In order to allow the newly included 11 million taxpayers to adapt to the new tax system as soon as possible and enjoy the reform dividends as much as possible, the tax department recently launched a new round of policy guidance across the country. Recently, in response to the relatively concentrated policy difficulties reported by taxpayers, Lin Feng, deputy director of the Department of Goods and Labor Taxation of the State Administration of Taxation, explained and responded to concerns.
6% low tax rate applies to restaurant takeaway
Tax incentives continue, and academic education services enjoy VAT exemption
In recent years, online food ordering has become a personalized choice for many consumers, and many catering companies are changing to takeaway business models. But should selling takeaway food be subject to a value-added tax rate of 17% like merchandise sales, or enjoy a low tax rate of 6% like traditional catering services?
"The sale of takeaway food by restaurants, restaurants and other catering enterprises is not a sale of goods, and there is no need to pay VAT at 17%." Lin Feng said that according to the relevant regulations after the change to the VAT, taxpayers who provide catering services sell takeaway food and pay VAT according to the catering service. Among them, ordinary taxpayers are subject to the lowest rate of 6%.
How much will this affect the operating costs of catering companies? "Our monthly takeaway income is 10,000 diverse. If we pay 17% VAT of more than 1,700 yuan, we can now pay more than 1,000 yuan less per month," said Zhang Jing, head of Shandong Zibo High-tech Zone Branch of Burger King (Beijing) Catering.
At present, our country implements a 13% value-added tax rate on tap water sales. In reality, many residents buy water through property companies for resale. Some property companies propose that reselling tap water can only obtain 3% of the input invoice, but if the tax is paid at the 13% rate, there will be "high levy and low deduction" of VAT, thus increasing the tax burden.
"The finance and taxation department has noticed and issued special policies to properly resolve it." Lin Feng said that for taxpayers who provide property management services, the tap water fee charged by the service recipient is calculated as the sales amount after deducting the tap water fee paid by the taxpayer. According to the simple tax calculation method, it is calculated according to the 3% collection rate.
Dong Xiufang, director of company finance of Cangzhou branch of Hebei Travel and Investment Century Property Company, calculated the accounts on the financial statements: After the introduction of the policy, 8 months have passed, the company’s water fee is 79,796.09 yuan, and 2375 yuan value-added tax is paid; and according to the previous tax calculation method, 10373.42 yuan needs to be paid, which is obvious.
In order to ensure the smooth transformation of the tax system, the finance and taxation department continues the preferential tax policies during the business tax period in principle based on the actual situation of the industry. Taking education services as an example, after the change from business camp to value-added tax, the original business tax preferential policies have all been translated into value-added tax preferential policies. Educational services provided by academic education can enjoy the value-added tax exemption policy; for general taxpayers to provide non-academic education services, they can also choose to apply the simple tax calculation method to calculate the tax payable according to the 3% collection rate.
If the original invoice of the second-hand house is lost, the difference can also be taxed.
Real estate development taxes reduce costs and promote inventory removal in third- and fourth-tier cities
"I sold a house some time ago, and the agent told me that I need the previous purchase invoice to pay the tax difference, but I can’t find the invoice, and the agent said that it must be paid in full." Some buyers in Beijing said that they had just bought a house for two years, and it was quite expensive when they bought it before. If the full tax burden is too heavy, I hope the tax department can help them.
This time, the pilot project of replacing business with value-added tax has been fully launched, and it is the first time that natural persons are involved in paying value-added tax, especially the sale of second-hand houses. Lin Feng said that if taxpayers transfer real estate and pay value-added tax according to the difference in relevant regulations, if they cannot provide the invoice at the time of obtaining the real estate due to loss and other reasons, they can provide the tax authority with other information such as tax payment certificates that can prove the taxable amount of the deed tax, and deduct the difference.
So, what information can be used as the basis for proving the amount of tax? The person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Taxation Department told reporters that in order to reduce the impact of the tax change on personal housing transactions, the provable materials include: tax payment vouchers marked as "deed tax" or tax payment certificates, special tax payment certificates for deed tax, deed tax payment certificates, etc.
