Jinhua in East China's Zhejiang province unveiled 18 measures to promote the long-term and healthy development of its individual economy at a news conference on Sept 19.
Measures include reducing operating costs, relieving tax burdens, strengthening financial support, optimizing the business environment, expanding development space, and increasing the supply of services.
Specifically, individual businesses with a voltage level below one kilovolt will enjoy phased preferential policies without sharing the costs of natural gas power generation and electricity fees.
Bank account service charges, RMB transfer remittance fees, and bank card swipe fees for individual businesses will be reduced. Banks are encouraged to waive check printing and loss reporting fees, as well as fees for promissory notes and bank drafts.
For individual businesses with an annual taxable income of up to 2 million yuan ($274,460.42), personal income tax will be halved compared to the existing policy. For small and micro-profit enterprises after individual businesses' transformation into companies, 25 percent of annual taxable income of up to 3 million yuan will be considered taxable income, and corporate income tax will be paid at a rate of 20 percent.
First-time entrepreneurs who are individual business operators, of legal working age, and have good personal credit can apply for a maximum of 500,000 yuan in guaranteed loans for entrepreneurship.
The measures are also aimed at facilitating registration services, optimizing regulatory models, and maintaining a fair and competitive market environment. The measures support direct changes for individual business operators.
In 2022, the total number of individual industrial and commercial businesses in Jinhua exceeded 1 million. From January to August this year, the city saw 205,300 new individual industrial and commercial businesses, ranking first in the province.
In addition, the measures will enhance support for the conversion of individual businesses into enterprises, allowing converted enterprises to use the trade name and original operating address of the original individual industrial and commercial household. They will also support the transfer of rights and interests such as real estate, patents, and trademarks owned by individual industrial and commercial households to the converted enterprises.
