 2012 has entered the final stage, and the business tax, which has a history of more than a thousand years in China, will officially withdraw from the stage of history. This also indicates that the modern value-added tax system with Chinese characteristics in line with international standards has gradually entered the finalized stage. However, in recent discussions on corporate tax burden, some entrepreneurs used the United States as a frame of reference to question the effect of value-added tax or the "VAT reform", which shows that it is still very important to understand the characteristics of the value-added tax system, to understand the important historical significance of the "VAT reform", and to further promote the construction of the modern value-added tax system through reforms.