At the same time, the tax authority can also use the means of verifying the housing deed tax records to find out the tax amount, including: file transfer to inquire about the bottom line of the ticket in the inventory file, and the housing management department to adjust the file to inquire about the invoice or deed tax payment certificate records collected when handling the transfer of ownership. In addition, the municipal tax department has specially established a deed tax database, which can be queried immediately.
The price of land is one of the important costs in real estate development. It is very popular for real estate enterprises to deduct the land price from the sales volume and then calculate the value-added tax. But what items does the land price include? Many companies are quite concerned.
Lin Feng introduced that according to the regulations, the land price includes not only the land acquisition and demolition compensation expenses paid by the land transferee to the government department, but also the land development expenses and land transfer income. The demolition compensation expenses paid by the general taxpayer in the real estate development enterprise to other units or individuals when they sell their development projects are also allowed to be deducted when calculating the sales.
"The average selling price of our project can be reduced by 105 yuan per square meter, which stimulates the increase in housing sales." Li Weihong, general manager of Shandong Weifang Xiangkai Real Estate Company, said that after the change of VAT to include demolition compensation and other expenses, the company’s tax burden has been reduced by 33.35%. Through price reduction promotions, the company’s destocking cycle has been shortened from 11.5 months at the end of 2015 to 6.9 months at the end of 2016.
The hotel can issue an invoice immediately.
Electronic invoices, online invoice application, etc. to reduce the tax burden
VAT has the characteristics of ring-ring deduction, and the importance of special VAT invoices as deduction vouchers is self-evident. This puts forward higher requirements for the use and management of invoices after the camp change. How to ensure that taxpayers issue and use VAT invoices in a timely and convenient manner?
Mr. Liu is a salesperson at the Chongqing branch of the North China Design and Research Institute of Municipal Engineering. Because of his frequent business trips, issuing invoices has become one of his biggest headaches. "The company’s financing requirements are very strict, and the accommodation fee will only be reimbursed by issuing a special invoice."
After the change, small accommodation enterprises need to go to the tax authority to issue special invoices on behalf of consumers, and cannot issue invoices for consumers on site. "Some large enterprises need to issue special invoices to deduct taxes. We can only let the guests check out first, and then mail it to the guests after opening it, and we have to pay the postage." Ji Yanbin, finance minister of Tianwaitian Business Hotel in Wu’an City, Hebei Province, said.
In response to taxpayers’ demands, the State Administration of Taxation started a pilot in 91 cities in August last year, allowing small-scale VAT taxpayers in the accommodation industry to issue special VAT invoices by themselves. In November of that year, the pilot was extended to the whole country. "At present, eligible small-scale taxpayers in the accommodation industry can issue special invoices by themselves," Lin Feng said.
"In the past, we had to issue hundreds of special invoices for the accommodation industry every day. Now not only do taxpayers pay less taxes and run errands, but the burden on our window is also reduced," said Du Juan, deputy director of the joint tax department of Wu’an City.
With the rapid development of the Internet economy, some e-commerce companies have to bear the high cost of mailing paper invoices due to the dispersion of delivery places. Many companies hope to promote the electronic invoice model as soon as possible to save operating costs.
In this regard, the State Administration of Taxation has implemented VAT electronic ordinary invoices across the country, and e-commerce enterprises only need to apply to the local competent national tax authority.
"Save two hours of printing and mailing time every day, and save more than 500,000 yuan in postage fees throughout the year." Peng Liying, company finance manager of Shandong Zhuochuang Information, said that in the past, more than 300 paper invoices were issued and mailed every day, and the electronic invoice reduced the burden very well.
"The appeal of applying for VAT electronic invoices is relatively strong." Wang Zhenzhu, head of the Goods and Labor Department of the State Taxation Bureau of Zibo City, Shandong Province, introduced that in the past year, taxpayers in the city have issued 322,700 VAT electronic ordinary invoices online, and the amount issued is 159 million yuan.
In addition, in response to the situation that some enterprises need to go to and from the tax office to apply for VAT invoices, the State Administration of Taxation has also fully implemented the online application service for VAT invoices to achieve "a little mouse, the invoice goes home". (Reporter, Wu Qiuyu)