General

Starting from April 1st, departure ports such as Tianjin Port and Qingdao Port will implement a tax refund policy at the port of departure. Foreign trade goods are deemed to have been exported from the port of departure and can be subject to tax refund procedures. According to the joint issuance of the "Notice on Expanding the Implementation Scope of Pilot Policies for Tax Refunds at Departure Ports" by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation, starting from this month, the tax refund policy at departure ports will be implemented in five provinces and cities: Tianjin, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shandong. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

As a major innovation in the management mode of export tax refund, the tax refund policy at the port of departure stipulates that eligible export enterprises can depart from the designated port of departure for customs declaration and export, and be transported by qualified transportation enterprises. If the container goods departing from the port are transported directly by water or stopped at the designated port, they will be considered exported upon departure at the port of departure. Enterprises can also apply for value-added tax export refund in advance, as reported by Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.

On the early morning of April 1st, Qingdao Feist International Trade Co., Ltd. declared to export a test flat vulcanizing machine. After completing the clearance procedures for the customs declaration and transfer form by Weihai Customs, the goods will be shipped from Weihai Port on the "Yinghai 22" internal branch ship, and then transit and export to Cambodia through Qingdao Port. This is the first shipment of customs clearance export goods to be subject to the departure port tax refund policy implemented by Qingdao Port after approval.

The goods were declared for export at 0:00-16 seconds, and the customs clearance system completed the customs declaration and transfer form release at 0:47 seconds and 4:53 seconds, respectively. All customs clearance and release procedures for the shipment of the goods were completed within 5 minutes. According to Song Xilin, the head of the Comprehensive Business Department of Weihai Customs, compared to the previous situation where tax refunds were only allowed after the goods had left the country, the enterprise's batch of goods completed the customs declaration and transfer form release procedures at the departure port, You can declare a tax refund.

Weihai Port is one of the 16 departure ports (stopover ports) that Qingdao Port has implemented as a departure port for tax refund policies. The other supporting departure ports (stopover ports) also include ports in Shandong Province such as Weifang and Yantai, as well as important ports outside the province such as Yangpu Port, Dalian Port, and Tianjin Port. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Our goods will depart from Qingdao Port by taking an internal feeder ship from Weihai Port. According to the current shipping company's arrangement, the mainline ship can depart from Qingdao Port as early as April 6th. After applying the tax refund policy at the departure port, the enterprise's tax refund time can be about a week earlier than before, effectively alleviating our financial pressure and is also very beneficial for stable export expectations, "said Wang Li, the business manager of Qingdao Feist International Trade Co., Ltd.

According to Shandong Port Shipping Group Shangang Express (Qingdao) Shipping Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the logistics and transportation of this batch of goods, the company carries internal branch goods from Weihai to and from Qingdao all year round, with at least 14 import and export voyages per week. Previously, export goods carried on board had to wait until the mainline ships left the country before export enterprises could apply for tax refunds to the tax authorities. After the implementation of the new policy, these goods can be immediately declared for tax refunds after completing the release procedures at the port of departure, which is an average of more than 7 days earlier. If the port of departure is located outside Shandong Province, the time for early tax refunds will be longer

The goods subject to the tax refund policy at the port of departure mainly include internal branch line transit exports and designated port export goods that have stopped. Qingdao Customs has previously launched and operated the "Intelligent Management System for Water to Water Transfer" to improve the efficiency of customs clearance for export logistics of goods that have been transferred. With the addition of tax refund policies at the departure port, enterprises can achieve paperless declaration, 24-hour customs clearance, and electronic automatic release, making it more convenient to enjoy the dividends of early tax refund policies. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Benefiting from the digital regulatory effect, after the implementation of the tax refund policy at the port of departure, export enterprises can apply the policy and enjoy preferential policies without adding any business operations, achieving early tax refund. "Zhao Yang, Director of the Comprehensive Business Department of Qingdao Customs, said that the customs operating system can automatically transmit electronic information of export goods declaration forms that meet the scope of application of the tax refund policy at the port of departure to the national tax authorities, Export enterprises can immediately apply to the national tax authorities for export tax refunds (exemptions), truly helping enterprises achieve "no sense of customs clearance" and "no sense of benefits".

Analysts pointed out that the implementation of this policy can not only effectively shorten the time for enterprises to obtain export tax refunds, improve the efficiency of enterprise capital turnover, but also effectively enhance the cargo adsorption capacity and service radiation ability of the departure port to local and surrounding enterprises, and improve the container cargo throughput of the port. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.