Bauhinia Magazine:

This year marks the 10th consecutive year since the launch of the campaign designed to streamline procedures for filing and paying taxes. How is the campaign progressing? What solid measures will be taken to bring convenience to taxpayers and fee payers? Thank you.

Wang Jun:

Thank you for your questions. I'm very glad to answer them. According to the requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping, we should always serve the people and rely on the people. As the tax department, we are responsible for enforcing tax and fee collection.

Over the past nine years, the STA has introduced 539 innovative service measures, and local tax departments at all levels have issued a total of over 41,000 supporting measures. That has greatly contributed to the transition of tax and fee services in four aspects. First is the transition from mainly providing offline services to offering both online and offline services. Second is the transition from providing policy services based on people's queries to proactively delivering policy services. Third is the transition from offering generic services to gradually paying more attention to personalized services. Fourth is the transition from providing procedural services to offering services focused on protecting the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers. Taxpayers and fee payers have responded that the methods of tax and fee payment have been optimized, with higher efficiency, friendlier services and lighter burden.

Since the beginning of this year, the STA has solicited over 1 million pieces of opinions and suggestions from taxpayers and fee payers and amasses over 100,000 pieces of opinions and suggestions from taxation staff at the community level. Based on that and according to the full implementation of new requirements of the CPC Central Committee and new policies of the State Council, the STA has introduced 42 new measures in two batches to improve tax and fee services. Last week, I made research trips to Henan and Shaanxi provinces and found that these measures have been well implemented. However, during face-to-face communication with taxpayers and fee payers, they offered one common demand. That is, a decision taken at the executive meeting of the State Council on March 24 that six preferential tax and fee policies will continue to be implemented and optimized, and they hope to have rapid, convenient and full access to these preferential policies. After learning about the strong demand, I immediately organized multiple rounds of research and discussions, and so last night, we determined the third batch of 20 measures to bring more convenience to taxpayers, focusing on solving this demand. These measures will be released after today's press conference. For example, in terms of speeding up the implementation of policies, focusing on different subjects, we will formulate themed lists of policies and deliver them to various types of taxpayers and fee payers individually to bring policies directly to people in a more targeted and meticulous way. For another example, when it comes to upgrading key services, we will develop specific policy guidance for additional tax deduction for R&D expenses and we will work with relevant departments to launch the "Self-Employed Businesses Service Month." As for the policy on reducing the average time to issue export tax refunds for first- and second-class export enterprises to three working days, we will also extend the duration of the policy to the end of this year to support the better development of foreign trade and export enterprises. And to make tax services more convenient, we will further optimize the functions of the e-tax system, expand the scope and channels of services that can be accessed online, through cellphone apps, and with an undertaking that relevant conditions have been met. We will provide more services to automatically calculate the tax reduction and exemption amounts, and automatically prefill the information for tax declaration. In doing so, we can both ensure that taxpayers and fee payers benefit from preferential policies and make tax services more convenient.

I just mentioned that we have carried out the 32nd tax publicity month nationwide with the theme of "Bringing Tax Benefits to Millions of Households and Jointly Building Modernization" starting on April 1. The campaign focuses on promoting the implementation of preferential tax and fee policies and service measures to further push for the effective and detailed implementation of the campaign designed to streamline procedures for filing and paying taxes.

We are fully aware that there is no end to the improvement in tax and fee services, and that the satisfaction of taxpayers and fee payers is the most important standard. Next, by applying new technologies, we will continue to innovate and improve our services, and we will introduce the fourth and fifth batches of service measures. For instance, we will soon begin piloting cross-border bilingual tax services for equity transfers of overseas enterprises, so that cross-border tax declaration can be handled without the need to be present in person. At the same time, we will pilot smart opening for enterprises newly founded in China in several regions. That is, as soon as an enterprise registers, the tax-related information will be matched automatically, making it possible for the enterprise to get invoices as soon as possible, and we will continue to expand the scope of the trials. For large enterprises with good credit, we will pilot making out invoices based on needs, without a cap on the invoice amount. For taxpayers running simple businesses, we will pilot simplified tax declaration and constantly expand the scope of the trials.

In summary, we will keep working to improve and enhance the quality and efficiency of tax and fee services to ensure that people can always enjoy convenience, and taxpayers and fee payers can not only have easy access to good services but also get things done well and receive timely feedback on their queries both online and offline. We also invite the media to provide their supervision. Thank you.

Xing Huina:

Today's briefing is hereby concluded. Thank you to all the speakers and friends from the press. Goodbye.

Wang Jun:

Thank you, chairperson and friends from the press. Thank you.

Translated and edited by Zhu Bochen, Huang Shan, Li Xiao, Zhou Jing, Liu Caiyi, Yuan Fang, Yan Bin, Yang Xi, Wang Yanfang, Liu Qiang, Wang Yiming, Zhang Rui, Ma Yujia, Xu Xiaoxuan, Zhang Junmian, Cui Can, Xu Kailin, He Shan, Li Huiru, David Ball, Tom Arnsten, and Jay Birbeck. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.