中文摘要
The complexity of tax system design constitutes a core friction in policy transmission and profoundly affects firms' recognition of and responses to incentive signals. Focusing on the "dual-limit" design of the pre-tax deduction policy for business entertainment expenses, this paper uses National Tax Survey data and bunching analysis to examine how semantically complex tax policy design affects firms' cognitive decision-making. The results show that the relatively complex "dual-limit" policy design causes firms to make cognitively erroneous decisions: a large number of firms bunch their ratios of business entertainment expenses around the incorrect policy kink (5‰) rather than the actual policy kink (8.33‰). Dynamic effects show that firms gradually reduce the probability of making erroneous decisions over time, indicating the presence of policy learning. Small and medium-sized enterprises are more prone to policy misperceptions than large enterprises, while improving the provision of tax information and the quality of tax intermediary services helps mitigate firms' cognitive biases. In terms of economic consequences, firms that make cognitively erroneous decisions irrationally reduce their business entertainment expenditures, which in turn has a statistically significant negative effect on their profit levels. This study reveals the institutional friction generated by tax policy complexity at the micro level and provides empirical evidence for optimizing tax system design and enhancing the effectiveness of tax reduction policies.
Abstract
税制设计的复杂性构成了政策传导中的核心摩擦机制，会深刻影响企业对激励信号的识别与响应。本文以业务招待费税前扣除政策中的“双重限额”设计为研究对象，基于全国税收调查数据和群聚分析方法，考察语义复杂型的税收政策设计对企业认知决策的影响。研究发现，相对复杂的“双重限额”政策设计会导致企业做出错误认知决策，大量企业将业务招待费占比群聚在错误的政策断点（5‰）附近，而非真实的政策断点（8.33‰）附近。动态效应显示，企业会随时间推移逐步降低错误决策概率，说明企业存在政策学习效应。中小企业相较于大企业更易产生政策认知错误，而提升税务信息供给与纳税中介服务水平有助于缓解企业认知偏差。从经济后果看，做出错误认知决策的企业会非理性压缩业务招待费支出，进而对其利润水平产生显著负面影响。本研究揭示了税收政策复杂性在微观层面的制度摩擦机制，为优化税制设计和提升减税政策效能提供了经验证据。