Laws of the People's Republic of China

State Administration of Taxation

Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on the Issues concerning Further Strengthening the Administration on the Collection of Stamp Tax

GuoShuiHan [2004] No. 150

January 30th, 2004

The bureaus of local taxation of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities directly under the State planning:

Since the stamp tax came into practice in 1988, the local tax organs of all levels have been continuously strengthening the administration on its collection and have formulated effective measures for collection according to the local conditions, thus ensuring the steady growth of the income from stamp tax. However, with the establishment and development of the market economy of our country and the promulgation and implementation of the new Law of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Tax Collection (hereinafter referred to as LATC), some provisions governing the stamp tax can't meet the actual needs of the administration on tax collection, thus the discrepancies between these provisions and the LATC are becoming increasingly obvious. With a view to strengthening the administration on the collection of stamp tax, stopping up the related loopholes, making it convenient for the taxpayers and guaranteeing the continuous and steady growth of the income from stamp lax, the relevant issues concerning strengthening the administration on the collection of stamp tax are hereby clarified as follows:

1.

Strengthening the management of the taxable documents subject to stamp tax

The tax organs of all levels shall strengthen the management of the taxable documents subject to stamp tax, ask the taxpayers to establish a uniform register of taxable documents subject to stamp tax, and ensure the timely, accurate and complete registration of various taxable documents. With respect to an entity with numerous taxable documents or with several departments that may sign taxable documents with other entities, the competent tax organ shall ask it to formulate the measures for the management of the registration of taxable documents in light of the actual circumstances. A taxpayer shall, if possible, specify a special department or a special person to be responsible for the management of the taxable documents.

In accordance with the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Tax Collection, the taxable documents subject to stamp tax shall be preserved for 10 years.

2.

Perfecting the measures for the regular aggregate payment of stamp tax

The tax organs of all levels shall strengthen the tax management of the entities subject to regular aggregate stamp tax, issue a regular aggregate payment license to the entities upon approval and determine the time limit for the regular aggregate payments. In the meanwhile, the tax organs shall require the taxpayers to regularly submit the statements on the regular aggregate payments for stamp tax, and regularly examine the taxpayers' aggregate payments for stamp tax.

3.

Strengthening the management of the commission agents of the stamp tax

The tax organs of all levels shall strengthen the management of the payments of the tax stamps sold by the commission agents, and shall conduct a thorough inspection over the sale of the tax stamps within their respective jurisdictions. Where a commission agent violates the provisions governing the commissioned sale of tax stamps, it/he shall be disqualified from selling the tax stamps in light of the seriousness of the circumstances. Any act of a commission agent that affects the sale of the tax stamps shall, once found out, be corrected in good time.

A tax organ shall, in light of the actual local circumstance, choose some entities or individuals that have a perfect and standard management system and a rather reliable credit standing to sell the tax stamps as commission agents, and shall often guide, examine and supervise their work.

4.

Verification of the collection of stamp tax

Pursuant to Article 35 of the LATC and the features of the sources of the stamp tax, and with a view to strengthening the management of the collection of stamp tax, under any of the following circumstances, the local tax organ may verify the base for the taxpayer's payable stamp tax:

(1)

The taxpayer fails to establish a register for the taxable documents subject to stamp tax, or failing to register faithfully or keep properly the taxable documents subject to stamp tax;

(2)

The tax base for the payable stamp tax is obviously low due to the taxpayer' refusal or failure to faithfully provide taxable documents subject to stamp tax;

(3)

The taxpayer adopts the way of paying the aggregate stamp tax regularly, but fails to submit statements on the regular aggregate payments for stamp tax to the local tax organ within the time limit as required by the tax organ; after admonished by the latter to submit the statements within a time limit, the taxpayer still fails to do so or the local tax organ has found out in its examination that the former has failed to make regular aggregate payments for stamp tax.

A local tax organ shall, when verifying the collection of stamp tax, issue to the taxpayer a notice on the verification of the collection of stamp tax, in which it shall specify the base of stamp tax and the time limit for the tax payments.

A local tax organ shall, when verifying the collection of stamp tax, according to the taxpayer's actual income from production and business operations and by referring to the previous information on the taxpayer's payments for stamp tax and the contract conclusion in the same trade, determine a scientific and reasonable amount or proportion as the base for the payments of stamp tax.

The tax organs of all levels shall gradually establish basic stamp tax database, which shall cover the information of the collection of stamp tax in different trades and the relevant materials of different taxpayers, shall determine a scientific and reasonable assessment model, and shall ensure that the collection be verified in time, accurately, fairly and reasonably.

The local tax organs of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities directly under the State planning may, in light of the requirements of the present Notice and their respective actual circumstances, formulate measures for the verification and collection of stamp tax, specifying the scope of the taxable documents subject to stamp tax, the basis for the verification, the time limit for the tax payments and the verification amount or proportion, etc., and shall report them to the State Administration of Taxation for archival purposes.