After entering the international market, how to gain a foothold in the highly competitive international market and gain a global competitive advantage is an urgent task for multinational enterprises.
It is one of the important business strategies for Chinese enterprises to improve their international competitiveness by actively learning from the management methods of western multinational companies and combining with the actual situation of Chinese enterprises, and making full use of the tax policies and tax differences between countries to make international tax planning in order to maximize profits.
International tax planning International tax planning refers to the behavior of transnational taxpayers to reduce or eliminate tax burden within the scope permitted by the tax law by legal means.
International tax planning is the extension and development of domestic tax planning in the international scope, and its behavior not only crosses the tax boundary, but also involves the tax policies of more than two countries. Therefore, international tax planning is more complicated than domestic tax planning.
There are broad and narrow understandings of international tax planning.
In a broad sense, international tax planning includes both international tax saving planning and international tax avoidance planning.
International tax saving planning is not only legal, but also the implementation of taxpayer planning behavior is in line with the legislative intention of the host country; On the surface, international tax avoidance is also legal, but taxpayers achieve the purpose of tax reduction by exploiting loopholes in the tax law, which violates the legislative intention of the host country.
In a narrow sense, international tax planning only refers to international tax saving planning.
From a practical point of view, many foreign multinational companies have different degrees of tax avoidance in their operations, and they are implementing international tax planning strategies in a broad sense.
As China's multinational enterprises entered the international market late, with small scale and weak competitiveness, in order to maximize profits and improve their international competitiveness as soon as possible, in their foreign operations, in addition to international tax planning in a narrow sense, they should also appropriately use some international tax avoidance behaviors.
The string 1 "International tax planning" is still a new concept in China, but it has already become an important activity in enterprise investment, financial management and business activities internationally.
Countries (or regions) in the world vary widely in taxes, tax rates and preferential tax policies, which provides a broad space for multinational enterprises to carry out international tax planning.
Economic globalization, trade liberalization, financial market liberalization and the development of e-commerce all provide the possibility for international tax planning.
Under the conditions of scientific and technological progress, developed communication and convenient transportation, the flow of capital, technology, talents and information of multinational enterprises is more convenient, which provides conditions for international tax planning.
Large multinational companies often hire tax experts to carry out tax planning for their own companies.
For example, Unilever, which is famous for producing daily necessities, has subsidiaries all over the world.
Facing the complicated tax system of various countries, the parent company hired 45 senior tax experts to make tax planning.
Only "tax saving" a year adds millions of dollars to the company.
What needs to be pointed out here is that the concept of tax planning is quite flexible, and it is a relative concept.
Due to the different legal standards in different countries, and the laws in different countries are constantly improving, a reasonable tax planning behavior of a multinational taxpayer to reduce tax burden is sometimes considered as a tax avoidance behavior or even tax evasion behavior that should be prohibited in another country or at different times in the same country.
At present, all countries in the world regard anti-tax avoidance as a key point of their tax work, and have intensified their anti-tax avoidance efforts. Many countries have formulated special anti-tax avoidance laws and regulations, which undoubtedly brings great difficulties to the international tax planning of multinational enterprises in China.
Therefore, China's multinational enterprises should carefully study, carefully analyze and always pay attention to the tax laws and regulations of the host country, find out the shortcomings, seek planning space and avoid possible penalties.
Main methods of international tax planning string 8 (1) Making use of the reasonable choice of investment location to make international tax planning string 4 1. Make full use of preferential tax policies of various countries and choose countries and regions with low tax burden to invest.
In transnational operation, investors should consider not only the conventional factors such as infrastructure, raw material supply, financial environment, technology and labor supply, but also the tax system differences in different regions.
Different countries and regions have great differences in tax burden levels, and all countries also stipulate various preferential tax policies, such as accelerated depreciation, tax credit, differential tax rate, loss carry-over and so on.
If our multinational investment enterprises can choose countries and regions with more tax incentives to invest, they will certainly benefit for a long time and get a higher return on investment, thus improving their competitiveness in the international market.
Usually, these enterprises can choose countries or regions with low tax burden rate and good comprehensive investment environment to invest after comparing the tax burden rates of different countries or regions through calculation.
At present, there are nearly 1,000 special economic zones with various preferential tax policies in the world, and the overall tax burden, especially the income tax burden, in these areas is low, which is an investment paradise for multinational investors.
At the same time, it should also be considered whether the investment place has any restrictions on the profit remittance of the enterprise.
Because some developing countries, on the one hand, attract foreign investment with low income tax or even tax exemption, and at the same time, impose restrictions on the profit remittance of foreign-funded enterprises, hoping to encourage foreign investors to reinvest.
In addition, in transnational investment, investors will also encounter the problem of international double taxation, and avoiding international double taxation is also a factor that multinational investors in China must consider when choosing investment locations.
In order to avoid international double taxation, countries have generally signed bilateral comprehensive tax agreements. According to the agreements, residents and non-residents of both contracting countries can enjoy many preferential tax policies such as tax deduction or credit for overseas payment.
