【特别关注】中国转让定价实践的最新发展（中英对照）

李威03

【特别关注】中国转让定价实践的最新发展（中英对照）

  

摘自2021年4月27日联合国《发展中国家转让定价操作手册》（2021年版）

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. 2Part One: Recent Developments in China Transfer Pricing Practice

2.2.1The transfer pricing tax regime was first introduced in China in 1991.
Over the past 3 decades, the Chinese tax administration has been exploring ways to improve the transfer pricing administration and have made significant improvements over the last 10 years. Drawing from practical experience and international best practices, the Chinese tax administration was able to establish a well-rounded transfer pricing tax regime that includes legal framework, practical guidance, administrative process and operational mechanism. Dedicated transfer pricing teams were also trained and deployed at various levels of tax offices. With the view to stopping profit shifting and protecting China’s taxing right, the Chinese tax administration also recognizes that it is important to respect facts and data in any transfer pricing analysis.
2.2 第一部分:中国转让定价实践的最新发展
2.2.1 中国于1991年首次引入转让定价税制。
在过去的三个十年中，中国税务机关一直在探索改善转让定价管理的方法，并且在过去十年中取得了重大进展。借鉴实践经验和国际最佳实践，中国税务机关建立了一套完善的转让定价税制，包括法律框架、实践指导、管理程序和运行机制，并对各地税务机关专门的转让定价团队进行了系统培训。为了防止利润转移并保护中国的税收主权，中国税务机关还认识到在任何转让定价分析中尊重事实和数据非常重要。
2.2.2Transfer pricing administration has been put at the centre of STA’s anti-avoidance work agenda in the recent years.
Recognizing that preventative measures are as important as transfer pricing audits, the STA has built three-pronged tax avoidance prevention and control system with consistent and standardized approach for administration, service and investigation. It is important that tax avoidance prevention should run parallel to transfer pricing investigations. Ways to prevent taxpayers from evading tax obligation include strengthened tax administration and improved taxpayer service. Investigations are only used as deterrence to foster taxpayer voluntary compliance. Moreover, different measures were taken to build a three-pronged tax avoidance prevention and control system. The first aspect of the three-pronged system is administration. A tracking system was put in place to monitor the profits of foreign MNEs operating in China. Chinese tax administration has put extra emphasis on routine review of related party filings and contemporaneous transfer pricing documentation. Follow-up monitoring subsequent to transfer pricing audits was implemented to encourage taxpayers to ensure their profitability is in line with the arm’s length principle. As to the second prong, service, seminars and trainings were provided to inform taxpayers of the latest tax regulations and policies. Double taxation was prevented (eliminated) through unilateral/bilateral APAs and resolution of MAP cases. With regard to the last aspect, investigation, both isolated and coordinated anti-avoidance audits were carried out to act as deterrence to regulate the profitability of individual companies or particular industries. Above all, the tax offices across the country have coordinated their actions to ensure that both domestic laws and international policies were followed in a consistent and standardized manner. As a result, inconsistency due to different work procedures was reduced to the minimal. The developments in China’s transfer pricing administration can be therefore summarized in the following 8 aspects.
2.2.2近年来，转让定价管理已成为STA反避税的重要工作。
国家税务总局（STA）认识到预防措施与转让定价调查同样重要，因此建立了“管理、服务、调查”三位一体的反避税防控体系。重要的是，预防避税应与转让定价调查同时进行，防止纳税人逃避纳税义务的方法包括加强税收管理和改善纳税人服务。调查仅用作威慑，以促进纳税人自愿遵守。三位一体的反避税防控体系的第一个方面是管理，建立了一个跟踪系统，以监控在华运营的外国跨国公司的利润水平，STA特别重视对关联申报和同期资料进行的例行审查。在转让定价调查结案之后实施了跟踪管理，以鼓励纳税人确保其盈利能力符合独立交易原则；第二个方面是服务，各地税务机关通过举办研讨会和培训，向纳税人宣导最新的转让定价政策，通过单边/双边预约定价安排和解决MAP案件，避免（消除了）双重征税；最后一个方面是调查，通过对个别企业开展反避税调查，从而打击个别企业和行业的避税行为。最重要的是，各地税务机关已协调行动，以确保以一致和标准化的方式遵守国内法律和国际政策，从而将由于不同的工作程序而导致的不一致减少到最小。中国转让定价管理的最新发展可以归纳为以下八个方面。
2 .3Domestic Legislation and Practical Guidance
2.3.1 Legislation always comes first in transfer pricing. The Tax Collection and Administration Law and its Implementation Regulations and the Enterprise Income Tax Law and its Implementation Regulations and Individual Income Tax Law all contain clauses on transfer pricing. The first time that China introduced a comprehensive anti-avoidance regime into the legislation was through the “Special Tax Adjustment” provision in Chapter 6 of the Enterprise Income Tax Law and its Implementation Regulations in 2008. Not only did this chapter include provisions on transfer pricing and APA with which China had more experience but also clauses on cost sharing agreement, thin capitalization, control foreign companies, general anti-avoidance rule and the levy of interest as a result of transfer pricing adjustmetns for which China had to draw on international experience. In January 2009, the STA released the Implementation Measures of Special Tax Adjustments (Trial Version) (more commonly known as the “Circular 2”). It had since served as the practical guidance for China’s transfer pricing,and in broader scope, the anti-avoidance administration. and provided the legal basis for tax administration’s assessments and taxpayer compliance. In August 2018, transfer pricing rules, controlled foreign corporations rules, and general anti-avoidance rules were introduced into the newly revised Individual Income Tax law. Starting from 2016, STA has released a series of regulations to revise and update the Circular 2. Firstly, the Public Notice on Matters Regarding Refining the Filing of Related Party Transactions and Administration of Contemporaneous Transfer Pricing Documentation (Public Notice of the STA [2016] 42, hereafter referred to as the “Public Notice No. 42”) was put into effect in June 2016. As set out in the BEPS Action 13, Public Notice No. 42 has adopted clauses to require qualified taxpayers to file Country-by-Country reports in China. Public Notice on Matters Regarding Enhancing the Administration of Advance Pricing Arrangements (Public Notice of the State Administration of Taxation [2016] 64, hereafter referred to as “Public Notice No. 64”) was then released to provide more detailed guidance on the APA process. The release of Public Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on Issuing the“Administrative Measures of Special Tax Investigation and Adjustment and Mutual Agreement Procedure”(Public Notice of the State Administration of Taxation [2017] 6, hereafter referred to as the “Public Notice No. 6”) replaced the procedural guidance relating to transfer pricing as set out in the Circular 2.
2.3 国内立法和实践指导
2.3.1在转让定价中，立法始终是第一位的。《税收征管法》及其实施条例，《企业所得税法》及其实施条例和《个人所得税法》中均包含转让定价条款。2008年开始实施的《企业所得税法》及其实施条例第六章规定的“特别纳税调整”是中国首次全面的反避税立法。该章不仅包括我国实践多年的转让定价、预约定价安排以及相应调整，还有包括成本分摊安排、资本弱化、受控外国企业、一般反避税规则和因调查价调整补税而产生的加收利息条款。2009年1月中国借鉴国际经验发布了《特别纳税调整实施办法（试行）》（俗称“ 2号文”）。此后，2号文一直为中国转让定价实践提供指导，在更大范围内作为反避税管理手段，并为税务管理评估和纳税人合规提供了法律依据。2018年8月，新修订的《个人所得税法》引入了转让定价规则、受控外国企业规则和一般反避税规则。从2016年开始，STA发布了一系列修改和更新2号文的规定。首先，《关于完善关联申报和同期资料管理有关事项的公告》（国家税务总局公告[2016]42号，以下简称“42号公告”）于2016年6月生效。正如BEPS第13项行动计划所述，42号公告要求符合规定的纳税人应进行关联申报并做好同期资料准备；STA随后发布了《关于完善预约定价安排管理有关事项的公告》（国家税务总局公告[2016] 64号，以下简称“ 64号公告”），规范了预约定价安排管理，完善了谈签流程；嗣后国家税务总局又发布了《关于印发<特别纳税调查调整和相互协商程序管理办法>的通知》（国家税务总局公告[2017] 6号，以下简称“6号公告”）替代了2号文中转让定价调查程序的相关内容。
  
