We will deepen information exchange and data cooperation and promote export tax rebates to benefit enterprises

In order to help foreign trade enterprises alleviate difficulties and promote the steady development of import and export, the State Administration of Taxation and other ten departments recently issued the "notice on Further Strengthening the support of export tax rebate and promoting the steady development of foreign trade" (hereinafter referred to as the "notice").
"The circular has improved the relevant policies of export tax rebate from the aspects of further strengthening the support of policies to help enterprises, further improving the convenience of tax rebate handling and further optimizing the business environment of export enterprises, which will help boost the confidence of market subjects and stimulate the vitality of market subjects, and will play a positive role in promoting the stable and sustainable development of foreign trade." Chen Yu, an associate professor at the school of Finance and taxation of the Central University of Finance and economics, said in an interview with China trade daily.
In terms of improving the convenience of tax rebate handling, the notice mentioned that we should constantly improve the quality and efficiency of export tax rebate handling. Based on the average 7 working days of normal export tax rebate in 2021, the processing time of export tax rebate will be further reduced to 6 working days in 2022. Chen Yu believes that this measure can further improve the efficiency of tax refund, reduce the capital occupation of foreign trade enterprises, improve the cash flow of enterprises, and effectively alleviate the capital pressure of enterprises.
The notice also mentioned that for the declaration of export tax rebate with controllable risk, the "tolerance" method is adopted to handle the tax rebate first, and then go through the on-site verification procedures afterwards. Further streamline the materials to be submitted in the application process of issuing export tax rebate certificates, and actively promote the paperless whole process of export tax rebate certificates. Chen Yu believes that the application process of export tax rebate can be simplified, and there is no need for enterprises to submit relevant documents, which can greatly reduce the burden of foreign trade tax rebate. At the same time, the notice makes it clear that if an enterprise applies for export tax rebate for export goods and cannot collect foreign exchange on schedule due to natural disasters, epidemic and other factors, it shall cancel the submission of evidential materials in advance and save them for future reference. Chen Yu believes that this move shows that the relevant departments have fully considered the impact of the COVID-19 and other uncertain factors and given foreign trade enterprises greater freedom, so as to effectively reduce the relevant risks faced by foreign trade enterprises and improve the efficiency of handling export tax rebates.
For how to further optimize China's export tax rebate policy in the future, Chen Yu suggested that in the future, digital technologies such as big data, blockchain, Internet of things and artificial intelligence can be further combined with export tax rebate work to promote the efficiency improvement and management reform of export tax rebate work. In addition, we should continue to strengthen the information exchange and data cooperation between relevant departments such as commerce, taxation, customs, banking and third parties, actively promote data exchange and sharing, further promote the facilitation of export tax rebate, and strengthen the crackdown on illegal and criminal acts such as false export and fraudulent export tax rebate.