More than 45,000 taxpayers in China have been found in default on a combined tax payment of 5 billion yuan, about 604.59 million US dollars, between January and April.

About 1.7 billion yuan in back taxes have been paid since the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) started making public announcements about defaulters on Jan. 1.

The announcement, the first of its kind in China, was made in line with an official method on the management of back taxes, which entitled SAT and its branch offices to regularly announce information on overdue taxes through public media such as radio, television, newspaper, magazines and Internet.

Although nearly 2,000 defaulters have paid back their overdue taxes in full, sources with the SAT said that cleaning up back taxes was still an arduous task as some taxpayers were simply insolvent while some have even run away.

To prevent the occurrence of back taxes, Chinese taxation authorities have decided to strengthen the evaluation of taxpayers' financial status and make better use of compulsive measures.

Source: Xinhua