Before my country’s “business tax to value-added tax” reform in 2016, my country’s main turnover taxes included: value-added tax, business tax, and consumption tax. The activities that occur in daily operations either fall within the taxable scope of value-added tax or the taxable scope of business tax.

Prior to May 1, 2016, copyright transfers required payment of business tax.

The promulgation of the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation on Comprehensively Launching the Pilot Program of Replacing Business Tax with Value-Added Tax" (Caishui [2016] No. 36) marks the withdrawal of business tax from the historical stage, and there will be no business tax as a tax category. From now on, all taxable activities fall within the scope of VAT and need to pay VAT.

According to Annex 1 of Caishui [2016] No. 36: "Implementation Measures for the Pilot Program of Replacing Business Tax with Value-Added Tax"

Sales of intangible assets: refers to business activities that transfer the ownership or use rights of intangible assets . Intangible assets refer to assets that have no physical form but can bring economic benefits, including technology, trademarks, copyrights, goodwill, natural resource use rights and other equity intangible assets.

According to Annex 3 of Caishui [2016] No. 36: "Provisions on Transitional Policies for the Pilot Program of Replacing Business Tax with Value-Added Tax"

Article 1, Paragraph 14: Individual transfers of copyrights are exempt from value-added tax Tax

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To sum up, before the “business tax to value-added tax” reform, the transfer of copyrights required business tax; however, after the “business tax to value-added tax” policy in 2016, the transfer of copyrights was a value-added taxable behavior. At the same time, the state has set up preferential tax reduction and exemption policies for individual transfers of copyrights. Therefore, individual transfers of copyrights are exempt from value-added tax.