China Releases Announcement on Tax Refund (Exemption) at Ports of Departure

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Sept. 6 – China’s State Administration of Taxation (SAT) released the “Announcement of the State Administration of Taxation on Releasing the Administrative Measures on Tax Refund (Exemption) at Ports of Departure (Announcement [2012] No.44, hereinafter referred to as ‘Announcement’)” on August 24, effective from August 1, 2012.

According to the Announcement, the export enterprise applying for the policies of tax refund (exemption) at ports of departure shall meet the following conditions:

  1. Be a VAT general taxpayer of self-operated export goods, whose qualifications for tax refund (exemption) has been approved;
  2. Be a Class B or above export enterprise under customs administration (based on the electronic declaration form of export goods affixed with the “mark of departure port” provided by the Customs); and
  3. Be an export enterprise not classified as Alert Grade 1 to Grade 3 by the tax authorities in the alert information for the examination of export tax refund.

The announcement further provides that export enterprises shall, based on the tax refund (exemption) regulations for export goods and services, use the export goods declaration form issued by the custom authorities at ports of departure to apply to tax authorities for tax refund (exemption).

For the purpose of the Announcement, the “departure data” refers to the data on the export goods declaration form issued by the custom at port of departure.

For export goods that enjoy the policy of tax refund (exemption) at ports of departure, all local tax authorities shall use departure data to examine and handle the tax refund (exemption).

For export enterprises classified as Alert Grade 1 to Grade 3 in the alert information for the examination of export tax refund, all local tax authorities shall use normal customs clearance data instead of departure data to examine and handle the tax refund (exemption).

For export goods that enjoy the value-added tax exemption policy, the competent tax authorities shall use normal customs clearance data to examine the tax exemption.

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