The taxpaying tendencies of people in China are being incorporated into a new social credit system, The Beijing News reported Thursday.

According to a joint statement last week from the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Taxation Administration, an individual’s taxpaying records and tax-related offences now affect their personal scores in a tax-specific database introduced at the beginning of this year — and this score in turn affects their overall social credit rating. People’s tax information is also being added to a “nationwide credit data-sharing platform,” the statement said.

Taxpayers with good records may be rewarded with special certificates or practical perks such as access to express lanes. Those with tainted records — such as tax evaders, fraudsters, or identity thieves — may be warned or even blacklisted and subjected to unspecified “administrative penalties,” depending on the severity of their financial crimes.

Since it was introduced in 2014, China’s social credit system has been described by Xin Dai, an academic who authored an award-winning paper on the subject, as a “hodgepodge of public administration and legal reform initiatives.” This week, China unveiled plans to roll out a social credit system for corporations, which could potentially apply lower tax rates to companies with higher scores and sanctions to those with lower scores. (Image: VCG)