Before the emergence of cross-border e-commerce, mail, express mail and trade were the three legal forms of customs clearance. Illegal channels such as merchant shipping, gray channels and smuggling also existed. With the sharp increase in the volume of imported packages, a considerable part of cross-border e-commerce imports have been labeled as “gray overseas shopping”.
Nearly every express shipment of goods and personal belongings must be inspected during customs clearance. If it is verified by the customs and meets the relevant regulations, the customs will stamp a release stamp on the declaration form, but it cannot be ruled out that under-declared goods are under-declared. value to evade tax. The declaration and inspection process of mail is relatively simple. The customs conducts random inspections on personal postal items. The customs clearance random inspection rate is random. Only in cases where the “personal use and reasonable” label is exceeded, customs procedures such as declaration of tax will be carried out.
Due to manpower, material resources, efficiency and other factors, the customs is unable to unpack and inspect each fragmentary parcel one by one to determine whether the value and type of goods meet regulatory requirements, and it also has to determine whether it is for personal use or not. The packages are resold, so the packages have a comprehensive random inspection rate, which means that some overseas express parcels may not be taxed, forming a “gray customs clearance” based on these loopholes. At the same time, congestion in the normal customs clearance process has also stimulated illegal channels to a certain extent.
Customs in various countries have a classification of “goods” and “articles” for physical imports and exports. The two are distinguished according to “whether they have trade attributes” and are included in different regulatory frameworks and institutional processes, including declaration requirements, import Tax rates and legal liability. The basic principles for customs clearance of inbound goods are to exempt personal items from taxes and reduce taxes, and to reasonably levy trade items on the premise of complying with international trade rules.
Goods are supervised under the B2B mode of trade, usually “one customs and three inspections”. Customs levies tariffs, value-added tax, and consumption tax according to different goods. Goods must apply for commodity inspection, animal and plant quarantine, and health quarantine. , documents must be required and taxes must be paid. The tax risk of customs supervision lies mainly in the fact that the goods do not match the customs declaration form, which can be avoided through corporate credit management and spot checks.
Items are supervised by personal mail (baggage and mail). The import of personal items must be “truthfully declared”. In principle, they must actively declare in accordance with legal requirements and pay “personal postal tax” according to regulations. Individuals enjoy exemption The taxable amount is levied, but the scale highlights “self-use, reasonable quantity”. If it exceeds the limit, it will be regarded as “goods”.
Cross-border e-commerce is not general trade, because the importing party is a consumer, and consumers do not purchase goods for trade or resale, but for personal use; but cross-border e-commerce is not an item sent by individuals. It is an import trade sales behavior of e-commerce companies, and the existing personal logistics supervision process cannot adapt to such a large scale. After the implementation of Document No. 56 in 2014, it marked the legalization of cross-border e-commerce, with tax incentives and new customs clearance facilities.
The two entry customs clearance modes of cross-border e-commerce, “direct purchase and bonded”, are both based on electronics. Customs commodity inspection is connected with the system of e-commerce, payment, transportation channels and warehousing enterprises, multi-party collaboration and information sharing, and the use of enterprise, commodity, user and other information for filing. “Customs declaration forms provided by e-commerce enterprises, payment lists provided by payment enterprises, The information of the “logistics waybill” provided by the logistics enterprise can be obtained in one step, the list can be automatically synthesized and declared to the customs in a centralized manner, realizing “one declaration, one inspection and one release” for cross-border e-commerce imports.
Under the new model, the entire process of cross-border e-commerce information is made transparent to the government and customs, making it easier for residents to shop overseas, enabling transparent taxation of imported parts, and helping the government use big data to achieve scientific, transparent, and standardized management. .