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| Monday, 5 August 2013 |
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Chinese Notification of Value Added Tax |
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Dear All,
Further to the information prepared for us by our legal advisers HWL Ebsworth and circulated in our weekly Bulletin on Friday, August 2nd, FIATA has produced the following further advice: In regard to the new rules issued by the PRC Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Tax in their Cai Shui No. 37 (Circular 37) regarding application of VAT to ocean transport services, the majority of carriers have confirmed that they will start to debit 6% VAT on all charges payable in China. There is a great deal of uncertainty about the application of the new rules and some carriers are seeking clarification with the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Tax. We understand that until those carriers receive clarification of the rules and their application to ocean shipping, existing invoicing arrangements will remain unchanged. As is often the case with changes to regulations in China there will be some contradictory statements and we cannot make definitive statements regarding implementation at present. The information below has been compiled from carrier notices:
The following carriers have indicated that they will apply the 6% VAT charge on all invoices payable in the PRC from 1st August 2013 based on the issuance date of the VAT invoice - OOCL, Hamburg Sud, MSC, MOL, NYK Lines, CSAV, China Shipping Container Lines.
The following carriers have stated that existing invoicing arrangements will remain unchanged until they have obtained clarification with the Chinese Authorities - Evergreen, Maersk, MCC.
We will advise more information as it comes to hand.
Regards,
Brian Lovell
Chief Executive Officer Australian Federation of International Forwarders Ltd (AFIF) Suite 403, Level 3 152 Bunnerong Road Eastgardens NSW 2036 Tel: +61 2 9314 3055 Fax: +61 2 9314 3116 |