Author: HACOS

China will unveil larger-scale tax cuts and tax exemptions for small and micro businesses, a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li decided on Jan 9, which will develop good relations between these businesses and stabilize economic growth and development.

国务院总理1月9日主持召开国务院常务会议，会议指出，发展好小微企业关系经济平稳运行和就业稳定。会议决定，对小微企业推出新的普惠性减税措施。

© Image | Xinhuanet

© Image | english.gov.cn

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First,the eligibility of small and low-profit businesses to benefit from preferential income tax will be significantly expanded. These businesses with an annual taxable income of less than 1 million yuan and between 1m to 3m yuan will be eligible to have their tax calculated based on 25 percent or 50 percent of their taxable income.

This is expected to reduce their tax burden to about 5 to 10 percent. The adjusted tax incentives are expected to cover 95 percent of corporate tax payers, 98 percent of which will be private businesses.

一是大幅放宽可享受所得税优惠的小型微利企业标准，对其年应纳税所得额不超过100万元、100万元到300万元的部分分别减按25%、50%计入应纳税所得额，使税负降至5%和10%。这一优惠将覆盖95%以上的纳税企业，其中98%为民营企业。

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Second, the VAT threshold on small-scale taxpayers will be raised from 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan of monthly sales.

二是对主要包括小微企业、个体工商户和其他个人的小规模纳税人，将增值税起征点由月销售额3万元提到10万元。

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Third, provincial-level governments will be given the authority to cut taxes up to 50 percent for small-scale VAT taxpayers under several local tax items, including resources tax, as well as education and local education surcharges.

三是允许各省（区、市）政府对增值税小规模纳税人，在50%幅度内减征资源税、城市维护建设税、印花税、城镇土地使用税、耕地占用税等地方税种及教育费附加等。

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Forth, The scope of tax incentives applied to investment in high-tech start-ups will be expanded to give more tax breaks to venture capital firms and angel investors investing in these businesses.

四是扩展投资初创科技型企业享受优惠政策的范围，使投向这类企业的创投企业和天使投资个人有更多税收优惠。

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Fifth, central government finance will provide stronger general transfer payment to local authorities to make up for possible funding gaps at local levels caused by large-scale tax and fee cuts.

五是为弥补因减税降费形成的地方财力缺口，中央财政将加大对地方一般性转移支付。

The above tax incentives will cover all taxes incurred since Jan 1, and will be effective for a tentative three years, which is estimated about 200 billion yuan tax cuts for small and micro businesses.

上述减税政策可追溯至今年1月1日，实施期限暂定三年，预计每年可再为小微企业减负约2000亿元。

It’s common for everyone to be requested to lower the invoice account by buyer. However, some countries have shared data with China to crack down under-invoicing.

© Image | GOOGLE

Pakistan

Not long ago, the economic and commercial counselor’s office of the Chinese embassy in Pakistan released such a message:

The data that China’s electronic data on Pakistan’s exports was received electronically through web-based customs (Weboc) connected with Chinese system,which pertained to the period July-September.

Customs officials are terming this a big breakthrough, but are very cautious to estimate how much this exchange of information will help in minimizing the evasion of taxes on tradable goods with China.

China and Pakistan will exchange export data once a quarter to combat low-price customs declaration.

© Image | DAWN

According to no.29 of 2018 announced by the general administration of customs of China. Since April 30, 2018, the “China-Pakistan origin electronic information exchange system” has been officially put into operation to transmit the electronic data of origin under the agreement in real time.

Philippines

The Philippines may have the same feelings with Pakistan.

In March 2018, the Philippine Customs and China Customs agreed to establish a data exchange system to facilitate the timely sharing of trade information and help the two countries to carry out anti-smuggling and anti-tax evasion activities.

© Image | SUNSTAR

The value recorded by the Philippine Customs from China is significantly different from the value recorded by the Chinese Customs for export to the Philippines. In 2010, the difference was as high as 60%, 57% in 2015, 48.7% in 2016, and 48% in the first seven months of 2017.

Therefore, the Philippine requested the Chinese Customs to transmit the import and export data of China and the Philippines between 2015 and 2017, and the monthly and quarterly import and export data of the Philippines in terms of commodities in 2018.

Although there is no news yet that such a system has been launched, it is clear that the Philippine Customs has been very concerned about the under-invoicing. 

Russia

During the official visit to China from November 5th to 7th, 2018, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev signed a “Memorandum”

© Image | GOOGLE

According to the Russian “News” quoted a spokesman for the Russian General Administration of Customs, in view of the memorandum signed by the General Administration of Customs of China and Russia in November to regulate the order of customs clearance of inbound and outbound goods under the international e-commerce framework. 

