Recently, Guangzhou Tax Service, State Taxation Administration held a public enlightenment activity on “Gathering Global Innovative Wisdom, Creating a Free Port for International Talents”,AS a follow-up activity of the 30th National Tax Publicity Month. It was co-organized by the relevant departments of Huangpu District to publicize the development of the municipal government’s tax services for the Greater Bay area. Tax policies were publicized online and offline in Chinese and English.
With the understanding that talents serve as the key for development and innovation, Guangzhou Tax Service implements favorable tax policies and provides fine service to optimize the business environment for attracting and retaining high-end professionals.
Attracting Talents for the Great Bay Area with Favorable Tax Policies
The financial subsidy for Greater Bay Area individual income tax preferential policies was granted for the first time last year. “This incentive has leveled the income tax gap between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland, significantly reduced the employment cost”, said Chan Taili, a beneficiary who got his subsidy. He is Deputy General Manager of SMC (Guangzhou) Automation Co., Ltd., a native of Hong Kong who has worked in Guangzhou for years. “This has provided more opportunities and better conditions for young people in Hong Kong and Macao to innovate and start businesses. It will also attract and retain more overseas talents for the Greater Bay Area, and meet the needs of enterprises in transformation, upgrading, innovation and development.”
In Guangzhou Stentlei Electric Co., Ltd. ten Japanese executives and technical professionals were granted a total subsidy of one million-plus Yuan. "To us, it’s an encouragement to be beneficiaries of the grant, and we can feel the Chinese government’s concern and support for foreign talents," said Notoji Fujio, General Manager. “The government’s policies to cut tax and fee in recent years has indeed reduced the burden on enterprises and breathed vigor into their development. The State Council’s proposal to deduct 100% of R&D expenses in the manufacturing sector this year makes us more confident in introducing talents and increasing R&D investment."
Feeding Enterprises with Refined & Personalized Tax Services
Tax preferential policies benefit talents directly, while refined tax services give more confidence in development. In recent years, Guangzhou Tax Service has launched cross-border tax services to improve the satisfaction and convenience of enterprises and talents, such as “Non-differential Convenient Tax/Fee Service”, “Tax E-check of Talent in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”. It also has launched innovative services such as “Non-contact” online tax payment, “Integrated Online Platform for Business Start-up”, V-Tax remote tax service, and “One Enterprise, One Policy” service.
A case in point is Herrico (Guangzhou) Tunnel Equipment Co., Ltd., established in 2002 in Huangpu District, a German-funded enterprise. Currently, it plans to set up a new project of sunken shaft tunneling equipment developed and owned by itself worldwide. "Over the years, the tax department has given us great support, finding ways to get us out of difficulties in production and business activities. Therefore, despite periods of production breaks, logistics disruptions and delays in resuming work due to the COVID-19, our sales have continued to grow steadily", said Mr. Leitner, Director and General Manager of the company. "After the introduction of the individual income tax subsidy policy in the Greater Bay Area, the tax department immediately informed us and provided counselling service."
Another case is LG Display Optoelectronics Technology (China) Co. Ltd. "Due to the epidemic,239 foreign talents of our company transferred from resident taxpayers to non-resident last year. Through door-to-door publicity and guidance, the tax department helped us solve the related individual income tax declaration problem, reducing the corresponding tax cost of about 200,000 Yuan." said Kim Yong-ho, the CFO. "As we all know, the most important asset of an enterprise is talents, as well as its important strategic issue. Under the timely guidance from the tax department, more than 100 of our technical experts have obtained the income tax subsidy in the Greater Bay Area with a total amount of over 10 million yuan, which is a great encouragement and spur for the company and technical experts, and undoubtedly plays a great role in retaining talents for our company. We are full of confidence and expectation for the future development in Guangzhou."
Making Good Use of Magnetic Attraction in Development Boost
Talent tank benefits not only the enterprise, but also the rapid development of a region. As an important platform for China-Singapore cooperation, China -Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co., Ltd. has been deeply involved in the development of the South Start-up Area of the City and its subsequent stages. Its Vice President Wang Meifang said that granting individual income tax subsidy for overseas talents in the Greater Bay Area and significantly reduce their actual tax burden are indirectly equivalent to "pay" for individuals. It helps enterprise to attract talents and staff from overseas, such as Singapore. And the magnetic attraction effect of talents will play an active role in guiding and promoting the pooling of talents in knowledge city.
According to iFeng.com Guangdong, Huangpu tax department has followed “Spring Breeze Campaign for More Convenient Taxation Service” of “I do practical things for taxpayers”, by setting up 4 Party-member vanguard teams to optimize tax business environment and improve taxpayers’satisfaction, 14 professional service teams to help and serve enterprises. They are seen as increased efforts in helping enterprises to learn new preferential tax policies such as 100% additional deduction for manufacturing R&D expenses. The purpose is to continue help enterprises to solve practical problems, and jointly create a better development environment with the business brand "Huangpu Smile" in the district, so as to boost the construction of "Double District" and the linkage of "Double City" in the Greater Bay Area.
