Shanghai Requires Computer Generated Tax Invoice for Claiming Export Refund

To simplify the types of general tax invoices used, and to standardize their format, the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) issued the “Notice Concerning the Printing and Publishing of the National Implementation Plan for Simplifying and Unifying General Tax Invoices into a Uniform Format (guoshuifa [2009] No. 142)” in September 2009.

Subsequently, the Shanghai State Tax Bureau (SSTB) and the Shanghai Local Tax Bureau (SLTB) issued the “Announcement Regarding the Use of New General Tax Invoices (SLTB Announcement [2012] No.3, hereinafter referred to as ‘Announcement No. 3’)” in March 2012. According to Announcement No. 3, starting from July 1, 2012, the use of all old versions of tax invoices should be abolished and the new versions of tax invoices should be used uniformly throughout Shanghai.

Announcement No. 3 provides that there are 50 new versions of general tax invoices falling under 6 categories; 4 of which are categories newly added to existing ones. These are:

1. SSTB General Computer Generated Tax Invoice
2. SSTB General Fixed Amount Tax Invoice
3. SLTB General Computer Generated Tax Invoice
4. SLTB General Fixed Amount Tax Invoice

Along these lines, according to the Shanghai tax bureaus, starting from July 1, 2012, enterprises claiming export refunds must use SSTB General Computer Generated Tax Invoices when issuing export invoices. These invoices must be printed and approved by the tax bureau. In addition, the enterprises must apply for the purchase of these invoices with the tax bureau. Pro forma invoices, which were previously acceptable, can no longer be used.

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