Editor's Note:On December 25, 2024, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the Value-Added Tax Law. On December 19, 2025, the State Council adopted the Implementing Regulations of the Value-Added Tax Law (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementing Regulations"). Both officially came into force on January 1, 2026, marking that China's value-added tax system has officially bid farewell to the era of "provisional regulations" and entered a new era of "taxation by law".The Implementing Regulations have integrated relevant contents from previous regulatory documents on export tax rebates,such as the Interim Regulations on Value-Added Tax, the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Interim Regulations on Value-Added Tax, the Circular of the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration on Fully Launching the Pilot Program of Replacing Business Tax with Value-Added Tax (Cai Shui [2016] No. 36), and the Circular of the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration on Policies Concerning Value-Added Tax and Consumption Tax on Exported Goods and Labor Services (Cai Shui [2012] No. 39). It has also restructured rules regarding the scope of cross-border taxable transactions, the identification and registration of general taxpayers, non-deductible input tax, and export tax rebates, which have exerted a significant impact on market entities. This article intends to analyze and interpret the changes in value-added tax rules, aiming to help taxpayers understand and respond to the new rules and changes.

Editor's Note: Land Appreciation Tax is an important tax for regulating the real estate market and participating in the distribution of land proceeds. The unification and clarification of its collection and administration standards have always been the focus of the industry. For a long time, due to inconsistent implementation standards across regions and unclear connection between final settlement and prepayment, taxpayers have faced many uncertainties in compliance, which has also affected the fairness and efficiency of tax governance to a certain extent. Following the release of the "Draft Announcement on Several Matters Concerning the Collection and Administration of Land Appreciation Tax" on November 29, 2025, the State Taxation Administration officially issued the "Announcement on Several Collection and Administration Standards for Land Appreciation Tax" (Announcement No. 3 of 2026 of the State Taxation Administration, hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement") on January 1, 2026. It clarifies the core collection and administration standards such as the connection between prepayment and final settlement, tax calculation basis, deductible items, and remaining property sales management, and shall come into force on January 1, 2026. This article aims to sort out and analyze the key changes by combining the provisions of the Announcement and official interpretations, so as to provide reference for taxpayers to understand and apply the new regulations.

Editor's Note: On December 30, 2025, the "Implementation Regulations of the Value-Added Tax Law" was officially promulgated and will come into force simultaneously with the "Value-Added Tax Law" on January 1, 2026. As a supporting administrative regulation for China's largest tax category, the Regulations, on the basis of maintaining the basic stability of the current tax system, have made key refinements and design optimizations to many principled provisions, and its introduction has attracted much attention from all walks of life. To deeply understand the Regulations, in addition to comparing them with the "Value-Added Tax Law", previous Interim Regulations, Implementation Rules, Caishui [2016] No. 36 Document and other documents, an important perspective is to conduct comparative study with the "Exposure Draft of the Implementation Regulations of the Value-Added Tax Law" promulgated in August 2025. This can not only reveal the logical evolution of legislative decisions, insight into the improvement of scientificity and rationality of VAT legislation under the principle of taxation by law, but also further predict the actual impact of policy implementation on market entities. This article focuses on the comparison between the Implementation Regulations and the Exposure Draft, analyzes key provisions, with a view to providing guidance for taxpayers to grasp policy directions and effectively respond in compliance.

Editor's Note: Coal is the basic energy supply in core areas such as electric power, industrial production and heating. Although China is continuing to promote the diversified transformation of energy structure and green and low-carbon development, coal is still the core energy support for the stable operation of the above industries in the current energy system. In order to guide enterprises to practice the concept of clean production, standardize the disposal of solid waste and promote the recycling of resources, the Environmental Protection Tax Law clearly includes pollutants generated in the process of coal utilization, such as coal gangue and fly ash, into the scope of taxation, and through the adjustment of tax leverage, enterprises can reduce pollutant emissions, improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and help realize the coordinated development of energy consumption and ecological environmental protection. This paper focuses on the hot issues of environmental protection tax of coal-using enterprises, analyzes the common tax-related risks of coal-using enterprises under the trend of tax regulation by numbers, and puts forward some tax compliance suggestions for readers' reference.

Editor's Note: The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed exploring a tax system compatible with new business forms. As a typical new business form, the flexible employment sector has long plagued employing enterprises with a chronic lack of labor - related invoices. To address the issues of low willingness among natural persons in the flexible employment sector to apply for invoice issuance on behalf of others and the difficulty for enterprises in obtaining such labor - related invoices, Fujian Province has innovatively developed the "Long - Zero Work" platform and launched the application scenario of "reverse invoice issuance upon payment". The Gansu Provincial Tax Service has introduced the "reverse application for invoice issuance" service, allowing employing enterprises to initiate the process of issuing invoices for service remuneration on behalf of individuals. These measures have to a certain extent solved the problem of enterprises obtaining labor - related invoices and provided tax support for promoting the high - quality development of new business forms. This article intends to analyze the potential tax - related risks for employing enterprises and individuals in the future comprehensive promotion by combining these two new initiatives in the flexible employment sector, for readers' reference.

Editor's Note: In recent years, the flexible employment model has played a significant role in expanding employment and meeting the flexible needs of enterprises. However, the accompanying tax compliance issues have become increasingly prominent, making it a key focus of regulatory oversight. Policy trends and publicly disclosed cases in 2025 indicate that regulatory enforcement continues to strengthen, and judicial adjudication standards are becoming clearer. This article reviews typical annual cases, analyzes the core causes of risks, summarizes the main tax-related risks that platforms and employing enterprises should be vigilant about, and outlines the basic trends in current regulatory investigations and penalties, aiming to provide reference for relevant practitioners.

Editor's Note: In recent years, the policies in the field of recycling and comprehensive utilization of renewable resources have been constantly changing, which has brought new development opportunities for industrial enterprises and also put forward higher tax compliance requirements. At the same time, the efficiency of digital and accurate tax collection and management has been greatly improved. It has become the key premise and inevitable requirement for renewable resources enterprises to ensure the sustainable and healthy development of their business to gain a comprehensive insight into the industry tax policy trends and systematically examine their own potential tax risks. Based on the regulatory situation of renewable resources industry in 2025, this paper focuses on typical cases of renewable resources industry notified by local tax authorities, and analyzes the tax risks of renewable resources industry under the current regulatory trend.

Editor's Note: As a pillar industry of the national economy, tax collection and administration of the petrochemical industry is not only related to the stability of national fiscal revenue but also plays a guiding and regulating role in the high-quality development of the industry. Currently, the reform of tax collection and administration is continuously deepened. The central government focuses highly on the supervision of refined oil consumption tax, with multiple departments intensively introducing regulatory policies and intelligent supervision methods being accelerated. The intensity of joint crackdowns on tax-related violations continues to increase. Coupled with the expectation of consumption tax reform and the clarification of judicial adjudication rules, petrochemical enterprises are facing a new round of systematic escalation of tax-related risks. Based on the latest policy dynamics, regulatory practices and typical cases, this article systematically sorts out the seven major trends in tax collection and administration of the petrochemical sector in 2026, providing references for industry enterprises to respond to regulatory changes and solidify the foundation of tax compliance.