Platform companies' tax filing for the first quarter begins on April 1st. Strict platform review.

On April 1, the State Taxation Administration held a regular press conference.

In response to the “invoice-based economy” chaos, which disrupts the nationwide unified big market and distorts economic data, the tax authorities announced the phased achievements of a special campaign in the first quarter, clarifying that they will implement cross-departmental coordinated supervision and joint punishment, and clear the soil in which the “invoice-based economy” breeds. At the same time, the tax reporting work regarding internet platform enterprises for the first quarter of 2026 has officially begun.

Crack down hard on the “invoice-based economy” and firmly uphold the legal baseline for fair competition in taxation

The “invoice-based economy” is a prominent manifestation of illegal招商引资 in certain regions and “involution-style” competitive comparison. A relatively typical situation is that some localities attract platforms of all kinds that only engage in invoicing business or “shell companies” by illegally implementing fiscal rebates linked to taxes, and registering them in the local area. Meanwhile, some enterprises, for purposes such as boosting performance and obtaining financing, engage in “circular invoicing” and “mutual invoicing” between related enterprises, artificially inflate sales revenue, inject “water” into the local GDP, and create an illusion of “digital prosperity.”

Wang Daoshu, vice minister of the State Taxation Administration, pointed out that the “invoice-based economy” violates the Tax Collection and Administration Law, the tax entity law, and the Measures for Invoice Administration. It not only disrupts the order of economic taxation and causes actual loss of national financial capacity, but also damages a fair competitive environment, breaks up the nationwide unified big market. It may also, through businesses embellishing performance and engaging in illegal borrowing, trigger other risks, seriously deviating from the requirements of the Party Central Committee to establish and practice a correct view of political achievements, and seriously affecting high-quality development.

In recent years, tax authorities have continued to carry out special governance of tax-related issues involving illegal 招商引资. The national tax work conference held earlier this year required all levels of tax authorities to strictly implement the established measures for special governance of tax-related issues involving illegal 招商引资, and to thoroughly address the problem of the “invoice-based economy.”

Wang Daoshu said that the tax authorities have also achieved initial results in addressing “circular invoicing” and “mutual invoicing.” According to data from the State Taxation Administration, from January 1 to March 25, the invoiced amounts of such enterprises concentrated more in the wholesale industry decreased year on year by 2.6%. Among them, the invoiced amounts in the wholesale of coal and products decreased by 8.7% year on year, and those in the wholesale of metals and metal ores decreased by 5.2% year on year.

Wang Daoshu said that next, tax authorities will increase efforts to address the “invoice-based economy” in accordance with laws and regulations. By focusing on rectification targets such as cluster registrations, key industries, and related companies, they will improve risk monitoring indicators, strengthen ongoing scanning and analysis, and, based on verification results, quickly iterate and upgrade, continuously improving screening accuracy.

Tax authorities will conduct key verifications of high-risk regions, industries, and enterprises pointed to by risk scanning, and will continue to reduce the existing stock while curbing the增量, driving down both the number of enterprises engaged in illegal invoice issuance and the invoiced amounts nationwide on an ongoing basis. For illegal acts such as issuing fraudulent invoices, they will be handled strictly and without any leniency; for “shell companies” and invoicing platforms that are attracted through illegal reward-and-subsidy arrangements or tax rebates, as well as for illegal acts such as “passing transactions in disguise” and “circular invoicing,” targeted handling measures will be taken.

Wang Daoshu said that clearing the soil that enables the “invoice-based economy” requires joint efforts from relevant parties and all sectors of society. For regions and business entities where the “invoice-based economy” problems are more prominent, tax authorities will promptly push relevant information to departments such as the NDRC, the Ministry of Finance, the statistics authorities, market regulation authorities, and financial institutions, and will improve and refine the institutional mechanisms for coordinated governance of the “invoice-based economy,” pool cross-departmental coordinated supervision efforts, implement joint punishment, and enhance governance effectiveness.

The first-quarter platform tax-related reporting work has officially started

“Tax-related information reporting work for the first quarter of 2026 has already begun as of today.” Lin Qifeng, director of the Bureau of Tax Administration and Technology Development of the State Taxation Administration, said that tax authorities will continue to provide consultation and guidance as well as technical support, and will continuously improve the convenience of platform enterprises’ reporting. They also ask platform enterprises to continue to report tax-related information in accordance with laws and regulations, ensuring that the information is true, accurate, and complete.

To create a fair and unified tax environment and promote the standardized and healthy development of the platform economy, last June the State Council issued the《Regulations on the Reporting of Tax-Related Information by Internet Platform Enterprises》 (hereinafter referred to as the《Regulations》). It requires internet platform enterprises to report, on a quarterly basis to their主管税务机关, tax-related information such as identity information and income information of operators and practitioners within the platform.