Therefore, transnational investment should try to choose countries and regions that have signed international tax agreements with their home countries (countries where the parent company is located) to avoid international double taxation.
At present, China has signed agreements to avoid double taxation with 63 countries, and there are more than 1000 bilateral comprehensive tax treaties between countries in the world.
Choose an international tax haven for investment as much as possible. At present, there are three main tax modes in the world, namely, the tax mode with direct tax as the main body, the tax mode with indirect tax as the main body and the low tax mode.
Countries and regions with low tax system are generally called "tax havens", and there are three main types: (1) pure international tax havens, that is, countries and regions without personal income tax, corporate income tax, net property tax, inheritance tax and gift tax, such as Bermuda and Bahamas; (2) Countries and regions that only exercise territorial jurisdiction, completely give up residents' jurisdiction, and exempt all income or general property from foreign sources, such as Switzerland, Hong Kong, Panama, etc.
(3) Countries and regions that implement normal taxation, but have stipulated special preferential policies to facilitate foreign investors in the tax system, such as Canada and the Netherlands.
Obviously, if investors can choose to invest in these tax havens, they will undoubtedly get the benefits of tax exemption or low tax.
Usually, multinational taxpayers can establish base companies in tax havens to achieve the purpose of international tax planning.
It is typical to establish a headquarters company in a tax haven as a transit sales organization between the parent company and its subsidiaries or subsidiaries.
Through the transit of the headquarters company located in tax havens, the whole company will reflect its profits in tax-free or low-tax tax havens, thus achieving the goal of reducing the overall tax burden.
The establishment of international holding companies, international trust companies, international finance companies, controlled insurance companies and international investment companies is also one of the important ways for multinational companies to carry out tax planning.
Multinational companies can often get the benefits of paying less withholding tax by setting up such companies in contracting countries, low-tax countries or tax havens, or they can easily transfer their profits to tax-free or low-tax places.
At the same time, because the after-tax income of subsidiaries is not repatriated, the parent company can get the benefit of deferred tax payment, and it is also easier to raise capital and adjust the financial situation of subsidiaries, such as offsetting the losses of subsidiaries in another country with the profits of subsidiaries in one country.
Shougang Group in China has played its outstanding fund-raising function by setting up a holding subsidiary in Hong Kong, and also achieved the purpose of reducing tax burden.
Choosing a favorable enterprise organization mode for international tax planning A multinational investor setting up a new enterprise abroad, expanding investment to set up a subsidiary or setting up a branch will all involve the choice of enterprise organization mode, and different enterprise organization modes have great differences in tax treatment.
(1) As far as branches and subsidiaries are concerned, subsidiaries can enjoy preferential tax treatment provided by the host country, including tax holidays, because they appear as independent legal persons abroad, while branches can't enjoy preferential tax treatment because they are sent abroad as part of enterprises.
In addition, the losses of subsidiaries cannot be remitted to the domestic head office, and the losses incurred in the course of operation can be remitted to the account of the head office, which reduces the company's income.
Therefore, in transnational operation, different organizational forms can be adopted according to the situation of the enterprises in the host country to achieve the purpose of reducing tax burden.
For example, in the initial stage of overseas companies, because of the greater possibility of losses, branch organizations can be adopted.
When overseas companies turn into profits, if they can be transformed into subsidiaries in time, they can get many tax benefits that subsidiaries can't get.
(2) As far as the choice of joint stock limited company system and partnership system is concerned, many countries implement different tax policies for companies and partnerships.
Therefore, China's overseas investment enterprises should choose the organization form with lower comprehensive tax burden to set up their own overseas enterprises on the premise of analyzing and comparing the tax base, tax rate structure, preferential tax policies and specific tax policies of the investment places.
Transfer pricing refers to the fact that in international tax affairs, prices are artificially set by related parties in transactions, rather than by independent parties in a fair market according to the principle of normal transactions.
The formulation process of transfer pricing is a very confidential and complicated work.
The specific methods of transfer pricing strategy of multinational enterprises are as follows: (1) The cost of subsidiaries is affected by controlling the transaction prices of intermediate products such as parts and semi-finished products.
(2) By controlling the sale price or service life of the fixed assets of overseas subsidiaries, the cost of subsidiaries will be affected.
(3) By providing loans and interest, the cost of subsidiaries will be affected.
(4) The cost and profit of subsidiaries will be affected by the level of royalties charged for the transfer of intangible assets such as patents, proprietary technologies, trademarks and manufacturers' names.
(5) Labor expenses such as technology, management, advertising and consulting are used to influence the costs and profits of overseas companies.
(6) Give overseas companies higher or lower commissions and kickbacks through product sales, or use the transportation system and insurance system controlled by the parent company to charge higher or lower transportation, loading and unloading and insurance fees from the subsidiaries, which will affect the costs and profits of overseas companies.
In modern international trade, the internal transactions of multinational companies account for a large proportion. Therefore, the profit can be transferred by taking advantage of the high and low tax differences in the world, so as to reduce the overall tax burden of the company and ensure the maximum profit of the whole company.
