{"id":4805,"date":"2013-12-23T06:56:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-23T05:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/?p=1487"},"modified":"2021-09-06T15:01:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T13:01:26","slug":"comment-current-tax-system-prc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/comment-current-tax-system-prc\/","title":{"rendered":"Comment on the current Tax System of the PRC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_9127.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1488\" title=\"ECOVIS Beijing\" alt=\"Tax System China Accountants Lawyers Tax Advisors Auditors\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_9127-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>By <\/i><a href=\"mailto:richard.hoffmann@ecovis.com\">Richard Hoffmann<\/a>, <a title=\"ECOVIS Beijing China\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/beijing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ECOVIS Beijing China<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>How would you summarize the current development of the Tax System in the PRC?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>China has built its tax system from the ground in the 1980\u2019s.\u00a0 Since then there have been major changes and developments in the tax system.\u00a0 The development of an international tax system is part of such changes.\u00a0 With the <a title=\"Important facts to know when sending employees to China \u2013 employee secondments and Individual Income Tax\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/important-facts-know-sending-employees-china-employee-secondments-individual-income-tax\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unification of the two income tax law systems<\/a> for both foreign investments and domestic companies, the Chinese government has put more effort into this area.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>New rules have been introduced to deal with corporate reorganizations, transfer pricing,\u00a0 thin-capitalization, controlled-foreign corporations, and treaty shopping. Major tax incentives available to foreign investors were redesigned. The Chinese tax authority has strengthened its enforcement efforts. \u00a0In view of the current trend, international companies should pay more attention to their <a title=\"Annual Compliance Review in China\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/annual-compliance-review-china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">compliance status<\/a> of their China investments.<b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>What are your overall thoughts and opinions on the recent news regarding China\u2019s plans to significantly improve and update its national tax system?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Under China\u2019s current tax system, its revenue comes mostly from the indirect tax sector (<a title=\"Brief Overview of China\u2019s VAT Reform and its Impact on Companies\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/brief-overview-of-chinas-vat-reform-and-its-impact-on-companies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">VAT, Business Tax<\/a>), nearly 70%, much larger than the income tax sector (<a title=\"Individual Income Tax in China. Part I: The Ground Rules\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/individual-income-tax-in-china-part-1-the-ground-rules\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Corporate Income Tax, Individual Income Tax<\/a>).\u00a0 China\u2019s overall reform in the finance and tax system is trying to slowly add more weight to income tax, rather than indirect tax, as more weight in the income tax sector will ease inequity in incomes.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve this goal, the Chinese government has\u00a0pushed a <a title=\"VAT Reform China: The Pilot Policy Extended of to Nationwide for Value-Added Tax (\u201cVAT\u201d) in Lieu of Business Tax (\u201cBT\u201d)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/vat-reform-china-the-pilot-policy-extended-of-to-nationwide-for-value-added-tax-vat-in-lieu-of-business-tax-bt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nationwide reform<\/a> in unifying its indirect tax system by converting the Business Tax system into the VAT system.\u00a0 Business Tax is something that only exists in China, where the tax becomes a sunk cost for companies and individuals, while for the VAT system, companies or individuals only pay tax on the part of the value they create.\u00a0 This is good news for companies, especially in the pilot service industries.\u00a0 The tax revenue has been reduced by billions of RMB due to this reform, which benefits companies.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, as Chinese government taps more into tax revenue from non-tax resident enterprises, a series of tax regulations and circulars has been drafted and published in regulating cross-border transactions, for both equity and commercial contracts.\u00a0 Overseas companies, especially those having commercial deals with Chinese parties should pay attention to the <a title=\"Annual Compliance Review in China\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/annual-compliance-review-china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">compliance requirements<\/a>.\u00a0 Otherwise, they will have difficulty receiving payments from their Chinese customer. For large equity deals, good planning is crucial.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the most appealing factors that China\u2019s international tax system currently provides and what are the biggest drawbacks?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>China currently has tax treaties or double tax arrangements with over 101 countries and regions.\u00a0 China has become an important player in the international tax regime.\u00a0 The Chinese government has worked closely with the OECD and other institutions, to absorb internationally accepted tax principles and rules into its national tax legislation.\u00a0 The tax regulation on merger and acquisition is an example for this.\u00a0 With this trend, international companies avoid difficulties in communication with the Chinese tax authorities, as they are using more common languages.<\/p>\n<p>However, international companies should take into consideration that they should use the same or similar vigilance or due care when looking at their Chinese companies\u2019 compliance status.\u00a0 It is hard to say whether the costs for compliance are really reduced or not.\u00a0 For example, the tax authority at the local level may not be able to understand or accept such very advanced tax principle or ideas.\u00a0 Sometimes the communication at the local level could be very time consuming and costly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mylanderpages.com\/ecovisbeijing\/ecovis-contact-form_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Contact us<\/a> for further information about Doing Business in China!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mylanderpages.com\/ecovisbeijing\/ecovis-contact-form_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1524\" alt=\"contactusbutton\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ecovis.com\/focus-china\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/contactusbutton1.png\" width=\"317\" height=\"79\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>If you liked this article, feel free to follow our social media sites for future updates or sign up for our <\/i><i><a href=\"http:\/\/ecovis.us5.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=19f9c1064fbb41bb9916a38df&amp;id=43f65a98fa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Newsletter<\/a><\/i><i>!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Richard Hoffmann, ECOVIS Beijing China How would you summarize the current development of the Tax System in the PRC? China has built its tax system from the ground in the 1980\u2019s.\u00a0 Since then there have been major changes and developments in the tax system.\u00a0 The development of an international tax system is part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[798,37,33],"tags":[59,60,32,56,312,103,167],"class_list":["post-4805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-miscellaneous","category-tax-policy","tag-annual-audit","tag-business-tax","tag-china","tag-enterprise-income-tax","tag-tax-reform","tag-vat","tag-vat-reform-china"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Comment on the current tax system of the PRC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"China has built its tax system from the ground in the 1980\u2019s. 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