Today, China’s cross-border e-commerce industry has begun to implement a new tax system, that is, a comprehensive retail import tax system for imported goods, and a “voucherless tax exemption” and “approved collection” system for exported goods. This will make this industry more standardized and sustainable in terms of taxation. At the same time, market procurement implements simplified customs clearance and an “exemption without refund” system for exports, providing enterprises with a more flexible and simple development environment. Our country has initially established a cross-border e-commerce tax system. What is important is that it has made important progress in both import and export, laying a solid foundation for the long-term development of cross-border e-commerce in the future. So let’s learn about cross-border e-commerce. The no-levy-no-refund policy for overseas e-commerce taxes.
1. In terms of import, cross-border e-commerce implements a comprehensive retail import tax, which is collected and managed by the customs. Different from the goods tax, the comprehensive tax has a lower tax rate, and the core vocabulary is “goods, list, limit value, discount, summary”. The specific tax system includes:
(1) Taxation is based on goods. The taxes are tariffs, import value-added tax and consumption tax. The actual transaction price is the duty-paid price. Consumers are taxpayers. Cross-border e-commerce enterprises , platform companies or logistics companies are the collection and payment agents.
(2) Implement positive list management, which is applicable to retail imported goods within the scope of the imported goods list and can achieve electronic information comparison of transactions, payments, and logistics.
(3) Implement limit value management, with a single transaction limit of RMB 5,000 and an individual annual transaction limit of RMB 26,000.
(4) A 30% off tax rate is implemented. For retail imported goods within the limit, the tariff rate is 0%, and the import value-added tax and consumption tax are levied at 70% of the statutory tax payable.
(5) The collection and payment agent is divided into whole parts and the guarantee is summarized. The price paid when placing an order on the online platform already includes taxes. The tax payment procedure is carried out by the collection and payment agent. The payer provides a general guarantee for tax, declares taxable information to the customs in a joint declaration list, and the goods are released immediately. The collector and payer will then go through the customs declaration and tax payment procedures.
2. In terms of exports, cross-border e-commerce implements the innovative system of “voucher-free tax exemption” and is managed by the tax department. For export e-commerce enterprises located in the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, export goods that have not obtained valid purchase certificates are exempt from value-added tax and consumption tax. For e-commerce companies that register in the experimental zone and go through export customs declaration procedures, the customs will transmit the declaration list information to the tax department, which has solved the problem of export difficulties for e-commerce companies. In terms of income tax, cross-border e-commerce implements a preferential system of “verification and collection”, which is managed by the tax department. For export e-commerce enterprises that are “voucherless and tax-free” within the Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone, their taxable income will be levied according to the actual tax rate. The general corporate income tax rate is 25%, and the actual tax burden in this case is only 1%. Other tax-free income and special corporate benefits are still valid, and the comprehensive tax benefits are very obvious.
The above introduction is related to the non-levy and non-refund policy of cross-border e-commerce taxes. As a cross-border e-commerce enterprise, the difficulty of tax refund is a major problem. Due to market procurement, cross-border e-commerce companies are unable to obtain VAT invoices, and therefore cannot achieve export tax rebates. However, the Qianhai State Administration of Taxation is studying to solve this problem and may realize a tax refund method with no tax collection and no refund, simplify the process and reduce the tax burden of enterprises. For cross-border e-commerce exporters, this new policy means that the export tax reform has ushered in new opportunities.