'Friendly' taxes? Hengqin comes as close as possible

Hengqin New Area in Zhuhai has proven itself a global leader in taxation-friendliness by scoring 90.84 out of 100 -- an international advanced level -- in the first released report on tax payment convenience in the Chinese mainland.   

The report is published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the world's largest professional services organization, in concert with the Hengqin Office of the State Administration of Taxation and Hengqin Local Taxation Bureau.

Based on the experiences of countries such as Australia, the report was formulated on five primary and 22 secondary indicators referencing taxation service evaluation and satisfaction indexes from statistical reports and yearbooks.

The outstanding performance was attributed to Hengqin's self-service remote visual taxation service terminal V-Tax, which came into operation last September.

Self-service remote visual taxation service terminal [Photo courtesy hengqin.gov.cn]

Remote visual taxation systems have been installed in computers at local banks, allowing customers in Hong Kong and Macao to directly pay taxes online. Payers can also download a mobile app and log into the system on smartphones to handle real estate transactions, applications for deed tax discounts, registration on social security systems, and use of banks for tax deduction and payments.

So far, the system has dealt with more than 3,000 tax matters and has provided consultancy to some 5,000 users.

By the end of last year, Hengqin Local Taxation Bureau signed cooperation deals with the Bank of China Macau branch, Hengqin branch of Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (Macao), and Hengqin branch of ICBC to open service points in their outlets. Professional personnel were in place to instruct how to use the system to carry out business registration, open accounts, and sign tripartite tax agreements. 

The one-stop service platform has increased efficiency and brought convenience to taxpayers thereby facilitating investment activities in the Hengqin Free Trade Zone.

Next, the Hengqin Local Taxation Bureau will begin a cross-border cooperation project with Hong Kong banks to help solve business financing issues, an official revealed.