With active support and cooperation from platform enterprises and the majority of operators and practitioners within the platforms, nearly 8,200 domestic and overseas platforms have already reported tax-related information to tax authorities. Lin Qifeng said that in the fourth quarter of 2025, the invoiced amount obtained by small-scale taxpayers within the platform increased by 28% year on year, and the role of tax-related information reporting in promoting compliance-linked collaboration along the industrial chain continued to become more apparent. The number of merchants paying taxes within platforms increased by 32% compared with before the implementation of the《Regulations》, and the gap between the average tax burdens of online merchants and offline merchants has narrowed noticeably.

Judging from the tax-related information reporting situation in the fourth quarter of 2025, most platforms advanced the time of reporting significantly compared with their first reporting (the third quarter of 2025). The number of operators and practitioners within the platforms and the scale of operating revenue reported by each platform increased by more than 10% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and the quality of the reported information has been further improved.

At the same time, the operating order of the platform economy has started to improve. Tax-related information reporting makes platform operating data more visible, and it has greatly compressed the space for illegal operations such as merchants who should be registered but are not, hiding income, splitting income, and converting income nature. Illegal business practices such as fake marketing, malicious order-filling, and price dumping have started to decrease. The “anti-involution” effect for the platform economy enabled by tax-related information reporting continues to show up.

Lin Qifeng said that next, tax authorities will strictly verify the quality of data reported by platforms and will strictly prevent issues such as falsification and reporting that does not match the facts. At the same time, they will further deepen the analysis and application of tax-related information, identify merchants’ tax risks within platforms, and issue compliance declaration reminders. For those who have illegal conduct and refuse to correct it, tax authorities will investigate and deal with them seriously. In addition, they will select typical cases for public exposure in due course, so as to effectively safeguard a fair and unified tax environment and better promote the standardized and healthy development of the platform economy.

More than 2 trillion yuan in tax and fee benefits for science and innovation has been implemented; strictly prevent “fake high-tech status” and “pseudo R&D” from fraudulently enjoying policy benefits

The “14th Five-Year” plan outline includes “a major increase in the level of scientific and technological self-reliance and strength” as one of the main goals for economic and social development. To support technological innovation, tax authorities have continued to promote the implementation of tax and fee preferential policies supporting technological innovation in a detailed and thorough manner.

Huang Yun, the spokesperson of the State Taxation Administration and director of its General Office, introduced that in 2025, the current major tax and fee policies supporting technological innovation included tax cuts and fee reductions, as well as tax refunds, totaling more than 2 trillion yuan. Among them, tax incentives for the additional deduction of R&D expenses exceeded 760 billion yuan; corporate income tax reductions for high-tech enterprises with a reduced rate of 15% totaled nearly 400 billion yuan; VAT input credit refund for manufacturing and scientific and technological service industries exceeded 180 billion yuan; and tax relief for advanced manufacturing enterprises enjoying VAT additional credit offset policies exceeded 170 billion yuan.

Huang Yun pointed out that driven strongly by a package of support policies, including tax and fee preferential policies, the integration of China’s scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation has been accelerating.

On the one hand, competitiveness in high-tech industries has been strengthened. In 2025, sales revenue in high-tech industries increased by 13.9% year on year; and in this year’s period from January 1 to March 25, it increased again by 14.6% year on year, reflecting that industrial upgrading driven by technological innovation as the core driving force is continuing to deepen.

On the other hand, the intensity of transforming research and development成果 into applications has increased. In 2025, sales revenue in the scientific and technological services industry and in knowledge-intensive industries with high scientific and technological content increased by 20.4% and 10.7% respectively year on year. From January 1 to March 25 this year, the figures increased again by 21% and 10.9% respectively, showing that scientific and technological achievements are accelerating their conversion into real productive forces.

In addition, the development of deep integration between the digital economy and the real economy has progressed steadily. In 2025, sales revenue in core industries of the digital economy and the total procurement amount of digital technologies by enterprises nationwide increased by 9.4% and 9.6% respectively. From January 1 to March 25 this year, they increased by 9.5% and 9.7% respectively. This reflects that digital industrialization and industrial digitization are continuing to advance.

Huang Yun said that next, tax authorities will rely on big tax data and information technology means to continue to carry out policy targeted delivery, further improving policy awareness, filing convenience, and the precision of benefiting from the policies. At the same time, they will closely focus on policies with large reduction or exemption amounts, rapid growth in scale, and high risks of fraudulent benefit-claiming. They will improve a normalized risk-scanning and early-warning mechanism, both preventing dereliction of duty by tax personnel and strictly investigating and cracking down on fraudulent benefit-claiming through methods such as “fake high-tech status” and “pseudo R&D.” They will resolutely prevent the “policy红包” from ending up in the “pockets” of illegal actors.

Proofread by: Liu Rongzhi

(Editor-in-charge: Dong Pingping)

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