According to the Legal Daily, the central government and the State Council have decided to further extend the range of policies designed to relieve the burdens of unemployed workers and assist them find work. The State Taxation Administration is making every effort to carry out the policy and specify the relevant taxation policies by laying down detailed operation measures. The following aspects form the basis of the supplements.

The supplements clarify the scope of the policy and determine which laid-off workers will be able to enjoy favorable taxation measures. The beneficiaries include laid-off workers and unemployed personnel from state-owned enterprises, people made redundant through state-owned enterprise bankruptcies, unemployed people with minimum living standards guaranteed by the current system and who have been out of work for more than one year, and workers from large to medium state owned enterprises laid off due to supplementary trade reforms.

The supplements also specify the scope of service organizations and national limited trade enterprises which will not benefit from the favorable taxation policies. For example, service organizations refers to those enterprises engaged in business activities identified in the current business tax “service trade” list, covering agency businesses, hotel businesses, the food and beverage industry, storage businesses, rental businesses, advertising and other service related ventures. National limited trade enterprises are those not encouraged by government and which can compete aggressively in the market and make reasonable profits.

The supplements aim to reduce the proportion of income tax paid by existing service enterprises with more than 30 percent of laid-off workers and for new service enterprises with under 30 percent of laid-off workers.

In addition, the supplements also give clear definitions on issues such as the extended range of value added taxes and business taxes, specifications for new enterprises, make links with current favorable taxation policies and identify qualifications required by economic bodies.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiao November 28, 2002)