Abstract: Based on the connotation of tax function and the evaluation criteria of tax operation efficiency, this paper constructs an evaluation index system of tax operation efficiency in line with China’s national conditions and conducts index calculation and convergence analysis by making use of the relevant data of China’s 31 provinces from 2007 to 2016. The findings show that, as for the tax operational efficiency index, although the development speed of tax operational efficiency in different regions is different, it shows an upward trend relatively; as for the regional distribution, taking the tax operational efficiency in 2016 as an example, the tax operation efficiency distribution is similar to the division of Eastern, Central and Western regions in China. In terms of regional disparity, the tax operation efficiency of the whole country and the Eastern region shows the trend of convergence first and then divergence, the western region tends to converge in fluctuation, and there is no obvious convergence or divergence in the central region. When the four factors such as education are introduced, it is found that there is conditional convergence among the regions. Therefore, in order to improve the tax operation efficiency and narrow the regional differences, it is suggested to keep the economy running smoothly, strengthen the residents’ education and tax publicity, promote high-level and high quality opening-up, perfect the policy guidance, and accelerate population and talent gathering.

Key words: tax function; tax operation efficiency; evaluation index system; principal component analysis