Govt to improve tax refund for exports

The Chinese government will roll out more measures to improve the tax refund policy for export of goods while shortening its process, in an effort to ease the burden on enterprises and secure the stable growth of foreign trade. It was decided at the State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on Oct 8.

It was also decided to promote shantytown renovation and improve living conditions for people struggling with housing difficulties.

According to the meeting, starting from Nov 1, the tax refund rate will be raised to 16 percent for goods that apply to the 15 percent and parts of goods that apply to the 13 percent. For goods that enjoy the 9 percent tax rebate, the rate will be increased to 10 percent or 13 percent, while the 5 percent rate will be lifted to 6 percent or 10 percent. Tax refund rates will remain unchanged for products that involve high energy consumption, heavy pollution, and are resource-dependent or in over-capacity.

The tax system will be further simplified, from seven grades to five.

To speed up the tax rebate, enterprises with good credit record will enjoy simplified procedures and short tax refund time, and paperless tax refund declaration will be fully implemented to improve efficiency of the review process.

Tax rebate service will be optimized by helping enterprises collect documents to declare the tax refund on time, and an online database with full coverage will be built.

Enterprises that provide integrated service for foreign trade will be encouraged to do the tax rebate for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Acts of fraudulent export tax rebates will not be tolerated.

By adopting these measures, the average time for tax refunds will be shortened from the current 13 working days to 10 by the end of this year.