China enhances financial support for small businesses

BEIJING — China has unveiled tax break policies to reduce the corporate burden on small and micro-sized businesses and support economic growth.

From Dec 1, 2017 to Dec 31, 2019, financial institutions will be exempt from value-added taxes (VAT) on income from interests for loans to small, micro-sized and individually-owned businesses, according to a document jointly released by the Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation.

Currently the policy applies to loans to farmers only.

The maximum loan to each of the aforementioned borrowers that is eligible for tax exemption is 1 million yuan ($150,950), the document said.

Meanwhile, stamp taxes on loan contracts for small and micro-sized businesses will be exempt from Jan 1, 2018 to Dec 31, 2020, according to the document.

The government has been encouraging banks to support small businesses, which often have difficulty obtaining bank loans.

By the end of June, outstanding loans from financial institutions to small and micro-sized businesses reached 22.6 trillion yuan, nearly double the amount at the end of 2012, accounting for 32 percent of total loans to all businesses.