The reformation of tax returns for exportation of overseas e-commerce will be implemented very soon. The state council had recently released the “opinions”, in which this “opinions” is related to five major perspectives: customs clearance, quarantine, taxation, payments, and finance. In the content of the motion, it will continue to promote the policy of tax returns or exemptions in regard to value-added tax and consumption tax for exportations.
For those who participate in overseas e-commerce business, the reformation of taxation policies means that new opportunities will be opened up for them, the implementation of “no levy and no return” could provide tax relief for these e-commerce participants.
The “opinions” is already the fourth amendment in May of this year. Compare to the previous amendments, this “opinions” is much more concentrated in the field of overseas e-commerce. To further encourage and support the development of overseas e-commerce within our nation, the “opinions” has optimized the functions in these five perspectives: customs clearance and its monitory control, optimization of quarantine, regulation in export taxations, payment methods and its management for e-commerce, and e-commerce financing.
In regard to the optimization of quarantine, the “opinions” suggests that the export commercial goods of e-commerce should be declared, inspected, and released in unified orders. In terms of e-commerce payment settling solutions, the “opinions” suggests that reformation should be promoted step by step with caution, it is recommended to setup experimental payment platforms overseas, and to encourage domestic banking industries to expand their overseas payment settling business according to regulation, and ultimately to promote Renminbi to become a popular currency for overseas e-commerce payment settling.
Since the department of commerce has released the plan of universalizing internet usage on the 15th of May, the industry of overseas e-commerce has already received good news of amendments for the fourth time, including orders from the State councils, department of commerce and the Customs head office. These amendments means that more than 5000 e-commerce platform in our nation can be benefited from the policies within 1 to 2 years.
 
Tax reform
According to insiders from the e-commerce industry, this “opinions” that is released by the State council are designed specifically to hammer the cons of e-commerce developments, especially on the problems in export tax returns. Within the “opinions”, it has clearly stated, and regulated, that the current taxation policy for commercial consumption should be firmly continue to be adopted. The results from the “opinions” would encourage domestic consumptions, fair competitions, developments, and strengthen the management of export taxation.
 
no levy and no return
About the reformation of exportation in overseas e-commerce, the idea of “no levy and no return” may be adopted in the future. According to the export tax return regulation, goods that are files for export tax returns should be issued with a value-added tax invoice, in which the goods description of this invoice should be compatible with the export customs bill. For different commercial goods, it should have different tax rate, 13% and 17% in common situations, and the corresponding rate for export tax returns should be 11% and 13% accordingly.
       Liu Yan expressed that, a proper mechanism has not yet been developed between export taxation and its tax returns in our nation. “In fact, very few e-commerce business owners would declare and pay tax on their own motivation, since their suppliers are unwilling to pay value-added tax. Therefore, these suppliers are unable to provide value-added invoice to the e-commerce business owners. As a result, the e-commerce business owners are unable to file for tax returns since they do not have any value-added tax invoice. Moreover, it is not the e-commerce business owner’s preference to pay taxes, results in many “grey areas” in the industry.”
       The Customs head office attempts to put this situation to a rest by issuing two orders, “9610 sorting mode” and “1210 reservation mode”, and includes all border-entering mails as subjects of monitory control. Zhang Zhou Ping expresses that these two modes will kick in certain effects on monitory control. However, it is still not effective enough. If the state administration of taxation agrees upon tax-free after exportation of goods, simplifying the classification of products, and setup a systematic method for operation, there should be a significant improvement within current taxation policies.”
 
Announcement by the Taxation bureau: 7 situations that are allowable for extension in declaring export tax returns
       Representative from the Taxation bureau states that, from the beginning of this year, certain export enterprises missed the due date and failed to file for export tax returns (or exemption) due to being careless, hence facing the burden of unable to receive tax returns or being treated as domestic tax. On the other hand, a few government offices fail to provide certain materials for export tax return before filing due date, causing enterprises unable to file for export tax returns. In order to better support export enterprises to grow, the taxation bureau has announced that, if the enterprises encounter one or more of the following situation, this enterprise is allowed to extend its export tax return filing due date from 15th of April to 31st of July, 2015.
       Within the announcement, the “seven situations” should be as follow: Due to force majeure reasons such as natural disaster or social disturbance; the documents for tax returns are stolen or robbed, or lost through mailing; the documents for tax returns are seized by related government administration or offices for the purpose of review; documents for tax returns cannot be obtained due to economic dispute between buyer and seller; The enterprise is unable to submit materials for tax returns due to responsible staff that is in charge of handling the tax matter is suddenly deceased or heavily injured, or left his/her post without any notice to the enterprise; The enterprise requests for modification on their export customs bill, and the modification is not completed by the customs within the tax returns due date, causing customs bills are unavailable for submission.; When the government units fail to provide necessary documents for export tax return before the due date.   
       “Shifting powers to lower levels is another purpose of the announcement”, said by the representative. In order to delegate powers to the lower level to relief and simplify the workload of the State councils, this announcement will be enforced by any local tax bureau division that have the authority to engage in tax returns matter, instead of the provincial tax bureau alone. All approval works should be completed within 20 days from the acceptance of application by the taxpayer, in order to maintain convenience.
       The State council reminds all provincial tax bureaus that approval works should be monitored with caution, and performs any appropriate protocols if necessary, such as spot checking, in the hope to reduce any risks. 
Source of news: Shenzhen logistics and supply chain association