In China, invoice (or "Fapiao" in Chinese) are the way in which the government monitors the tax paid on any transaction. Fapiao are printed, distributed, and administrated by tax authorities, and taxpayers are required to purchase the fapiao they need from the tax authorities according to their business scope.
Fapiao can be mainly sorted into two categories: general VAT (Value-added) fapiao and special VAT (Value-added) fapiao. Although these terms are often used interchangeably as they are both called Fapiao, there are notable differences between the two.
First, the special VAT fapiao can be used for tax deduction purposes, while the general VAT fapiao cannot. Second, as the special VAT fapiao is used for tax deduction purposes, it will contain a lot more details with respect to the trader's information, including tax number, address, telephone number, bank account information.
The State Administration of Taxation (SAT) of China recently issued Announcement [2017] No.16. This sets out further VAT implementation rules for the management of Value-added tax (VAT) Fapiao. Effective on Jul 1st 2017, when asking vendor for a general VAT fapiao, in addition to providing NYU Shanghai name “上海纽约大学“, you are also responsible to provide NYU Shanghai Taxpayer ID: 523100005758850147
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