Business Tax: China's Quasi-VAT

On 1 January 2009, new VAT rules entered into force in China. Under these rules, all registered businesses are entitled to recover VAT on the purchase of capital assets other than immovable property. The Chinese VAT system does however not yet cover services and transactions concerning immovable property, which are still subject to the all-stage, cumulative business tax. In this article, the author explains that the process of gradual transformation of the business tax into a VAT has started and that the current business tax should already be seen as a quasi-VAT.