The Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Endangering the Administration of Tax Revenue (Legal Interpretation [2024] No. 4, hereinafter referred to as the Judicial Interpretation of 2024), which was formally implemented on March 20, has made major modifications to the behavioral elements and sentencing standards for tax-related crimes, especially the crime of obtaining export tax refunds fraudulently. Compared with the previous judicial interpretations and judicial practice, the new judicial interpretation has added tax fraudulent means such as "fraudulent use of other people's goods for export" and "circular export", and deleted the controversial provision of "four self and three missing". Generally speaking, the new judicial interpretation has made the regulations for export enterprises more strict and the crackdown on tax fraud more vigorous, which has led to a sharp increase in the criminal risk of export enterprises, but it has also made it clear that the path of compliance for entity enterprises is lenient, and the majority of export enterprises, especially foreign trade enterprises, should pay great attention to it.

On March 18, 2024, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced the "Judicial Interpretation on Handling Criminal Cases Endangering Tax Collection and Management and Related Legal Issues." This interpretation made significant adjustments and modifications to the application rules of tax evasion offenses. The interpretations seamlessly integrate with the provisions of the Criminal Law regarding tax evasion, resolving the long-standing mismatch between judicial interpretations and criminal law provisions, and advancing to broaden the scope and targets of combating tax evasion. The interpretation adjusts the sentencing benchmarks for tax evasion offenses, clarifies the rule of pursuing criminal responsibility after administrative actions, raises the threshold for the criminalization of withholding obligors, highlighting a policy of balancing severity and leniency in criminal matters. While providing specific and clear guidelines for judicial practices concerning tax evasion offenses, certain updates in the interpretation, such as the denominator clause for taxable amounts, leave doubts, potentially increasing the criminal liability risks for taxpayers. This article will interpret in detail the provisions of tax evasion offenses in the judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, analyze the legal application of tax evasion offenses, aiming to provide references for enterprises to prevent and respond to criminal risks related to tax evasion.

Under the influence of various economic factors both at home and abroad, some enterprises have defaulted on tax payment due to broken capital chain and tax non-compliance in the course of past operations. Many enterprises are struggling to maintain their business in the state of long-term tax arrears, and even the unlawful phenomenon of evading the recovery of tax arrears.2024 The Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Hazardous Tax Collection and Management promulgated by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on March 18th filled in the performance of criminal acts of China's criminal law on the crime of evading the recovery of tax arrears and activated the crime that has long been dormant, and the enterprises in tax arrears are afraid of facing severe criminal liability risks. are afraid of facing serious criminal liability risks. This paper takes the interpretation of the provisions of the Judicial Interpretation of the crime as an entry point, and analyzes the boundaries between law and lawlessness, crime and non-crime of tax-default enterprises in combination with cases, with a view to providing reference for the enterprises to prevent and cope with criminal risks.

Recently, a staff member of a flexible labor platform was found by the court to have committed the crimes of false VAT invoicing and false invoicing and was held criminally liable for accepting the instructions and arrangements of the platform and being responsible for docking with downstream companies and enterprises with invoicing needs to facilitate the business of false invoicing. With the development of flexible labor business in recent years, the urgency of tax compliance has become increasingly prominent. In practice, flexible labor platforms are often used as a tool for enterprises to make false invoices and evade taxes, with increasing risks. In view of this, this article takes this case as a guide and discusses issues such as insufficient inputs and common risky business of flexible labor platform for the benefit of readers.

Previously, Huatax published an article titled "Case Analysis: How Shareholders Ensure Tax Compliance under the New Company Law," which elaborated on how shareholders can manage tax compliance risks through tax consultation, tax health checks, self-audits, and dealing with tax inspections. With the further escalation of tax risks, tax authorities may impose penalties on shareholders, hold them administratively responsible, or even refer them to public security authorities for criminal liability. Shareholders not only face significant financial burdens but also the possibility of imprisonment. Therefore, resolving tax disputes through dispute resolution mechanisms has become a crucial concern for shareholders. This case will analyze how shareholders can effectively deal with tax disputes through administrative penalty hearings, administrative reviews, administrative litigation, and criminal litigation, thereby mitigating shareholder tax risks.

Recently, the latest People's Court case library made public a tax-related judicial decision case, the judgement made it clear that the tax late payment fee shall not exceed the amount of tax, which brought the long-disputed issue of whether the tax late payment fee can exceed the principal amount back to the public's field of view. There are views that the late payment fee is different in nature from that of the Administrative Compulsory Law, and that the provisions of the Tax Collection and Management Law should be applied, and that the judgement in this case is inappropriate. In view of this, this article intends to start from the case, analysing whether the tax penalty can exceed the principal for readers' reference.

On March 8, 2024, the Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) held its second plenary session at the Great Hall of the People. At the meeting, Zhang Jun, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), made a report on the work of the SPC, and Ying Yong, procurator-general of the SPP, made a report on the work of the SPP. The reports of the two high courts reviewed the work of the judicial sector since 2023 in promoting the development of the private economy, investigating and handling tax-related cases, and deepening compliance reform, and deployed judicial work in 2024 to continuously optimize the rule of law environment for the development and growth of the private economy and to promote the construction of a national unified large market. Enterprises should pay attention to what points of the judicial work deployment of the two high committees in 2024, and what impact the two high committees' report will have on the judicial processing of tax-related cases this year, as analyzed in this article.

The revised "Company Law" has introduced new legal liabilities for shareholders, leading more shareholders to avoid legal risks through capital reduction, share transfers, company liquidation, and other means. However, this may also trigger a series of tax-related risks for shareholders. Moreover, the revision of the "Company Law" has sparked a lively discussion in society on issues such as corporate governance. Many companies have long-standing flaws in their business and financial operations, such as close or even commingled financial transactions between shareholders and the company, which also hide serious tax risks. In the new era of the Company Law, how shareholders can manage tax compliance in advance and properly guard against tax risks has become an inescapable topic. This article will combine actual cases to analyze how to help shareholders prevent tax risks through special tax consulting, tax health checks, self-examinations, and responses to tax audits.