Hebei Province in north China has stepped up scrutiny of highly paid people, including private company owners, lawyers and accountants, to ensure they pay their income taxes in full.
To date, the province has set up special files in nine categories with the names of more than 250,000 wealthy people.
The list also includes individual traders, contractors for companies and construction projects, university teachers, doctors, tour guides and hairdressers.
Tax evasion by the highly paid is a serious problem in the province, according to the provincial tax bureau. The local tax bureau of Baoding, a major city in Hebei, tracked more than 4,700 high-income earners involved in tax dodging in the first eight months of this year.
The province's personal income tax revenue in the first 10 months of this year rose by 21.24 percent to 1.95 billion yuan (US$230 million), according to the latest official figures.
Tax authorities across China have boosted anti-tax evasion efforts following the detainment of billionaire film actress Liu Xiaoqing on charges of tax dodging early this year.
The national capital Beijing, Zhejiang Province on the east coast and Guangzhou City, capital of Guangdong Province in the south, all known as "economic powerhouses" and "cradles of the wealthy," have also improved their management of individual income tax collection, with high-income earners the major target.
(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2002)
