General

On the fifth day after the end of the Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Rabbit, the export of returned goods from cross-border e-commerce ushered in a favorable tax policy.

On February 1, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued the Announcement on the Tax Policy for the Export Returned Goods of Cross-border E-commerce (No. 4, 2023) (hereinafter referred to as the Announcement), which exempted the import tariff, import value-added tax and consumption tax on the export returned goods of cross-border e-commerce that meet the requirements, and allowed the export tariff collected at the time of export to be refunded, and the value-added tax collected at the time of export The consumption tax shall be subject to the relevant tax regulations on the return of domestic goods.

Hit the pain point directly

The proportion of goods returned or unsalable by cross-border e-commerce exports due to buyer rejection is not small. According to previous operations, if cross-border e-commerce export goods need to be returned, they need to be imported into the country. In addition to freight costs, import tariffs, import value-added tax, consumption tax and other costs will also be incurred. Under the pressure of comprehensive cost, enterprises usually choose to promote or destroy such goods overseas at low prices, thus causing loss of interests.

According to the scope of application and the time limit of the policy, the goods (excluding food) that are declared for export under the cross-border e-commerce customs supervision code (1210, 9610, 9710, 9810) within one year from the date of the publication of the Announcement and returned to the country in their original state within six months from the date of export due to unsalable and return reasons are exempt from import tariff, import value-added tax and consumption tax; The export tariff collected at the time of export is allowed to be refunded, and the value-added tax and consumption tax collected at the time of export are subject to the relevant tax provisions on the return of domestic goods. Among them, the export commodities under the supervision code 1210 shall be returned to the outside of the domestic area within 6 months from the date of departure of the customs special supervision area or bonded logistics center (type B).

The introduction of export return policy has responded to the new demand for cross-border e-commerce export by reducing the cost of export goods return, and alleviated the worries of cross-border e-commerce export enterprises. Wang Shan, executive director of Yibang think tank, said that for a long time in the past, China's cross-border e-commerce exports were dominated by flow sellers, most of which sold goods with high cost performance, and the logistics cost accounted for a relatively high proportion, with little demand for return shipments. In the past two years, brand-based businesses have gradually become a new force to go to the sea. The high-quality brand goods they sell have shown the characteristics of high customer price, technology and intelligence, and the proportion of logistics costs has decreased. This kind of goods will involve high storage and management costs due to unsalable, rejected and returned goods staying in overseas warehouses, and the demand for goods return is growing.

"The 'zero tariff' for the return of cross-border export commodities has solved one of the important pain points of the cross-border e-commerce industry." Zhu Qiucheng, a special researcher of the Economic and Social E-commerce Research Center and the CEO of Ningbo New Oriental Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., said directly that the policies introduced this time are in line with the actual situation of enterprises, reducing the burden and profits for enterprises with tax advantages, helping international trade enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency, truly stabilizing export expectations and boosting export confidence, Let international trade enterprises have more confidence in the development of cross-border e-commerce.

Enhanced support

The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce and other new business forms has become an important force to stabilize foreign trade. According to customs data, China's cross-border e-commerce exports will reach 1.55 trillion yuan in 2022. In order to further play the role of cross-border e-commerce in stabilizing foreign trade, the "Several Policies and Measures to Support the Stable Development of Foreign Trade" issued by the Ministry of Commerce in September 2022 proposed to accelerate the introduction of tax policies to facilitate the return and exchange of cross-border e-commerce exports.

The introduction of export return policy can reduce the cost of export return of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, and also promote the healthy development of the industry. Zhu Qiucheng said that in recent years, the 9710 and 9810 customs declaration models have been continuously promoted in the cross-border e-commerce industry. The introduction of the export return policy will make international trade enterprises more willing to participate in the 9710 and other customs declaration models, which will play a good role in guiding and promoting the transparency and standardization of industry data.

Li Mingtao, the chief e-commerce expert of China International Electronic Commerce Center, wrote an article that in order to further optimize the return process and regulations of cross-border e-commerce export commodities, provide more convenience for international trade enterprises, reduce the operating threshold and the entry cost of enterprise returns, the next step can be to establish a complete closed-loop of the whole process from procurement, exit, warehousing, sales to return and exchange.

For international trade export goods and 9610 export goods that have been summarized into customs declaration forms, "how to prove that the goods have not been refunded or that the tax refund has been paid is an important condition for the return of goods into the country without taxation." Li Mingtao said that according to the current regulations, the return enterprises need to provide the tax authorities with the original and copy of the application forms, customs declaration forms, export invoices, general tax payment forms and other supporting materials. In order to optimize the return tax policy, we can consider using the international trade single window platform and other one-stop submission of relevant applications to improve the efficiency of the management department's review; At the same time, according to the characteristics and attributes of the returned goods, special policies are formulated in terms of the supplementary payment of taxes.

In addition, there are a large number of small and micro cross-border e-commerce export sellers who deliver goods to overseas consumers through postal parcels, commercial express and other means in the self-delivery mode. Their export customs clearance is through mail, and has not been included in the cross-border e-commerce customs clearance system. In this regard, Li Mingtao suggested to explore and implement the return and collection mode of postal parcels cross-border e-commerce export goods, set up a collection warehouse for returned goods to be returned to China in batches in order to reduce the return cost, and explore and introduce corresponding management measures in terms of customs clearance and taxation.