The Supreme People's Court (SPC), the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Taxation Administration jointly held on March 18, 2024 a press conference and released the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Endangerment to Tax Collection and Management.
Consisting of a total of 22 articles, the Interpretation sets forth provisions on the circumstances for the conviction and sentencing of 14 crimes that endanger tax collection and management laid down in the specific provisions of the Criminal Law, specifying the conviction and sentencing criteria for various types of invoice-related crimes such as forging, illegal sale, purchase, and false issuance of invoices, and making appropriate adjustment to the conviction and sentencing criteria for the three crimes stipulated in the original tax-related judicial interpretations. The Interpretation imposes specific regulation on the signing of "dual contracts" as one means of tax evasion, lists eight forms of "false export reporting", and clarifies lenient penalties policies relating to supplementary tax payments and recovery of tax losses. In addition, the Interpretation also specifies that the conviction and sentencing criteria for entities committing crimes that endanger tax collection and management shall be implemented in accordance with the criteria for natural persons who commit such crimes, which improves the administrative-criminal connectivity mechanism against crimes that endanger taxation. Additionally, the Interpretation makes provisions on the determination of joint crimes that endanger taxation.