GF [2014] No. 62
People's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, ministries and commissions of the State Council, and institutions directly under the State Council:
In accordance with the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the requirements of the Decision of the State Council on Deepening the Reform of the Budget Management System (GF [2014] No. 45), in order to strengthen financial discipline and speed up the construction of a unified, open and orderly competitive market system, we hereby notify the following issues related to the cleaning up and standardization of preferential policies such as taxation:
1、 Fully understand the significance of sorting out and standardizing preferential policies such as taxation
In recent years, in order to promote regional economic development, some regions and departments have implemented preferential policies (hereinafter referred to as tax and other preferential policies) for specific enterprises and their investors (or managers) in terms of tax, non tax income and fiscal expenditure, which has promoted investment growth and industrial agglomeration to a certain extent. However, some preferential policies such as taxation have disturbed the market order, affected the effect of national macro-control policies, and may even violate China's foreign commitments, causing international trade frictions.
Fully standardizing preferential policies such as taxation is conducive to maintaining a fair market competition environment, promoting the formation of a unified national market system, and giving play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation; It is conducive to implementing national macroeconomic policies, breaking local protection and industrial monopoly, and promoting economic transformation and upgrading; It is conducive to strengthening financial discipline, preventing and punishing corruption, and maintaining normal income distribution order; It is conducive to deepening the reform of the fiscal and taxation system, promoting administration according to law, scientific financial management, and establishing a comprehensive, standardized, open and transparent budget system.
2、 General requirements
（1） Guiding ideology.
Guided by Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of "Three Represents" and the Scientific Outlook on Development, we will fully implement the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and accelerate the construction of a unified, open, competitive and orderly market system to promote the healthy development of the socialist market economy, By sorting out and standardizing preferential policies such as taxation, we oppose local protection and unfair competition, strive to remove market barriers that affect the free flow of goods and factors, promote the improvement of the socialist market economic system, make the market play a decisive role in resource allocation, and promote economic transformation and upgrading.
（2） Main principles.
1. Up and down linkage, comprehensive and standardized. All relevant departments shall, in accordance with laws and regulations and the unified requirements of the State Council, sort out and standardize the preferential policies such as taxes issued by their own departments, and all regions shall carry out the work of sorting out and standardizing at the same time. All policies that violate laws and regulations or affect fair competition should be included in the scope of clearing and standardizing. It is necessary to standardize preferential policies for tax, non tax and other income, as well as preferential policies for fiscal expenditure linked to tax or non tax income paid by enterprises.
2. Overall planning and steady progress. Based on the current situation, we should distinguish between priorities, resolutely cancel preferential policies that violate laws and regulations, comply with WTO rules and China's foreign commitments, and gradually standardize other preferential policies; We should also take a long-term perspective and take the opportunity of carrying out the work of cleaning up and standardizing to establish and improve a long-term management mechanism.
3. Publicize information and accept supervision. In accordance with the requirements of government information disclosure, we should comprehensively promote the disclosure of information related to tax and other preferential policies, enhance transparency and enhance credibility; Establish a reporting system, mobilize all forces, and strengthen supervision and balance.
3、 Practically standardize various tax and other preferential policies
（1） Unify tax policy formulation authority. Adhere to the principle of statutory taxation. Except for the tax administration authority stipulated in the special tax laws and regulations and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy, all regions shall not formulate preferential tax policies on their own; Without the approval of the State Council, no specific preferential tax policies shall be stipulated in the drafting of other laws, regulations, rules, development plans and regional policies by any department.
（2） Standardize the management of non tax income. Strictly implement the existing administrative fees, government funds and social insurance management systems. It is strictly prohibited to reduce or postpone the collection of administrative fees and government funds for enterprises in violation of regulations, and to transfer land at preferential prices or zero land prices; It is strictly prohibited to transfer state-owned assets, state-owned enterprise shares, minerals and other state-owned resources at low prices; It is strictly prohibited to reduce or postpone the payment of social insurance premiums that enterprises should bear in violation of laws and regulations and the provisions of the State Council. Without the approval of the State Council, enterprises should not be allowed to pay at a lower rate than the uniform rate.
（3） Strictly manage financial expenditure. Without the approval of the State Council, no region or department may stipulate preferential fiscal policies for enterprises. Preferential policies for fiscal expenditure related to tax or non tax income paid by enterprises and their investors (or managers) in violation of laws and regulations, including return after collection, collection and expenditure, financial incentives or subsidies, and reduction or exemption of land transfer income in the form of payment or subsidies, will be resolutely cancelled. Other preferential policies, such as undertaking social insurance payment and other operating costs on behalf of enterprises, giving electricity and water price preferences, attracting enterprises in other regions to settle down or pay taxes locally through financial incentives or subsidies, etc., and gradually regulating the full retention or incremental return of local fiscal revenue in some regions.
