From euphemistically and quickly adjusting the "positive list" to directly and formally pressing the "pause button" on Haitao's new policy-it only takes about one month. Prior to May 8, China imposed tariffs on cross-border e-commerce retail imports, and levied import value-added tax and consumption tax according to the goods. The new tax system known as "Let e-commerce live a good life" was officially implemented.
Tax reform is naturally meaningful. Because according to the statistics of pilot cities for the import of cross-border trade e-commerce services, at present, more than 90% of parcels in China are imported without paying taxes; Compared with China's cross-border e-commerce retail imports of several hundred billion yuan a year and the scale of overseas shopping consumption of Chinese citizens, the postal tax levied on all luggage and postal articles in China is less than 654.38 billion yuan, and the problem of tax loss is quite serious. However, at least for now, the theoretical contribution of the New Deal to tax PK is nothing more than the "accidental injury" of the policy to import and export trade. It is reported that because the cross-border e-commerce platform cannot provide the qualifications and documents required for the Customs Clearance Form, a large number of goods cannot be imported, and the import volume of major cross-border e-commerce comprehensive experimental zones has dropped sharply. From April 8 to April 15, the import volume of Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Ningbo and Hangzhou decreased by 70%, 6 1%, 62% and 65% respectively. In short, today's so-called "suspension" is equivalent to indirectly acknowledging the "lethality" of Haitao New Deal for e-commerce and the real economy.
The "one-year buffer period" is indeed the best companion of the New Deal. As cross-border e-commerce said, for example, cosmetics imported for the first time need to be approved by the license-first, the samples should be sent to the institutions designated by the Food and Drug Administration for testing, which takes an average of 2 months, and then sent to the Cosmetics Department of the Medicine Department of the Food and Drug Administration for filing, which takes an average of 6 months; Plus the queuing time, the whole process will take no less than one year. Then, with this "one-year buffer period", cross-border e-commerce will not always live on sporadic inventory. Of course, more importantly, the "one-year buffer period" also provides a necessary "window period" for the transformation and upgrading of e-commerce: for example, you can have enough time to lay out warehousing and logistics, or re-create "new explosions" according to the "list". For example, you can also weigh the options among different trade modes such as cross-border, bonded, direct mail and Haitao. In short, for operators, the embarrassment of being caught off guard is gone, and there may be more opportunities to turn around freely.
Objectively speaking, in the face of the new economic form, supervision has continuously improved the public's governance ability and level through trial and error and calibration, which is a good thing for public welfare. It is said that the previous month, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and other departments held research meetings with cross-border e-commerce in many places. "On the one hand, I listened to the data, on the other hand, I listened to the suggestions, mainly listening to the company." Now that Haitao's new policy presses the "pause button", it means nothing more than two things: first, in the face of new formats, in any case, you can't start too hard; Second, management wisdom does not lie in "dead shoulder", but should really move with the times and adapt to local conditions. Continue to understand and listen to the voice, not only to defend the maximum public interest, but also to minimize the pain of the New Deal. Then, the game can be the closest to fairness and justice.
The Ministry of Finance talks about the transition period of Haitao's New Deal: cancel the tax exemption policy and continue to implement it
During the one-year transition period set by the new cross-border e-commerce import policy, the tax reform policy has not been loosened. The Ministry of Finance reiterated this point.
On the evening of May 25th, official website, the Ministry of Finance, issued a press release saying that with the approval of the State Council, the relevant regulatory requirements stipulated in the List of Retail Imports in cross-border electronic commerce (including the second batch, the same below) were given a one-year transition period, and the General Administration of Customs and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine have recently notified the implementation.
The head of the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance made a speech in this regard, stressing that cross-border electronic commerce's retail imports within the scope of the List of Retail Imports in cross-border electronic commerce will continue to be taxed in accordance with the Notice of the General Administration of Customs of the Ministry of Finance on the Tax Policy for Retail Imports in cross-border electronic commerce (16).
What does this mean? In other words, the new policy of cross-border e-commerce import tax reform, which was implemented on April 8, will continue to be implemented and will not be affected by the transition period.
The core content of the new tax reform policy implemented on April 8 is that goods imported by cross-border e-commerce bonded no longer refer to postal tax, but are subject to customs duties, consumption taxes and value-added taxes like general trade, but the Ministry of Finance has set a certain tax relief for them.
This also means that the original preferential policy of "tax exemption within 50 yuan" for cross-border e-commerce bonded imports has been completely cancelled. The tax advantage of cross-border e-commerce bonded imports has been greatly reduced. However, direct mail imports can still be taxed according to the postal tax.
Some insiders pointed out that for the Ministry of Finance, the core of this new cross-border e-commerce import policy is to cancel tax exemption and increase taxes. There is no transition period for this.
The new cross-border e-commerce import policy launched on April 8 this year is accompanied by a positive list and a new customs clearance policy. Relatively speaking, these two policies are more controversial. Many merchants even assert that if this matter is implemented, it will blow up a large number of cross-border e-commerce imports in the bonded area.
