New online platform will ease tax payment in Beijing

Beijing is building a new online platform to provide innovative tax services, a move to further ease tax compliance burdens, said local officials Tuesday.

The platform would cover "all procedures related to tax payment" by setting up channels such as a website, mobile apps and WeChat account, said Zheng Huaiyuan, deputy director-general with the Beijing municipal office of the State Administration of Taxation.

Integrated with cloud computing, big data and advanced internet technologies, the platform aims to smooth the way that the tax administration communicates with taxpayers and promote the efficiency of tax services, Zheng said.

The SAT has been increasing efforts to achieve its goal of building a modern tax administration system.

It has reduced the time spent paying taxes by 20 percent from 259 hours in 2015 to 207 hours in 2016; that is also a reduction of 75 percent since 2004, according to a report jointly issued by the World Bank Group and PwC, the brand name for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Beijing tax administration made contributions to this progress, said Ning Bodong, director of the tax services division.

Since 2015, the Beijing office has been working hard to enable taxpayers to file and pay taxes online. To date, nearly 90 percent of the basic daily work is accessible online. Taxpayers' average waiting times decreased by over 40 percent, Ning said.