10 measures to facilitate tax-related services

The State Taxation Administration (STA) recently rolled out 10 new measures to provide convenience for tax payment in order to better serve taxpayers.

Tax Declaration

1. List management for tax preferences.

The STA has implemented list management of preferential tax policies. Except for specific circumstances that require approval and filing by tax authorities according to law, the taxpayers can refer to the List of Tax Incentives released by the STA, decide whether they enjoy the preferences and declare them themselves, keeping the relevant data for examination.

2. Enlarged paper-free declaration of export rebates.

The tax authorities of all provinces should enlarge the scope of paperless declaration of export tax rebates for export enterprises under Categories I, II and III, on the basis of enterprises’ willingness.

3. Combined declaration of urban land use tax and real estate tax.

The STA has combined the urban land use and real estate tax return forms into one. The tax authorities of each province will unify the tax payment deadline of urban land use tax and real estate tax in order to reduce the taxpayer’s declaration times.

Tax-related Service

4. Strengthened information sharing among departments.

The tax authorities of each province should strengthen communication with market supervision and administration departments at the same level. When market entities register at the market supervision and administration department, its legal representative’s real name information will be shared by the tax authority so that there is no need to collect the information again.

5. Handle the request first, then complete the material.

When the taxpayer does not have complete tax material, as long as the basic conditions are met, the main application materials are complete and do not affect the verification, the tax authority can deal with the taxpayer’s request first and collect the missing materials later after the taxpayer makes a written commitment to provide them.

6. Standardized and unified self-help tax service.

The STA has standardized the service function, application interface and operations management of the self-help tax terminals (machines) so that 90 percent of tax-related services can be done on them, step by step. Some regions will increase the number of self-help tax terminals (machines) by cooperating with financial institutions.

7. Pilot areas for tax-related proofs notification commitment system.

The STA has selected pilot areas to carry out the tax-related proofs notification commitment system. It informs the taxpayer in written form of the obligations to provide tax-related proofs and their contents. If the taxpayer's written commitment meets the conditions, standards and requirements of the notification, and the taxpayer acknowledges legal liability for false statements, the taxpayer can be freed from providing relevant supporting materials.

Invoice application

8. The taxpayer can unlock the tax-disk online.

The STA has optimized the value-added tax invoice management system and added the function of unlocking abnormal dead locks on the taxpayer terminal. The taxpayer can apply for unlocking online should the tax-disk be abnormally locked. The tax authorities shall verify and deal with the application in accordance with the prescribed procedures and unlock it after eliminating risks.

9. Providing reminder service of deductible invoice information.

The STA has optimized the platform for the selection and confirmation of VAT invoices, adding the reminder function of deductible invoice information for the current period in order to avoid loss to taxpayers caused by the situation that the current deductible invoices exceed the deductible period.

10. Optimizing the VAT invoice inspection platform.

The STA has optimized the function of the VAT invoice inspection platform. Taxpayers can inquire about VAT special invoices, VAT general invoices, motor vehicle sales unified invoices and used-car sales unified invoices within five years.

The platform integrates the login interfaces of the invoice inspection platform of tax authorities of each province, and thus the taxpayers can query the invoice information of each province through a unified entrance.

After implementation of the 10 new measures, the burden on taxpayers is expected to be reduced, the service pressure on tax-related staff at the grass-roots level to be eased, and the efficiency of tax-related service to be increased.