2 .4Centralized Approval System to Assure Consistency and Standardization
2.4.1There are more than 720,000 tax officials and 36 provincial level tax offices in China. It is paramount for a big country like China to be consistent and standardized in law enforcement especially when it comes to transfer pricing administration. A MNE might set up 30 subsidiaries across China. Without a consistent standard, tax administrations from different areas may find disparate comparable sets and derive various profit levels for transfer pricing cases of similar nature. To prevent this from happening, the STA has put in place a national anti-avoidance system under which tax administrations are to report and obtain approval from the STA headquarters when they need to initiate or close an anti-avoidance (including transfer pricing) case since 2015. The reporting chain put in place to standardize the audit procedures, improve the quality of closed cases, strengthen audit efforts, and organize national coordinated investigation. In 2012, the STA released the “Internal Approval Procedures for Substantial Special Tax Adjustment Cases (Trial Version) (Guoshuifa [2012]16) (hereafter referred to as the “Internal Approval Procedures”) to streamline procedures including related party filing review, contemporaneous transfer pricing documentation analysis,high-risk taxpayer identification, case initiation, audit and analysis, case closing, and follow-up taxpayer monitoring and tracking subsequent to an audit. As required by the “Internal Approval Procedures, a three-level transfer pricing audit system was established. The system features collective decision and penal approval. First, for every audit case, the in-charge tax administration needs to set up special task team to conduct the investigation. Second, the task team needs to formulate the preliminary assessment and report it to the tax administration at provincial level whose specialist panel is responsible for approving the case. In addition, for a case qualified as a substantial case especially a case that requires national coordination, the STA headquarters needs to call upon a nation-wide expert panel to make the final decision on the case. In September 2016, the STA has released the Internal Procedures for Special Tax Adjustment (Shuizongfa [2016]137), in which the roles and responsibilities of tax administrations at different levels and the collective review and approval system were further clarified. This system has enableed the tax administrations of different areas to work in a manner that would ensure the consistency in the selection of transfer pricing method and the determination of approrpriate profit levels. A unified work standard across the country was formed accordingly. The consistency has made tax assessments more effective as deterrence measures. Tax officials are better protected from risks in enforcing the law thanks to the internal control system built according to the “Internal Procedures for Special Tax Adjustment”.
2.4反避税案件集中审核，确保一致性和标准化
2.4.1中国有超过72万名税务官员和36个省级税务机关。对于像中国这样的大国来说，在执法方面保持相同的口径和标准是至关重要的，尤其是在转让定价管理方面。跨国公司可能会在中国设立30家子公司，如果没有一致的口径和标准，来自不同领域的税务部门可能会找到完全不同的可比对象，其结果是相似性质的转让定价案例利润水平相差甚大。为了防止这种情况的发生，STA建立了一套全国性的反避税管理制度，根据该制度，税务机关在反避税（包括转让定价）立案或结案时应向STA备案并获得其批准。为进一步规范特别纳税调整管理，提高特别纳税调整重大案件调查质量，加强执法监督，2012年，STA发布了《特别纳税调整重大案件会审工作规程的通知（试行）》（国税发[2012] 16号）（以下简称“16号文”），以简化关联申报，同期资料审查、转让定价文件分析、高风险纳税人识别、立案、调查分析、结案以及结案后的跟踪管理等。根据“16号文”的要求，建立了三级转让定价审核制度，该制度具有集体审核功能。首先，对于每个调查案件，主管税务管理部门都需要成立专门的工作小组来进行调查；其次，工作小组需要制定转让定价初步分析报告，并报送给省级税务部门专家小组负责审批。此外，对于重大案件的，特别是需要国家协调的案件，STA需要召集一个全国性的专家小组对该案做出最终审批。2016年9月，国家税务总局发布了《特别纳税调整内部工作规程》（税总发[2016]137号），进一步明确了各级税务机关的职责和集体审批制度。该制度使不同地区的税务管理部门能够以统一方式开展反避税管理工作，以确保转让定价方法的选择和适当利润水平的确定的一致性。因此，在全国范围内形成了统一的工作标准，一致性使税收评估作为威慑措施更加有效。根据《特别纳税调整内部工作规程》建立的内控制度，可以更好地保护税务官员免受执法风险。
  
