(Yicai) Aug. 7 -- China’s tax authority has rolled out a series of measures to make it easier for private firms to meet their tax obligations, allow their voice to be heard, extend cross-provincial tax payment services and optimize law enforcement in order to support the development of the private economy.

In all, there are 28 measures that will make services such as the declaration of value-added tax as well as corporate and individual income taxes more efficient, explore the smart pre-completion of tax returns in order to shorten the time needed to fill in documents, cut down on the repeated filing of documents and make it easier to pay taxes and fees, the State Taxation Administration said recently, in its fifth batch of such measures.

These measures mainly target individual-run, small and medium-sized firms which make up the mainstay of the private economy, said Fan Yong, dean of the School of Public Finance and Taxation at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

They will support the migration of taxpayers to different provinces, enhance unified tax law enforcement between regions, uphold the rule of “no penalty for first-time offenses” but will at the same time efficiently deal with tax arrears, Fan said.

Many of these measures, including the launching of taxpayers’ digital identities, the introduction of e-invoicing and the early submission of multiple kinds of tax returns, will indeed help ease the burden of private firms regarding tax-related affairs, said Li Xuhong, head of the research institute of fiscal and tax policy and application under the Beijing National Accounting Institute.

The national tax administration and provincial-level tax bureaus will also open a direct communication channel that will allow small and medium-sized firms to voice problems that need to be addressed urgently and to work out solutions.

Six cross-border tax services have been added to help Chinese private firms go global, Fan said. Before, it was mainly large firms and multinationals which required such services.

These policies are tailored to the private economy, said Zhu Qing, professor at Renmin University of China. They will have a positive effect on the healthy growth of private businesses and help them meet their tax obligations.

In the first half, tax and fee rebates, reductions and deferred payments in the private economy amounted to CNY704.9 billion (USD98 billion), accounting for 76 percent of the total sum, according to the State Taxation Administration.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Kim Taylor