At present, all countries regard transfer pricing for tax avoidance as the primary goal of anti-tax avoidance, and formulate transfer pricing tax system, which brings difficulties for multinational enterprises to use transfer pricing for international tax planning.
However, in order to attract foreign investment, increase employment and develop domestic economy, the provisions and specific implementation of transfer pricing tax system are often inconsistent, thus creating a greater flexible space for multinational enterprises to use transfer pricing for tax planning.
A permanent establishment refers to a fixed place where an enterprise conducts all or part of its business, including management places, branches, offices, factories and workplaces.
At present, it has become the standard for many contracting States to judge whether to tax non-resident business profits.
For transnational operations, it is possible to avoid the permanent establishment and the limited tax liability in the non-resident country, especially when the tax rate in the non-resident country is higher than that in the resident country, which is more important.
Therefore, multinational enterprises can achieve tax exemption in non-resident countries through goods storage, inventory management, goods purchase, advertising, information provision or other auxiliary business activities instead of setting up a permanent institution.
For example, many overseas construction companies in South Korea contract projects in the Middle East and Latin American countries. These countries stipulate that the income earned by non-resident companies within six months can be tax-free. Therefore, these Korean companies often try to complete their contracted projects within six months to avoid paying income tax.
For another example, as early as the early 1980s, Japan built many offshore mobile factory workshops, all of which were set on ships and could be used for mobile operations.
These mobile factories have been to Asia, Africa, South America and other places for mobile operations.
198 1 year, a Japanese company went to China to buy peanuts. The company sent one of its offshore workshops to stay in our port for 27 days, processed the purchased peanuts into peanut pulp, crushed the peanut skins into boards and sold them to China.
As a result, 64% of China's income from selling peanuts from Japan was returned to Japan, and the income tax of peanut skin board obtained by Japanese companies was not paid at all.
The reason for this phenomenon is that China and most other countries have stipulated the retention time of non-resident companies, and Japanese companies use this regulation to legally avoid taxes.
With the development of science and technology, e-commerce has increasingly become an important way of international trade.
Many characteristics of e-commerce provide convenience for international tax planning.
China's multinational enterprises should also make full use of the characteristics of e-commerce to legally avoid taxes.
International tax planning by choosing favorable accounting methods 6 The diversity of accounting methods provides a guarantee for tax planning.
Accounting standards, accounting systems and other accounting laws and regulations, on the one hand, play a role in regulating the accounting behavior of enterprises, on the other hand, provide enterprises with different methods to choose from, and create opportunities for enterprises to "flow freely" in these frameworks and rules.
China's multinational enterprises should be familiar with various accounting systems in the host country and skillfully use various accounting methods to reduce tax burden or delay tax payment.
For example, appropriately delaying the settlement date of income and expenses by a few days or a few days in advance can achieve the purpose of delaying tax payment; In countries where capital gains are levied at or below the income tax rate, overseas enterprises should adjust their financial decisions and accounting policies in time and try their best to convert liquidity gains into capital gains, which will achieve considerable results.
Average cost sharing is the best way to offset profits and reduce taxes to the maximum extent. Enterprises can share the expenses incurred in long-term business activities as evenly as possible in each period, so that their profits will be average and there will be no phenomenon of excessive taxes at a certain stage. In the case of rising prices, adopting LIFO method in inventory valuation can effectively reduce the tax burden; When the fixed assets are depreciated, the accelerated depreciation method can be used to recover the investment in fixed assets as soon as possible, reduce the profits in the same period and delay the payment of income tax.
Points for attention in international tax planning transnational taxpayers make international tax plans in the face of the ever-changing world economic climate and complicated international tax environment, with the fundamental purpose of minimizing the tax burden on a global scale.
Therefore, China's multinational enterprises must arrange business activities, plan taxes and carry out global tax planning from a global perspective.
The string 1 1. It is necessary to have an in-depth understanding of the tax systems and related information of various countries.
At present, the tax systems of countries in the world are very different, and the tax types, tax rates and tax calculation methods are various, and the tax relationship is quite complicated.
In addition, the business forms, income types, business contents, tax locations, politics, military affairs, science and technology, culture and folk customs in various countries all affect the business activities of enterprises, and then affect the financial and tax arrangements of enterprises.
String 62. There must be multiple alternatives.
Multinational enterprises should comprehensively analyze the situation, assess the situation, design as many alternatives as possible from all angles, and choose the most favorable one.
String 43. Have a global concept.
Multinational enterprises should look at the problem from a global macro perspective.
Pursuing the minimum of each tax burden does not mean that the overall tax burden is the minimum, and pursuing the minimum tax burden does not mean that the income must be the maximum.
For example, in order to reduce the withholding tax burden, we tried to use the tax agreement between the country and other countries, but the country has a heavy income tax.
Another example is that the tax situation in a certain country is favorable, but the economic environment and geographical environment there are very bad, so it is a big loss to make use of it.
String 24. Have a long-term view.
Tax planning should be forward-looking, not killing the goose that lays the golden egg, and neglecting the long-term interests in pursuit of immediate interests.
China's multinational enterprises should have a long-term overall tax plan and business plan.