Secrets of Tax Refunds Unknown to Foreign-funded Factory Owners

Mr. Zhang has been very troubled recently - his foreign - funded factory clearly exported products worth tens of millions, but due to unfamiliarity with the policy, he lost nearly one million yuan in tax refunds in vain. Such stories happen every day. As the financial person in charge of a manufacturing foreign - funded enterprise, have you ever been trapped in the maze of export tax refunds? Today, we will unveil the mystery of this policy.

Simply put, the export tax refund is a policy by which the state, in order to encourage exports, refunds the value - added tax and consumption tax paid in the domestic production process for goods declared for export. For manufacturing foreign - funded enterprises, this is not only an important means of tax savings in compliance but also a key lever to enhance international competitiveness.

• Policy basis: The notice jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration on the policies of value - added tax and consumption tax for exported goods and services
• Applicable objects: Foreign - invested manufacturing enterprises with the right to import and export

1. Qualification Preparation Stage

Ms. Li's lesson is worth alerting: Her enterprise's tax refund was delayed for 3 months due to the failure to handle the customs electronic port card in a timely manner. Essential qualifications include:

• Record - filing form for foreign trade operators
• Record - filing of customs importers and exporters of goods
• Registration in the list of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange

A customer of a certain Zhongshitong had the tax collected back due to the inconsistency between the bill of lading date and the invoice. Key documents need to achieve "three consistencies":

• The names and amounts of the customs declaration form, value - added tax invoice, and foreign exchange receipt should be consistent
• The export date should be within 90 days from the date of foreign exchange receipt
• The input invoice needs to be certified within 360 days from the date of issue

There are strict "time windows" for tax refund declarations:

• Complete the export tax refund for the previous year before the deadline for value - added tax filing in April of the following year
• Enterprises making their first declaration need to reserve an additional 30 - day verification period

We have sorted out typical cases in the past two years and found that enterprises often fall into these "traps":

• Misunderstanding 1: Believing that commissioned exports cannot get tax refunds (in fact, it can be handled with an agency agreement)
• Misunderstanding 2: Ignoring the write - off time - limit of the feed - processing manual (it needs to be within 15 days after the customs case is closed)
• Risk point: Abnormal pricing of related - party transactions may trigger anti - tax - avoidance investigations

With the in - depth promotion of Golden Tax Phase IV, new trends are emerging in export tax refunds:

• The coverage rate of "paperless" declarations will reach 95%
• The overseas warehouse model of cross - border e - commerce can enjoy tax refunds
• Enterprises with "high tax refund rates and high foreign exchange conversion costs" will be under key supervision