Xinhua Guangzhou, March 8 (by journalist Lu Jian) - “I came here for the registration of tax information changes. It only took me less than half an hour to get all things done in this tax service hall. Everything can be finished by submitting data once so I don’t have to come here again. I think I have enjoyed the “bonus” brought by integrated state and local tax service”, said Mr. Wang, a man coming to the integrated state and local tax service hall of Zhuhai High-tech Zone in Zhuhai, Guangdong for tax matters. 

    As a reform that is thought the broadest and deepest tax collection administration reform since the separation of state and local tax in 1994 by people inside tax system, frequent pilot work is being carried out quietly in Guangdong. The journalist learned from the State and Local Tax Service Cooperation Exchange and Promotion Meeting of Guangdong Province held in Zhuhai on March 3 that Guangdong undertook 7 provincial level pilot programs for reform, such as “constructing a province-wide electronic taxation bureau”, from SAT, making it the province that had undertaken the most pilot tasks for deepening state and local tax collection administration system. 

Guangdong took the initiative to forge an electronic taxation bureau as “Guangdong’s model”, which will make a stage pose at the end of May. 

    Site of State and Local Tax Service Cooperation Exchange and Promotion Meeting of Guangdong Province, photographed by Lu Jian/Xinhua

“At the very beginning, SAT decided to let Guangdong undertake only 3 special pilot tasks for reform, but Guangdong Provincial Office, SAT and Guangdong Local Taxation Bureau proactively asked to extend their pilot contents and was assigned 7 special pilot tasks in the end, making Guangdong the province that undertook the most pilot tasks for reform around the country”, said Jiang Yuliang, the general accountant of Guangdong Provincial Office, SAT.

     In last November, General Office of the State Council jointly issued Reform of the State and Local Tax Collection Administration System (hereinafter referred to as the program), and it emphasizes to “”take the advantages of state and local tax, promote in-depth service infusion, integrate law enforcement properly and gather information together intensively; focus on solving the prominent and deep level problems in modern tax collection administration system, and carry forward the modernization of tax collection administration system and tax collection capability constantly.” In the beginning of 2016, SAT issued Specifications for Cooperation Between State Administration of Taxation and Local Taxation Bureaus (Edition 2.0) again to make clear the 44 state and local tax cooperation matters on tax collection system reform. Apparently, a system reform under top-level design is being pushed forward gradually. 

     As the downward pressure on national economy increases, the initiative to act and responsibility are much needed to realize the steady progressing of tax collection administration system reform, in order to complete the major task to fully replace the business tax with a value-added tax on May 1. Guangdong proactively asked to shoulder more pilot tasks because it ”dares to be the world’s first“ to explore the way for reform pilots in the country. Apparently, Relevant departments of Guangdong have had a clear understanding and grasp of the positioning of this reform, key time nodes and timings to promote the reform. 

     In the meeting, Yang Ronghua, the deputy director-general of Guangdong Local Taxation Bureau expressed that seizing the opportunity to implement the Program and going with the flow, Guangdong will construct itself leader in deepening state and local taxes, form national leading reform experience, and work hard to complete the work involving in the 7 special reform pilots assigned by SAT before June 2016. It also aims to complete all reform tasks before 2017. Yang said, “we will gather the efforts made by the whole bureau and the intelligence of all parties to complete various reform deployments and tasks involved as 7 special reform pilots.”

    It is reported that the 7 provincial level special reform pilots undertaken by Guangdong include: constructing an electronic taxation bureau, constructing administrative affairs center in the tax service hall jointly, deepening and expanding banking and taxation interaction to help enterprises to develop, classifying and grade taxpayers and carrying out risk control, executing trans-regional management of large enterprises, reforming tax audit, and participating in the cooperation with international tax services. As Guangdong are ramping up its efforts, the results preliminarily achieved by these pilots are shown. 

    “Guangdong has made preliminary effects on implementing the Program. At present, the 7 special reform pilots are making solid progress; especially, the construction of electronic taxation bureau, which will meet the requirements for 72 state and local tax business, will be completed in this May. Besides, the reform expectations and objectives for another 6 haven bee made clear.” Jiang Yuliang said that state taxation and local taxation departments must act with united strength in order to make achievements. He also summarized the 3 cooperation highlights of state and local taxation departments: Firstly, in terms of deepening convenient tax service, Guangdong Provincial Office, SAT and Guangdong Local Taxation Bureau has jointly constructed 7 integratedstate and local tax service halls and 35 “24-hour automatic state and local tax service halls”, and granted loans of RMB 15 billion relying on the taxation and banking interactive tax preferential projects accumulatively; secondly, in terms of integrated tax collection administration, both parties entrusted each other to levy taxes of RMB 70.12 million, visited and exchanged more than 5,400 pieces of tax administration information, realizing tax assessment and overdue tax payment of RMB 1.8 billion; Thirdly, both parties customized personalized international taxation policy interpretations for “enterprises”, such as Gree, Dongpeng and China Southern, that are “going global”.

