Due 31 May · every China entity
Every company in China settles its corporate income tax for the previous year by 31 May. The part that catches foreign-invested companies out is not the return — it is the book-to-tax adjustments, the substantiation rules for deductions, and the fact that the filing is in Chinese and on a Chinese portal. We do the settlement, issue the opinion in English and Chinese, and file it for you.
Timing
The settlement itself is not difficult. Finding out about it in May is.
The annual corporate income tax settlement for the previous financial year is due. Late filing carries a surcharge of 0.05% of the tax per day, and it is levied automatically.
Books closed, adjustments agreed, documents gathered. This is when the work is calm and the questions are answerable. In May, everything is a scramble.
A deduction without a compliant Chinese invoice (fapiao) is disallowed. That is decided by what happened during the year, not by what we can do in May.
Scope of services
Written out in detail on purpose. If you are comparing firms, this is the list to put side by side with theirs.
Deliverables
The signed tax settlement opinion, carrying our practice licence number. Issued in Chinese and in English.
The CIT annual return as filed, with every figure traceable to the accounts.
Every book-to-tax adjustment listed, with the statutory basis and the amount. This is the document your head office finance team will want.
The tax bureau’s confirmation, so you have proof of filing for your own records and auditors.
What we would change in how the books are kept, so the next settlement is cheaper and cleaner.
A one-page English summary of the tax position, written for someone who does not read Chinese.
Also worth knowing
The year-end audit behind the combined annual report. Most clients settle both together.
The annual foreign-exchange filing for foreign-invested entities, in the same spring window.
Audit, settlement, FX inspection and annual report filing, in one fixed fee and one calendar.
Indicative fee
Put in your revenue or total assets and tick what you need. The number that comes out is the fixed fee we quote — on the published fee scale, not a figure invented per enquiry.
Enter your revenue or total assets above and the price appears here.
Fee bands
The standard fee comes off the published progressive scale (Yue Jia [2011] No.308); the band is set by your annual revenue or your total assets, whichever is larger. Our fee is the standard fee after the firm discount, with the English and Chinese bilingual reports and the filing included.
| Revenue or total assets | Standard fee | Our fee |
|---|
Standard service. Expedited service, two working days instead of five, adds 30%. Above RMB 1bn, or where the affairs are unusually complex, we quote in writing. Indicative only — the written quote governs.
Process
Entity type, what has been requested, and when it is due. One email is enough to start.
We come back within one business day with a written scope, a fixed fee and dates.
One document request list. We work from it, and visit site only where the work genuinely needs it.
Signed output in English or bilingual, plus support through whatever filing follows.
Fees
Fixed, in writing, before fieldwork starts. The drivers below are the ones that actually move the number — we tell you which of them apply to you in the first reply, not after you have signed.
FAQ
Not for every company. In practice it is required, or strongly expected, where you are claiming a tax preference, carrying losses forward, applying for a refund, or where the tax bureau asks for it. Most foreign-invested companies fall into at least one of those.
Five working days from complete documents. Two working days on the express option. The constraint is almost always documents rather than our capacity.
A surcharge of 0.05% of the tax due per day from the deadline, applied automatically by the system. It is not negotiable after the fact, which is why we plan back from the date.
Yes, and it is included rather than charged as an extra. You get the filing confirmation back.
Yes. If we find adjustments you should make, we list them and explain them rather than silently re-stating your accounts.
Tell us the entity type, the financial year and whether anything is already overdue. You will have a written scope, a fixed fee and dates within one business day.