The capital's tax authorities have reported a 34 percent year-on-year increase in the number of self-declarations made by high-income-earners by the April 1 income tax filing deadline.

About 341,000 people who earn more than 120,000 yuan (US$16,000) a year filed this year, a report made available to China Daily said on Tuesday.

The requirement for high-income-earners to make declarations was introduced in 2006.

Those whose earnings exceeded the threshold came from 167 occupations, the report said. Forty-four percent of them worked in finance, computer software services and other state-controlled monopolies. Most of the others came from universities and the real estate sector.

Fifty-eight percent of Beijing residents made the declarations on their own rather than through agencies, indicating public understanding of the tax policies is improving, the report said.

The requirement for high-earners to declare their incomes has paved the way for a unitary personal income tax system, the report said.

Last year's figures for income tax declarations in Shanghai have not yet been released, the municipal administration of state taxes said.

Yao Hui, a software engineer in Shanghai who earns 140,000 yuan a year, said he welcomed the declaration policy but said the complexity of the procedure could intimidate people.

"It's difficult to report my exact income, because I'm not sure how many categories should be taken into account," he said.

"There needs to be a more standardized and complete information-collection process," he said.

(China Daily April 9, 2008)