China's proposed unification of corporate income taxes will not
cause any loss of foreign investment in China, experts in Beijing
said.
The comments come hot on the heels of a meeting of the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), which met over
the weekend to discuss a bill that would reform the corporate
income tax regime.
According to the draft law, the country will unify income tax
rates for domestic and foreign companies at 25 percent. Chinese
domestic companies currently pay 33 percent income tax, while
foreign companies, which benefit from tax waivers and incentives,
pay an average of 15 percent.
"We believe the tax unification will not result in big decreases
in foreign investment in the country," said Hu Yanni, an analyst
with China Securities Research of CITIC.
Experts believe that the preferable tax regime is just one of
the factors that attract foreign investment while the key issues in
China should instead be abundant human resources, social stability
and an irreplaceable market.
Looking at long-term development in China, most foreign-funded
enterprises are not expected to shift their investment strategy in
China, said Lu Jinyong, an investment researcher at the University
of International Business and Economics.
He explained that foreign companies were granted some favorable
treatment when they faced some investment restrictions in China in
terms of industries and share of stake.
"But it is inevitable that they be treated equally, given that
China has opened nearly all of its market to foreign players by the
fifth anniversary of the country's WTO accession."
"The reform of the corporate income tax is expected to optimise
China's investment environment," he said. "The revised tax rate
will put all market players, both domestic and foreign, on an equal
footing."
Hu added that the regulations will be phased in over a five-year
period, meaning that foreign investors still have another five
years to adapt to the changes.
If the bill is adopted by the NPC plenary session in March 2007,
it is expected to take effect in 2008.
Meanwhile, foreign-invested companies could enjoy a preferable
15 percent income tax rate in some high-tech sectors.
The country's policies encouraging foreign direct investment
(FDI) focus more on quality than quantity, experts said.
The government intends to attract more technologies than capital
from foreign investors. The hope is that service industry
enterprises and research and development centres will boost the
development of domestic industries.
Elizabeth Knup, governor of AmCham China, told China Daily in
early December that while the inflow of FDI might not drop, its
distribution would probably change. He believes that the reform
would redirect much FDI from manufacturing sectors to service
sectors and mergers and acquisitions.
The proposed 25 percent tax rate is low compared to most other
countries. Statistics show that the average corporate income tax
rate in 159 foreign countries and regions was 28.6 percent last
fiscal year.
The final result depends on a set of detailed regulations to
implement the draft bill, which is expected to be developed by the
State Council.
Generous tax incentives for foreign enterprises have fuelled
foreign capital inflows into China, but the dual income tax
structure also spurred domestic enterprises' calls for rights
similar to their international counterparts.
Finance Minister Jin Renqing openly called the current tax
regimes 'too complicated,' saying that 'a unified tax code will
create a taxation environment that favours fair competition among
all ventures registered in China.'
The unification of income taxes is not expected to result in
severe FDI losses, but the reform is likely to reduce the inflow of
"fake FDI," which is money that flows out of China before returning
disguised as foreign investment.
China has been one of the world's top destinations for FDI. It
received inflows totalling US$53.5 billion in 2003, US$60.6 billion
in 2004 and US$60.3 billion in 2005.
However, looking at top foreign investment sources shows that
the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands ranked among them for
several years.
"Although investors from some other countries registered there
to take advantage of low taxes, quite a number of them are Chinese
business people," Lu said.
Fake FDI is estimated to be around 10 percent of the total
actual foreign investment in China. The abolition of favorable
treatment for foreign investment is expected to reduce the
percentage of fake FDI.
(China Daily December 26, 2006)