The scope of tax exemption for imported technical equipment has been narrowed

From January 1, 2013, large-scale railway maintenance machinery, natural gas pipeline transportation equipment, airport-specific ground equipment, and solar cell production equipment imported under China's domestic investment projects will no longer enjoy the tax exemption policy.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration of Taxation and other four ministries jointly issued the “Domestic Investment Projects” after adjusting some of the items in the “List of Imported Products for which Domestic Investment Projects are not Exempted from Taxation (2008 Adjustment)”. Duty-free imported goods catalog (adjusted for 2012) (hereinafter referred to as new catalog).

A total of 944 new directory entries were included. This adjustment involved 454 articles, including 130 new additions, 11 deletions of consolidations, 227 adjustments of technical specifications, 87 adjustments of tax numbers, and 62 adjustments of equipment names.

According to the Department of Customs of the Ministry of Finance, the newly added items mainly include two parts: First, some of the major technical equipment that have been restored under the relevant special policies, including large-scale railway maintenance machinery, natural gas pipeline transportation equipment, etc.; Domestic equipment that has production capacity and technical performance that meets domestic needs, as well as equipment that will produce considerable manufacturing capacity in the short term, including airport-specific ground equipment, packaging machinery, marine equipment, and solar cell production equipment.

The equipment for increasing import tax-exempt technical specifications is mainly equipment that has made breakthrough progress in domestic technology in recent years, involving CNC machine tools, stamping equipment, electronic instruments, printing machinery, environmental protection machinery, food processing equipment, metallurgical machinery, power generation equipment, etc. industry. At the same time, it has reduced the technical specifications threshold for some domestic equipment that cannot meet the requirements, including nuclear power equipment, passenger vehicle molds, and pharmaceutical production equipment.

The Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance stated that the main purpose of adjusting the names and tax numbers of some equipment items is to meet the needs of tax version transfer and to facilitate the use of administrative departments, customs declaration companies and taxpayers.

The Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance also stated that the directory revision mainly follows three principles: First, continue to support enterprises in introducing advanced technology equipment that cannot be produced domestically, promote industrial upgrading and technological advancement, and second, provide enterprises with the ability to purchase home-made equipment under the same conditions. A fair and reasonable external environment promotes the healthy development of the equipment manufacturing industry. Third, it effectively balances the needs of upstream and downstream industries and equipment manufacturing and use departments.