4、 Comprehensive review of existing preferential policies such as taxes
All regions and relevant departments should carry out a special clean-up, carefully check the tax and other preferential policies formulated and issued by their own regions and departments, especially comprehensively sort out the contracts, agreements, memorandums, minutes of meetings or talks signed with enterprises, as well as the "one case, one discussion" form of instructions, reports and replies, find out the bottom line, and ensure that there are no omissions.
Through special clean-up, all preferential policies that violate national laws and regulations will be stopped, and documents will be issued to invalidate them; Preferential policies that need to be retained without legal and regulatory barriers shall be submitted by the provincial people's government or relevant departments to the Ministry of Finance for review and summary, and then submitted to the State Council for special instructions.
All provincial people's governments and relevant departments shall submit to the Ministry of Finance, before the end of March 2015, their own special clean-up of preferential policies such as taxation, which shall be summarized by the Ministry of Finance and reported to the State Council.
5、 Establish and improve long-term mechanism
（1） Establish evaluation and exit mechanism. The Ministry of Finance shall take the lead in the regular evaluation of the preferential tax policies stipulated by laws and regulations and the preferential policies for non tax revenue and fiscal expenditure approved by the State Council. Policies that have no legal and regulatory barriers and have promotion value should be implemented nationwide as soon as possible; The policy with a clear time limit for implementation shall, in principle, be terminated upon expiration; For policies without a clear time limit for implementation, the time limit for policy implementation shall be set. For policies that do not meet the needs of economic development and have no obvious effect, the Ministry of Finance shall take the lead in proposing adjustment or cancellation together with relevant departments and submit them to the State Council for examination and approval.
（2） Improve the evaluation and supervision mechanism. It is specified that the main responsible person of the local people's government at all levels is the first responsible person for the management of preferential policies such as taxes in the region. The management of preferential policies such as taxes will be an important part of the comprehensive assessment and evaluation system for the leadership and leading cadres, as well as an important basis for promotion, appointment, management and supervision.
（3） Establish information disclosure and reporting system. Establish a directory list system. In addition to matters related to state secrets and security, information such as the formulation, adjustment or cancellation of preferential policies such as taxation should form a directory list and be timely and completely disclosed to the public in an appropriate form. Establish a reporting system to encourage and guide all parties to supervise the formulation and implementation of tax and other preferential policies in violation of laws and regulations.
（4） Strengthen the accountability mechanism. Establish a regular inspection and accountability system. The Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Finance, the National Audit Office, the State Administration of Taxation and other departments should, in accordance with the division of responsibilities, investigate, deal with and correct all kinds of violations of laws, regulations and preferential tax policies. From the date of issuance of this notice, the main heads of the government and departments, the policy making departments and the policy implementation departments shall be investigated for their responsibilities and given corresponding disciplinary sanctions for regions and departments that have introduced or continue to implement preferential policies such as taxation in violation of regulations; The central finance shall deduct the tax refund or transfer payment to the region in accordance with a certain proportion of the preferential tax amount.
6、 Perfect safeguard measures
（1） Strengthen organizational leadership. Establish an inter ministerial joint meeting system led by the Ministry of Finance to sort out tax and other preferential policies, specifically be responsible for policy guidance and overall coordination, strengthen supervision, inspection and tracking implementation, study and solve major problems, and timely report major issues to the State Council. The people's governments at the provincial, municipal and county levels should establish a working mechanism of preferential policies such as tax clearing led by the financial department and coordinated by relevant departments, and organize the implementation of the clearing and standardization work in their own regions.
（2） Improve relevant policies. While carrying out the work of cleaning up and standardizing in a down-to-earth manner, all regions and departments should, in accordance with the unified deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, conscientiously implement the tax and other preferential policies formulated by the state, vigorously cultivate emerging industries, actively support small and micro enterprises to accelerate their development, further improve the social insurance, social assistance and social welfare systems, and increase the protection of low-income groups in urban and rural areas, Efforts should be made to promote the equalization of employment and basic public services.
（3） We will strengthen public opinion guidance. All regions, departments and relevant news units should strengthen policy publicity and interpretation, timely release information, unify ideas, gather consensus and create a good atmosphere of public opinion through government or department websites, radio and television, print media and other channels.
Standardizing tax and other preferential policies is related to the overall situation, with strong policy orientation and wide coverage. All regions and departments should attach great importance to it, firmly establish a sense of the overall situation, strengthen leadership, careful deployment, timely supervision and inspection, and earnestly implement, do a good job and achieve results in the work of regulating tax and other preferential policies.
the state council
November 27, 2014
