China Issues Guidance on 15% Tax Rate for High/New Tech Enterprises

Excerpt from Practical Asian Tax Strategies by Todd Landau and Edward Shum (PricewaterhouseCoopers, China)

A new joint circular recently issued by the Chinese authorities provides important guidance on the availability of Chinese tax incentives under the new Corporate Income Tax (“CIT”) law, including the preferential 15% tax rate, for investments in High/New Tech Enterprises (“HNTE”). These rules have retrospective effect from January 1, 2008.

According to the new Chinese CIT law, effective from January 1, 2008, HNTEs can enjoy tax incentives, including a preferential CIT rate of 15%. In order to further clarify the criteria for qualifying as HNTEs, the Ministry of Science and Technology (“MST”), Ministry of Finance (“MoF”) and StateAdministration of Taxation (“SAT”) have issued the “Administrative Measures for Assessment of High-New Tech Enterprises” (“Measures”) andthe “Catalogue of High/New Tech Domains Specifically Supported by the State” (“Catalogue”) by way of a joint circular GuoKeFaHuo (2008) No.127,with retrospective effect to January 1, 2008.

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