Today, the State Administration of Taxation released the “Administrative Measures for the Registration of General VAT Taxpayers,” which will take effect on February 1, 2018. A relevant official from the State Administration of Taxation stated that compared with the previous “Administrative Measures for the Determination of General VAT Taxpayers,” the newly released “Measures” feature the following key changes in content:

　　— Regarding the cancellation of administrative approval procedures, the Measures eliminate the approval stage previously handled by tax authorities and switch from an approval-based system to a registration-based system. After the competent tax authority verifies and confirms the registration information submitted by the taxpayer, the taxpayer can immediately become a general taxpayer.

　　— Regarding the simplification of administrative procedures, first, the documentation required for registration has been streamlined from the original six items down to just two. Taxpayers now only need to bring their tax registration certificates and complete the registration form to register as a general taxpayer. Second, the tax authorities have simplified their processing procedures by eliminating the on-site verification step; for applications that meet the registration requirements, the process is generally completed on the spot.

　　— Regarding adaptation to the tax system reform, with the comprehensive and in-depth advancement of the business-to-value-added-tax (VAT) transition, sales of services, intangible assets, and real estate have all been brought under the scope of VAT taxation. There are policy differences between pilot taxpayers and original VAT taxpayers in terms of sales revenue thresholds and the scope of entities exempt from registration. Therefore, the provisions in the Measures addressing these policy differences do not specify detailed rules but instead use general phrases such as “as stipulated by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation” and “in accordance with applicable policies.”

Reporter Dong Bijuan