To this end, the relevant regulatory authorities recently announced that before May 1 1 20 17, the six pilot cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Tianjin, Fuzhou and Pingtan will continue to carry out supervision according to the regulatory requirements before the implementation of the new tax policy, that is, temporarily supervise the "front line". For the direct purchase mode in various regions, the requirements for approval, registration or filing of the first import license of the above goods will not be implemented for the time being.
The head of the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance said that this transitional regulatory measure will help to support the smooth transition of cross-border electronic commerce's retail import tax policy, explore a regulatory model that adapts to the development characteristics of cross-border electronic commerce's retail imports, guide enterprises to actively adapt to standardized regulatory requirements, and promote the healthy development of cross-border electronic commerce in China.
Can Haitao's new customs clearance policy be slow?
Due to the implementation of the New Deal for Cross-border E-commerce, many hot-selling overseas goods are facing stricter documentation procedures, and cross-border e-commerce platforms are waiting to see: some will change bonded business into general trade, some will suspend the import of related goods, and some will quietly raise commodity prices, and more are looking forward to possible adjustments in the New Deal. For cross-border e-commerce, it was reported last weekend that the implementation of the New Deal may be suspended for one year. In this regard, a number of cross-border e-commerce companies in Shanghai, including cross-border communication, said that they have not received the notice and are still implementing the New Deal, but the possibility of suspension of the New Deal is quite high.
The new cross-border e-commerce policy is also called "4.8 New Deal" by people in the industry, which mainly refers to the new cross-border e-commerce retail import tax policy implemented on April 8 this year, and two batches of "positive lists" of cross-border e-commerce retail imports announced later. The new tax policy stipulates that cross-border e-commerce retail imports are no longer subject to postal tax according to "personal belongings", but to customs duties, value-added tax and consumption tax according to "goods"; The "Front List" stipulates the requirements of categories that can be imported, and both batches of front lists stipulate that "the first line of online bonded goods needs to be inspected and released according to the goods".
On May 15, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued the "Explanation on the Policy of Customs Clearance for Retail Imports in cross-border electronic commerce", which mainly contains two contents: the first one is to further clarify the new policy of retail imports in cross-border electronic commerce and clarify the cargo attributes of cross-border electronic commerce commodities, and inspection and quarantine should issue customs clearance forms according to law; In Article 2, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine points out that only about 36% of the codes in the list are in the Catalogue of Legal Inspection, and they need to be checked and released by the customs clearance form, and the rest can go through customs clearance procedures without the customs clearance form.
A customs clearance form means that all goods entering the bonded area have to apply for a series of complicated documents according to the general trade method. However, the imported products in the bonded area are complex and uncertain, and the quantity and objects of procurement are uncertain. Some enterprises even get goods directly from wholesalers, and it is difficult to get such materials as certificates of origin without brand channels.
Now that the "4.8 New Deal" has been implemented for more than a month, some cross-border e-commerce companies are facing the embarrassing situation that their stocks are out of stock.
Yesterday, the relevant person in charge of the cross-border e-commerce platform in Shanghai Free Trade Zone revealed that in the past month, although the sales of cross-border e-commerce in Shanghai have been increasing, potential concerns are still spreading. A number of e-commerce companies revealed that compared with sales volume, imports fell sharply, almost halved, and inventories were in jeopardy.
"Haitao mainly has two modes: direct mail and bonded, and bonded is the most important. Under the New Deal, new e-commerce companies began to hesitate. Instead of being bonded in the free trade zone, it is better to import general trade. " The source said that the customs clearance system makes it necessary to submit complete documents even if many goods are imported in a bonded manner, which is almost the same as the general trade procedure. However, general trade can be wholesale, and convenient customs clearance conditions have been lost. Many e-commerce companies have simply changed their purchase channels from cross-border bonded to safer general trade.
However, some commodities entering China for the first time are faced with the dilemma that they cannot continue to sell because they have not had inspection and quarantine documents before. "At present, we can only rely on inventory. Once it is sold out, we can't replenish it. The affected commodities include maternal and child products, cosmetics and health products. This is also the flagship product of many companies in the domestic e-commerce platform. " A person in charge of a large cross-border e-commerce in Shanghai revealed.
However, since last weekend, a rumor has been widely circulated in the industry: "The' new customs clearance policy' in the new cross-border e-commerce policy will be suspended in Shanghai and other 10 cross-border pilot cities, and other tax rates and positive list policies will remain unchanged." The relevant person in charge of Shanghai Cross-border Communication said in an interview with reporters yesterday: "I don't think it is possible to suspend, otherwise why did AQSIQ issue a document on Sunday?" However, some people have expressed different views. A person in charge of a cross-border e-commerce in Shanghai revealed: "AQSIQ only explained the' 4.8 New Deal', not a new document. E-commerce has repeatedly reported to relevant departments that bonded goods cannot be purchased at present. It is estimated that the New Deal will be suspended and is waiting for notice, but it will still be implemented in accordance with the New Deal. "