Tax administration eliminates intl double tax, helps enterprises develop overseas

China's State Administration of Taxation (SAT) eliminated international double taxation of 13.1 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) for cross-border taxpayers from 2014 to 2016 to help them find better development overseas, according to 40 investment tax guidelines for different countries released by SAT on April 28, Thepaper.cn reported.

The new tax guidelines involve the Belt and Road countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Russia. The new guidelines bring the total of such guidelines to 59, covering almost all en-route countries and other major overseas investment destinations.

To help Chinese enterprises expand their development in more countries, the tax guidelines provide detailed information on the tax information of host countries, such as their tax system and tax agreements signed with China, SAT's Liao Tizhong said.

Liao added that the information can provide enterprises the courage needed to seek development in other countries, as it can help them foresee investment and tax risks overseas.

Apart from the tax guidelines, China's tax authorities adopted measures to help enterprises seek overseas development opportunities to better serve Belt and Road construction in terms of reaching agreements to safeguard rights and interests, promote services, and enhance cooperation.

By the end of 2016, China had established bilateral tax cooperation mechanisms with 116 countries, including most en-route countries, and made full use of the mechanisms to eliminate international double taxation for domestic and foreign taxpayers.

With the deepening of the Belt and Road initiative, SAT will continue to collect, analyze, and research tax information, expand tax guidelines, update tax information, and enrich the content to improve the practicability and operability of tax guidelines.