Here's my anecdote about taxes and finance in China after spending ~5 years working there. I have a number of friends there who are entrepreneurs/small busines

Here's my anecdote about taxes and finance in China after spending ~5 years working there. I have a number of friends there who are entrepreneurs/small business owners in China. Over the past few years, they have regularly been "asked" by local government to pre-pay the current year's taxes. One friend has now pre-paid three years' worth of tax after successive approaches by tax authorities. (The conversation went like this: "We need you to pre-pay this year's taxes." "But I already did." "Then you can pre-pay for the coming year.")