September 2022 / China

Premier Li Keqiang chaired a State Council executive meeting on August 24, 2022, deciding to adopt follow-up policies on top of the policy package for stabilizing the economy.

It is noted that an additional 19 follow-up policies will be rolled out on top of delivering the policy package for stabilizing the economy. These policies mainly include increasing the quota of the policy-backed and development-oriented financial instruments by 300-plus billion yuan on the basis of channeling the 300 billion yuan of such instruments to specific projects, unveiling measures to support the development and investment of private businesses and advance the sound and sustained development of the platform economy, deferring payments of government-levied charges for one quarter and encouraging localities to set up risk compensation funds for loans extended to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed households, supporting centrally-administrated electricity producers in issuing 200 billion yuan of special bonds for energy supply, and allowing distribution of an additional 10 billion yuan of agricultural supplies subsidies on top of the subsidies delivered this year totaling 30 billion yuan.

China's convenience stores have considerable growth potential as the sector expanded in terms of overall store count and business types last year, according to an industry report.

The number of convenience stores across the country exceeded 250,000 last year, with their total sales amounting to 349.2 billion yuan (about 50.53 billion U.S. dollars), according to the report released by China Chain Store and Franchise Association.

Convenience stores have proliferated in an increasing number of cities, and stores serving local communities have become a major way for companies to expand businesses, the report stated.

It noted that convenience store companies attach greater importance to member customers as more than 80 percent of the stores have established a membership system and launched online businesses, but brick-and-mortar businesses remain the core source of profits.

In 2021, sales of ready-to-eat food increased significantly, up 7.1 percent year on year while coffee sales went up 0.8 percent, the report showed.

China has adopted a host of measures to support the elderly care and childcare industries to help them overcome difficulties, the country's top economic planner said Thursday.

Some elderly care and childcare service providers have faced multiple challenges during the past two years due to the pandemic, Su Wei, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference.

A circular was issued earlier detailing the targeted measures such as waiving rentals and taxes, as well as providing financial support for eligible elderly care and childcare service providers, to help them tide over difficulties, Su noted.

Rentals of state-owned properties will be waived for micro, small and medium-sized businesses and the self-employed, he said.

The country has also decided to cut unemployment insurance and workplace injury insurance premiums while deferring of old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and workplace injury insurance for the COVID-hit sector, Su added.

China will continue to leverage a combination of monetary policy tools to support the construction of the facilities and the operation of the elderly care and childcare services, as well as to draw more social forces to the sector, Su said.

China will accelerate the development of cruise and yacht equipment and the relevant sector to enhance the country's modern service industry and bolster the growth of its marine economy.

China will have an initial equipment and industry system for cruises and yachts by 2025, with significant improvement in the technological level and supply capacity of tools, according to a circular jointly released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other related government organs on Thursday.

China will strengthen its capability to design and build cruises and yachts, the circular stated, adding that efforts should be made to ensure that the first large domestically-made cruise is completed with high standards and delivered on time.

It also called for measures to enhance the industrial foundation of the cruise and yacht equipment industry, while encouraging cruise ports to develop coordinated tourism products with tourist attractions.

China aims to build the coastal resort city of Sanya into an international cruise home port and other coastal cities including Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen into top-notch cruising destinations.

According to the circular, the country will explore waterway tourism resources of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hainan Free Trade Port, and Yangtze River Economic Belt, among other qualified areas, and tap into their local historical culture, and natural and urban landscapes.

The National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") and other 12 authorities jointly released on August 29, 2022 the Several Policy Measures to Support the Elderly Care and Childcare Service Industries to Overcome Difficulties, rolling out 26 measures in six aspects including reduction and exemption of rents, taxes and fees, and provision of financial support.

In terms of reduction and exemption of taxes and fees, it called on localities to cut the "six local taxes and two fees" to the full extent possible as per 50% of the tax amount for qualified elderly care and childcare service agencies, clarifying that elderly care and childcare service agencies are entitled to the preferential tax policies as specified in the Announcement of the Preferential Tax Policies for Elderly Care, Childcare, and Housekeeping Services, and taxpayers in elderly care and childcare industries are also eligible for full refunds of incremental VAT excess credits on a monthly basis or one-off refunds of existing VAT excess credits.

To implement the relevant requirements set out in the Overall Scheme for Deepening the Comprehensive Cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Facing the World in Nansha, Guangzhou (hereinafter referred to as the Overall Scheme), the preferential individual income tax policies for Nansha, Guangzhou are hereby notified as follows:

1. For a Hong Kong resident working in Nansha, Guangzhou, the portion of his/her individual income tax burden exceeding that in Hong Kong is exempted from taxation. For a Macao resident working in Nansha, Guangzhou, the portion of his/her individual income tax burden exceeding that in Macao is exempted from taxation.
2. The income entitled to the provisions of Article I hereof includes comprehensive income (including wages and salaries, remuneration for labor services, author's remuneration and royalties) sourced from Nansha, Guangzhou, business income and talent subsidy income recognized by the local government.
3. Taxpayers may enjoy the aforesaid preferential policies at the time when they go through the formalities for annual final settlement of individual income tax in Nansha, Guangzhou.
4. The implementation scope of this Notice covers the entire area of Nansha District, Guangzhou, as planned in the Overall Scheme.
5. This Notice remains effective during the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2026.

Upon the announcement on Extending the Tax Deferral Policies for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Manufacturing Sector published in March 2022, which is showed in below email, the State Taxation Administration and the Ministry of Finance announced today to further extend the deferral payment term by 4 months.

The deferred taxes and fees include the corporate income tax, individual income tax, domestic value-added tax, domestic consumption tax and supplementary urban maintenance and construction tax, education surcharge and local education surcharge for the periods of November and December 2021, February, March, April, May and June of 2022 (paid monthly) or the forth quarter 2021, first quarter and second quarter of 2022 (paid quarterly), but exclude the taxes and fees withheld and remitted, collected and remitted or paid at the time of applying to the tax authorities for issuing invoices on their behalf. Taxes for the period of July 2022 afterwards shall be paid as normal required.

  We summarize the latest payment deadline for your reference:   Tax Period       Latest deferred payment deadline 2021Q4             Feb-23 2022Q1             Feb-23 2022Q2             May-23 Nov-21               Jan-23 Dec-21               Feb-23 Feb-22               Jan-23 Mar-22              Feb-23 Apr-22               Mar-23 May-22              Apr-23 Jun-22               May-23