改革开放以来,中国居民收入差距呈现日益扩大的趋势,关于收入分配改革的呼声也日益高涨。最终收入分配效应由初次分配和再分配两个环节决定。在再分配环节,政府的主要政策手段之一是征收具有累进性的个人所得税。在很多发达国家,个人所得税在缩小收入分配差距上都发挥了重要作用。根据Wagstaff的计算,12个OECD国家的税前和税后收入基尼系数平均为0.329和0.296,这显示个人所得税使基尼系数平均缩小了3.3个百分点。 Since the reform and opening up, the income gap among Chinese residents has been on an increasing trend, and the voice of the income distribution reform has also been on the rise. The final income distribution effect is determined by the initial distribution and redistribution. In the redistribution process, one of the government’s major policy instruments is to levy a progressive personal income tax. In many developed countries, personal income tax has played an important role in narrowing the income distribution gap. According to Wagstaff’s calculations, the average Gini coefficient of pre-tax and post-tax income for 12 OECD countries is 0.329 and 0.296, which shows that personal income tax has reduced the Gini coefficient by an average of 3.3 percentage points.