The country is widening the scope for banning travel abroad for those who have overdue tax bills.

China has intensified moves to stop tax evasion by cutting the level at which citizens who have overdue taxes are banned from leaving the state.

People who have more than RMB100,000 ($14,600) in overdue taxes can be blocked from travelling outside China, down from the previous threshold of RMB1 million, Bloomberg reported the official Xinhua news agency as reporting yesterday. The report cited a new regulation, announced by the State Administration of Taxation in November, which takes effect at the start of January.

As part of wider moves to curb capital flight from China, authorities in the Communist Party-run state are getting tougher on alleged tax evasion. Already, the country has punished celebrities for concealing income, such as the case in October of film and television star Fan Bingbing.

China is also rolling out a new individual income tax system next year that widens lower income tax brackets and requires foreigners and Chinese with overseas wealth to pay more.

Chinese HNW individuals have been among some of the most enthusiastic applicants for citizenship-by-investment programmes, aka “golden visas”. A report more than four years ago by Barclays noted that a large percentage of China's HNW population wanted to leave. This publication has previously noted the incongruous fact that for all China's vaunted rapid growth in wealth, many of its richest citizens want to leave.

Separately, UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers have noted that China is setting the pace in driving growth in the world's billionaire population.