Opinions of the State Taxation Administration on Conducting the "Spring Breeze Action to Facilitate Citizens' Handling of Tax Affairs" in 2023

Document Number: No. 1 [2023] of the State Taxation Administration

Issuing Authority: State Taxation Administration

Date of Issuance: 2023-01-01

Status: Full text is valid

The offices of the State Taxation Administration ("STA") in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and cities under separate state planning; all local special commissioner's offices of the STA; and all entities of the STA:

In order to deeply study and implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, conscientiously implement the deployments of the Central Economic Work Conference, continuously grasp the “Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Collection and Administration” Issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, the State Taxation Administration has decided to carry out the "Spring Breeze Action to Facilitate Citizens' Handling of Tax Affairs" (hereinafter referred to as "Spring Breeze Action") for the 10th consecutive year in 2023 under the theme of "Doing Things Well for Benefiting the Citizens and Serving Modernization", and to launch the first batch of 17 measures for facilitating citizens' payment of taxes, which will be followed by a number of successive measures in batches to continuously improve taxpayers' sense of access and satisfaction, better serve Chinese modernization, and contribute to the tax force for a good start in building a modern socialist country.

I. Overall Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era, we should deeply study and implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress; focus on the implementation of the decisions and arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, focus on the implementation of deepening the reform of "simplification of administrative procedures, decentralization of powers, combination of decentralization with appropriate control, and optimization of services" and optimizing the business environment, and focus closely on the most pressing difficulties and problems that are of great concern to taxpayers and fee payers; adhere to the people first, adhere to upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, adhere to problem orientation, and adhere to traditional concepts; deeply carry out the "Spring Breeze Action" in a continuous and progressive way; launch series of reform and innovation measures in successive batches to continuously promote the improvement in the quality of responding to demands, the efficiency of policy implementation, the grade of fine services, the speed of intelligent tax processing, the level of streamlined processes and the standardization of law enforcement; contribute to stimulating the vitality of market entities, maintaining the legitimate and fair taxation environment and promoting high-quality development; and better serve Chinese modernization with the in-depth promotion of tax modernization.

II. Action Content

The first 17 measures for facilitating citizens' payment of taxes include the following six areas:

(1) Improvement in the quality of responding to demands. Organize the national taxpayers' demand collection, actively respond to reasonable demands, solve the most pressing difficulties and problems that are of great concern to taxpayers and fee payers, and improve and upgrade the tax services. Carry out the pilot of "Tax Direct", continuously optimize the service strategy according to the behavioral habits of taxpayers and fee payers, explore and launch relevant service products, and effectively improve the service experience of taxpayers and fee payers.

(2) Improvement in the efficiency of policy implementation. Strengthen the promotion and counseling of preferential corporate income tax policies, innovate policy services and management methods, and help taxpayers fully enjoy the policy dividends. Broaden the scope of recipients of priority refund after final statement and payment of individual income tax to further enhance taxpayers' sense of access. Carry out the 32nd National Tax Awareness Month to actively promote and counsel taxpayers and fee payers on the relevant tax-friendly policies and measures.

(3) Improvement in the grade of fine services. Give play to the role of taxation big data, continuously utilize the function of "national taxpayer supply chain inquiry" to actively engage in matchmaking for enterprises and help them resume work and production. Explore the provision of intelligent response service for natural persons as a priority and continuously improve the level of intelligent consultation service. Combine with the promotion of digital electronic invoices to carry out a pilot project of visual Q&A about technology and application to provide taxpayers with more intuitive, accurate and efficient consulting services.

(4) Improvement in the speed of intelligent tax processing. Establish and improve the national unified tax trustworthy identity account system to facilitate taxpayers to handle business through various channels. Support taxpayers to make cross-border payment of taxes directly in RMB through online filing and other means outside of China, relying on the system of horizontal networking among public finance departments, tax authorities, treasuries and commercial banks, and the RMB cross-border payment mechanism. In the pilot areas of digital RMB, promote the implementation of digital RMB tax payment, enrich the application scenarios of digital RMB, and meet the diversified tax payment needs of taxpayers and fee payers.

(5) Improvement in the level of streamlined processes. Strengthen the registration business synergy and simplify the operation process of change registration, so that taxpayers do not need to report the registration change information to the tax authorities after the change of registration in the market regulation department according to the law, and the tax authorities will automatically synchronize the change according to the change registration information shared by the market regulation department. Facilitate individual income tax withholding agents to apply for the refund of handling fees for the current year before cancellation. Develop and launch the personal pension deduction filling function to facilitate taxpayers in pilot cities to fill in reports to enjoy the pretax deduction of personal pensions and individual income tax. Promote the networking inquiry and verification of national vehicle and vessel tax payment information to facilitate taxpayers to apply for insurance and pay tax in different places.

(6) Improvement in the standardization of law enforcement. Optimize corporate income tax policy risk alert service to help taxpayers better handle the final statement and payment of corporate income tax. Explore and optimize the mechanism of tax credit re-evaluation for newly established taxpayers; taxpayers who have been included in tax credit management for 12 months or longer time but less than one evaluation year can apply for tax credit re-evaluation in March or September 2023; tax authorities will determine their tax credit evaluation results in April or October based on their tax credit status in the past 12 months and provide self-inquiry services.

III. Work Requirements

(1) Strengthen organizational leadership. Carrying out "Spring Breeze Action" is a specific initiative of the tax authorities to implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference, and is an inherent requirement to continuously improve the sense of access of taxpayers and fee payers. Tax authorities at all levels should always adhere to the overall leadership of the Party throughout the whole process of promoting the implementation of "Spring Breeze Action", adhere to the people-centered development ideology, fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the majority of cadres, effectively motivate Party members and cadres to take responsibilities and actions, and strive to make new breakthroughs in improving the level of facilitating the payment of taxes.

(2) Pay close attention to the implementation of work. Tax authorities at all levels should fully grasp the important significance of the "Spring Breeze Action" conducted for the 10th consecutive year, adhere to the standards and schedules, and promote the timely introduction of various measures; relevant departments and bureaus of the State Taxation Administration should effectively play a functional role, strengthen the work guidance and supervision, solve major problems in the implementation promptly, and promote exchanges and mutual understanding of each place; local tax authorities should strengthen communication and collaboration, refine key tasks, and ensure the effective implementation of the measures for the "Spring Breeze Action".

(3) Make active exploration and innovation. Give full play to the creativity of the grassroots, encourage local tax authorities to make exploration and innovation in the implementation process, and make efforts to solve the most pressing difficulties and problems that are of great concern to taxpayers and fee payers through the development of "Spring Breeze Action". Summarize and refine the reform measures that have proved to be effective and highly recognized by enterprises and the public in a timely manner, and actively accumulate more replicable and extendable experiences for the national taxation system.

(4) Create a good atmosphere. Tax authorities at all levels should take the initiative to carry out various forms of publicity and report on the effectiveness of "Spring Breeze Action" and increase the publicity on its successful experience and effective practices to create a good social atmosphere for further promoting tax modernization and better serving Chinese modernization.

Annex: The Schedule of the First Batch of Work Tasks for the "Spring Breeze Action to Facilitate Citizens' Handling of Tax Affairs" in 2023

State Taxation Administration

January 1, 2023