The spokesman said that at present, only the data of high-risk commodities of individual categories and information on products that may violate intellectual property rights is exchanged, and the list of products for information sharing will be expanded in the future.

The spokesman did not elaborate on the current sharing of high-risk commodity information for specific categories. 

Other countries/regions

Which other countries or regions have enabled the origin electronic information exchange system?

© Image | 中国海关总署

At present, among the 18 preferential trade arrangements implemented in China, the electronic network of origin has been built and put into operation, transmitting electronic data of origin under each Agreement.

There are:

1. Hong Kong and Macao CEPA Certificate of Origin Network Verification System

2. Cross-Strait Customs (ECFA) Origin Electronic Information Exchange System

3. China-Switzerland origin declaration data exchange system

4. China-Korea origin electronic data exchange system and Asia-Pacific trade agreement under the Asia-Pacific trade agreement electronic data exchange system

5. China-New Zealand origin electronic information exchange system

6. China-Pakistan origin electronic information exchange system

7. Transit confirmation bookmarking subsystem via Hong Kong/Macau transit cargo origin management system

From January 1, 2019, the “China-Chile Origin Electronic Information Exchange System” was officially launched, and the electronic data of the certificate of origin under the Agreement was transmitted in real time.

Please be sure to do the compliance and fill in to enjoy the preferential tax rate!

Yesterday, review website Lanmei Testing posted a video about FamilyMart selling expired food, claiming that 21 of its convenience stores in 10 cities across the country did so. It received immediate public attention on Tuesday soon after it was posted on Chinese social networks Sina Weibo and WeChat.

Screenshot of the review website

© Image | Weixin

On Weibo, the video accumulated nearly 10,000 comments within hours, while on WeChat the article containing the video had received more than 100,000 page views as of Tuesday evening.

© Video | 蓝莓测评

Is it common for FamilyMart

 to sell expired food?

FamilyMart is one of the most popular convenience store brands in China, with more than 2,500 stores. In the fast-paced urban life, people rely more and more on convenience stores for three meals a day. 

Xu Penghao, chief editor of Lanmei Testing, said the website decided to investigate FamilyMart after one of its staff members bought an expired sandwich at a store he frequented in Beijing. 

Xu said when the customer went back to confront the convenience store manager, the manager showed no surprise and offered two cups of free coffee as compensation, which made him suspect that the sale of expired food was a common occurrence.

“Almost all the FamilyMart stores

 were selling expired food!”

The website randomly surveyed a number of FamilyMart convenience stores in Beijing and found that six stores were selling expired food within two weeks. Then the staff carried out sampling tests one city per day.

The results were shocking: 

Almost all the FamilyMart of all the tested cities were selling expired food!

© Image | Weixin

Its video included footage of an investigator purchasing a cake that was one day past the expiration date at a FamilyMart store on Wangfujing street in Beijing on Nov 14.

© Image | Weixin

 

© Image | Weixin

From November to December, Lanmei Testing said, it visited 100 FamilyMart stores in 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and discovered expired food, especially bread and cakes, on shelves in 21 stores. 

Among them, FamilyMart stores in Fudan University and Shenzhen University were also found expired food. Lanmei Testing said it has preserved all its recordings taken in one shot and vouches for their authenticity. 

FamilyMart stores in Fudan University

© Image | BAIDU

In addition, expiring food stocked,  receipt date tampered and other issues were found many times in the course of the investment.

Many of the netizens commented that they have experienced similar issues in different convenience stores, including 7-11 and Lawson.

FamilyMart Denies 

Selling Expired Food

In response, FamilyMart’s China operator, Shanghai Fumanjia Convenience Co, issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying the company has strict rules prohibiting sales of expired food and has inspected the stores mentioned in the video and found no such offenses. 

Statement issued by FamilyMart

© Image | BAIDU

Instead, as it checked surveillance footage around the time when Lanmei Testing shot videos at their stores, it said, some “unusual” purchases were discovered that might have ended up in the video.

© Image | 视觉中国

In an online briefing session with the media, Wang Yiwen, the company’s public relations manager, said the company has strict internal management rules for removing expired food, and that it might resort to the courts to defend its reputation.

“We are not targeting anyone, but want to raise the attention of all convenience stores to make food safety a top priority,” Xu said.

Chinese news website Thepaper.cn reported that the Shanghai municipal market supervision bureau was investigating the case.

In a FamilyMart store on Huaihai road in Shanghai, staff members said they had received instructions to double-check the shelves for any expired food.