    As reform pilots gradually enters the “deep water zone” from “shoal water zone”, they have problems to be settled. Relevant responsible person expressed that the post responsibility system of Guangdong integrated tax service hall is to be further improved, and the access right to the municipal and county level network connection is to be improved and opened. For the cooperation promotion in the future, main responsible persons of Guangdong Provincial Office, SAT and Guangdong Local Taxation Bureau expressed their confidence in it with some words of wisdom: “If two people are of the same mind,their sharpness can cut through metal”, said Jiang Yuliang; “Both together do best of all”, said Yang Ronghua to show his firm belief on cooperation. 

Guangdong Provincial Office, SAT and Guangdong Local Taxation Bureau Cooperated to Launch A County-level Demonstration mode - “Zhuhai Hi-tech Zone Model”

    Active responsibility assuming and innovation are needed. In order to make the Program and “Work Specification” of edition 2.0 more localized, Guagndong encourages grassroots state and local tax departments to select 23 innovation and cooperation projects to implement according to their actual situation, and explore to set up pilot cooperative demonstration areas at cities and first level counties. Besides, the state and local tax cooperation demonstration area of Zhuhai High-tech Zone in Guangdong has become an “experimental field” that Guangdong cultivates elaborately for pilot work promotion. 

    Visit to the state and local tax service hall of Zhuhai Hi-tech Zone, Guangzhou. Xinhua Photographed by journalist Lu Jian

   On that day, the journalist visited Zhuhai Hi-tech Zone. According to the introduction of relevant responsible person, this cooperation demonstration zone has realized 35 cooperation items, including “construction of a integrated tax service hall’, given in the Cooperation Specification of edition 2.0 , and launched 13 self-innovation cooperation projects, such as “constructing an ‘official seal’ internet of things management system” as a pilot, lifting the convenient tax service “wind”. 

    Mr. Wang, the deputy general manager of Financial Management Department of YGSOFT Inc., who came to deal with tax matters received an interview. Xinhua, photographed by journalist Lu Jian

    The journalist met a person engaging in financial department in the tax service hall of this zone, and was told by him that he wanted to “thumb up” for this integrated tax service hall that improves tax service efficiency and reduces time cost: “I came to register tax information changes. I have been working as a financial staff in my company for more than 10 years, and I really appreciate the convenience brought by this integrated tax service hall to tax staffs. It not only enabled me to “escape one window” in terms of geographical position, but also to save time cost. Previously, I need to submit a set of data to the state tax department first, and then submit data to the Local Tax department at a required time after the state tax office gives me feedback; I had to come 2 times and sometimes needed to wait in line for a long time in front of a window. It usually took one week or more to get all things done. But now, it only takes me less than half an hour to submit data at one window in this integrated tax service hall, and I guess I can get the registration certificate within 3 days. We enterprises are enjoying the ‘bonus’ brought by the integrated state and local tax service”, expressed by Mr. Wang, the deputy general manager of Financial Management Department of YGSOFT Inc.

    In the state and local tax source risk monitoring center, Rong Mei, the director-general of the state taxation administration of this district, introduced the state and local tax source monitoring, real-time warning, analysis and monitoring system focused on by this bureau. “We connect the big databases of state and local taxes to compare and analyze the data analysis items, such as incorrect business income tax identification, inconsistent state and local tax payment statues, abnormal business tax income, VAT or business tax income, and carry out front-end retrospective analysis on suspicious comparison items and evaluate risks. These are all the features of the high-tech zone”, said Rong Mei. It is reported that the state and local tax big databases in this platform are mainly checked manually before they are connected.

    Relevant responsible person of the state taxation bureau of Zhuhai High-tech Zone said that it is expected that the front desk can further realize paperless office. “Now at the front desk, it can stamp both the state tax seal and local tax seal for certain tax categories; however, paper documents are still needed when examination and approval matters are involved, and they should be sent to senior levels for signature level by level. I expect that paperless office can be realized as soon as possible after the electronic taxation bureau of Guangdong is completed and put into operation in June.”

    Rong Mei, the director-general of the state taxation bureau of Zhuhai High-tech Zone introduces the state and local tax source monitoring, real-time warning, analysis and monitoring system that is forged by the bureau as a focus. Xinhua, photographed by journalist Lu Jian

    Relevant responsible person of Guangdong State Tax Bureau, SAT said that in the next step, they would fully implement the Specifications for Cooperation Between State Administration of Taxation and Local Taxation Bureaus (Edition 2.0) based on the actual situation of Guangdong and in accordance with the requirements of the Program, explore to set up a normalized state and local tax cooperation mechanism to further forge the “6 cooperative brands” of the state and local taxes of Guangdong Province, promote the construction of county-level state and local tax cooperation demonstration areas, push forward the in-depth fusion of state and local taxes, integrate law enforcement properly, gather together information intensively and improve the work quality and efficiency of taxation departments.

    Convenient tax service has swept over south Guangdong. Guangdong state and local tax departments, which “dare to be the first in the world”, are welcoming this reform under “tax service New Normal” positively; they dare to lead this reform and find out a way by themselves to start deepening the reform of state and local tax collection administration system.