On October 8, the State Council executive meeting pointed out that it is necessary to increase the export tax rebate. From November 1, 2018, the current export tax rebate rate will be 15% and part of 13% will be raised to 16%; To 10%, some of which are raised to 13%; 5% to 6% and some to 10%.

At the same time, the tax system will be further simplified, and the tax rebate rate will be reduced from the original seven to five. By the end of this year, the average time for tax refund will be shortened from 13 working days to 10 working days, and SMEs will be encouraged to conduct foreign trade through the comprehensive foreign trade service platform. .

In the context of the escalation of trade frictions, the decision-making level of foreign trade has caused heated discussions in the foreign trade circle, and the comprehensive foreign trade service platform has also received much attention. What are the pain points of SMEs in foreign trade? What problems need to be solved to accelerate the export tax rebate? What role will the foreign trade integrated service platform play? On October 10, with these questions, the 21st Century Business Herald (hereinafter referred to as <21st Century>) interviewed Zhang Kuo, co-general manager of the Alibaba SME International Trade Division.

There are five major pain points in the international trade of small and medium-sized enterprises

"21st Century": Why did the National Committee reaffirm this time to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out foreign trade through the comprehensive foreign trade service platform? What is the background?

Zhang Kuo: The comprehensive foreign trade service referred to as “external comprehensive service” is a new format of cross-border trade services under the Internet environment. It uses Internet and big data technologies to provide one-stop foreign trade services for small and medium-sized enterprises, such as customs declaration, logistics, tax refund, settlement, and credit system. The external uniform is convenient, efficient, low-cost, transparent, safe and controllable, which greatly reduces the threshold for foreign trade.

In the past five years, the State Council has repeatedly issued policies to support foreign comprehensive services. In 2013, the State Council officially proposed the concept of external comprehensive service, and wrote the comprehensive suit into the government work report. In 2017, a number of ministries and commissions jointly issued a document to clarify the definition and responsibility of the external comprehensive service enterprise.

This is a continuation and strengthening of the policy. Explain the contribution of the state to foreign companies in the past few years to stabilize foreign trade and expand exports, and to help small and medium-sized enterprises.

In view of the current international environmental reality considerations, encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises to embrace the external comprehensive service platform can enable foreign trade enterprises to reduce costs, improve competitiveness, and hedge trade risks.

"21st Century": What are the pain points for SMEs in the context of unprecedented uncertainty in foreign trade?

Zhang Kuo: There are five major pain points for SMEs to carry out international trade: business opportunities are difficult to find, circulation costs are high, policy is difficult to use, financial support is difficult to obtain, and credit barriers are high.

In order to encourage exports, the state has formulated a number of preferential policies, such as fast customs clearance and paperless tax rebates. However, many SMEs do not understand or have the energy and manpower to enjoy the policy dividend. Through the external comprehensive service platform, they can enjoy the regulatory conveniences and preferential policies that large enterprises can enjoy in the past without having to run their own errands.

For example, for SMEs to do cross-border business, one of the pain points is the information asymmetry and lack of trust between enterprises. The external comprehensive service platform will display the real ability and credit status of the enterprise based on real trade data, and effectively solve the transaction trust cost of buyers and sellers in international trade; moreover, their transaction data at Ali International Station and Yi Datong can be converted into credit limit. , obtain free mortgage-free credit loans and tax refund services.

External comprehensive service platform to solve the problem of export tax rebate

‍‍‍‍"21st Century": This year's regular meeting mentions that the comprehensive foreign trade service platform is mainly to accelerate the process of export tax rebate in the future. What are the specific difficulties faced by SMEs in export tax rebates?

Zhang Kuo: There are three major difficulties ，First, there are many tax policies and rapid changes, and SMEs have poor research and adaptability,合规申报退税难度高 ，差错率高 ；Second, the export tax rebate from the declaration to the account, there is a certain cycle, affecting the company's capital turnover; Third, the export tax rebate declaration and follow-up management is more complicated, SMEs need to hire someone to handle, the cost is high.

"21st Century": What kind of convenience can SMEs get through the tax rebate of the external comprehensive service platform?

Zhang Kuo: You can enjoy the professional tax refund guidance and services of the foreign comprehensive service enterprises, as well as the export tax rebate service for foreign comprehensive services to solve the problem of corporate capital turnover. Taking the current service of Datong as an example, for business compliance and qualified business, the tax refund financing service can be enjoyed within 3 days after the customer issues the tax refund invoice.‍‍

For example, from January to September this year, Alibaba International Station and Yi Datong accumulated nearly 125,000 small and medium-sized private enterprises. These tax rebates have played a very important role in alleviating financial pressure for SMEs and buffering the impact of recent trade frictions.

"21st Century": As China's largest comprehensive foreign trade service platform, what suggestions and expectations do you have for how to further improve the export tax rebate policy?

Zhang Kuo: The country has achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1 by clarifying the identity and responsibility of the external suit. However, if we want to go from 1 to 100, we need to further introduce optimization policies and continue to encourage and support the development of the industry.

For example, small and medium-sized trading companies are now an important part of international trade. We suggest that the production enterprises should undertake the business of foreign trade orders through foreign trade enterprises, and the service scope of small and medium-sized trading companies into foreign comprehensive services, allowing foreign comprehensive service enterprises to provide them with agency services. Tax refund service. In this way, more and more small and medium-sized enterprises can enjoy the convenience of external uniforms, free their productivity, and let them only focus on running the market and receiving more foreign trade orders.‍‍

In addition, the state proposes to simplify the tax refund procedures and shorten the tax refund time for export enterprises with high credit ratings and good tax records. We also hope that this policy will benefit enterprises with high credit ratings and good tax records on the external service platform.

We are trying to cooperate with the local tax bureaus such as Shenzhen to jointly build a risk control system. Both tax and enterprise rely on data sharing, promote taxation and mutual governance, and achieve a win-win situation for tax enterprises, and jointly create an innovative model of tax rebate management with “international norms”.

Source of this article, China International Electronic Commerce Network