High-rises dominate the skyline on both sides of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Measures worth $170 billion stabilize corporate finances, boost innovation

China's private enterprises are reaping many benefits from tax and fee reliefs.

Tax and fee payment rebates, deductions or deferments were worth nearly 1.24 trillion yuan ($170 billion) for private businesses in the first 10 months of this year.

According to the State Taxation Administration, China's newly implemented tax refunds, tax and fee cuts and deferrals exceeded 1.66 trillion yuan from January to October.

Taxpayers from the private sector have become major beneficiaries. They have accounted for 75 percent of the total reduction cases during the reporting period.

Additionally, more than 403,000 companies enjoyed pre-tax super deduction on research and development expenses in the first three quarters.

The pre-tax super deduction of R&D expenses is a preferential tax policy. If a company incurs 10 million yuan in R&D expenses that do not result in intangible assets and are recorded as current expenses, the company can deduct 100 percent of the expenses incurred, in addition to the pre-tax deduction of 10 million yuan that is already granted by law.

Jiao Jian, taxation head of leading display panel maker BOE Technology Group Co Ltd's branch in Hefei, Anhui province, said the company has been able to sustain the momentum it had gained in key display technologies mainly because tax reliefs stabilized its finances. Such benefits helped the entire industrial chain, he said.

Jiao also said that as of the end of October, BOE Technology has enjoyed a super deduction of nearly 1.6 billion yuan in R&D expenses, which strengthened the company's finances, helping it to pursue more innovations.

Li Xuhong, head of fiscal taxation policy and application at the Beijing National Accounting Institute, said: "Such measures will help taxpayers fully save on operating costs through R&D expense deductions. Reliefs will further stimulate their vitality and drive innovation capability, all of which will be strong drivers of the development of the country's private sector."

Since the beginning of this year, the country has launched a series of tax and fee reliefs to support private businesses. In August, the STA launched 28 measures to facilitate tax payments for small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed individuals. Prior to the 28 measures, the STA had launched 81 supportive measures in four tranches this year.

Among them, six measures were targeted to promote cross-border tax services, including simplifying tax declaration procedures, promoting non-declaration of information, such as export tax rebate invoices, as well as promoting cooperation with tax authorities from economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Fan Yong, dean of the School of Public Finance and Taxation of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that tax measures will further improve convenience for private enterprises in handling export tax rebates and offer a better tax environment for the private sector.

"The tax system and tax-related cross-border service capabilities have become important guarantees to facilitate overseas investment by Chinese enterprises. Thus, such measures will greatly drive development of the country's private companies on the global stage," Fan said.