2 .5Monitor Profits of MNEs in China
2.5.1Transfer pricing administration needs to move up the line of defense. Prevention can be very effective in fostering taxpayer voluntary compliance with the arm’s length principle and fulfilling tax obligation. Only when the taxpayers fail to be compliant the audits should be initiated. To better leverage the preventive effect, the STA has installed a monitoring system to track the profits of MNEs in China. The primary data sources are the annual corporate income tax returns and the accompanying related party filings. The information is compiled, compared and analyzed by year, industry, and geographical area. A monitoring system was designed to combine industry analysis with individual taxpayer screening. Tax administrations would receive alerts when the risks are identified. The history record and performance evaluation that the tax authorities have with a particular taxpayer can also be accessed in the system. In addition, by requiring taxpayers to prepare contemporaneous transfer pricing documentation and monitoring taxpayers in the follow-up years subsequent to the audits, taxpayers can better understand tax administrations’ approach to transfer pricing administration.
2.5跨国公司利润水平监控
2.5.1转让定价管理需要提高防御水平。
预防可以有效地促进纳税人自愿遵守独立交易原则并履行纳税义务。仅当纳税人不符合要求时，才应启动调查。STA已建立跨国企业利润水平监控体系，防止跨国企业侵蚀中国税基，转移中国利润，该监控系统数据主要来源企业年度所得税纳税申报表和关联申报表。该信息按年度、行业和地理区域进行汇总、比较和分析。该监控系统还将行业分析与纳税人筛选相结合。确定风险后，税务部门将收到预警。同时税务机关对特定纳税人的历史记录和绩效评估也可以在系统中访问。此外，通过要求纳税人准备同期资料并在反避税调查之后的后续年度中对纳税人进行跟踪管理，纳税人可以更好地了解税务部门的转让定价管理方法。
  
2 .6Intensify Audit Efforts
2.6.1Audit efforts for nationally coordinated cases that involve several companies in a same industry or multiple subsidiaries of a same MNE group was intensified to improve the quality of closed cases. Investigations should be carried out in a consistent and standardized manner so that inconsistent assessment simply because tax administrations have different ways to go about cases that involve companies in the same industry or subsidiaries of a same group can be avoided. The transfer pricing audits can therefore be more effective as a tax avoidance deterrence measure. In the past years, China has initiated several nationally coordinated audits targeting industries including shoe manufacturing, computer manufacturing, high speed road construction, retail stores and hotels and fast moving consumer goods. Apart from being subject to the nationally coordinated audits, automobile sector, luxury goods industry and pharmaceutical companies were also being analyzed at the industry level. The “income approach” was developed and applied to multiple cases to address the challenges posed by transfer of equity and intangibles between related parties. The Chinese tax administration has attached great importance to several key industry sectors and been paying attention to possible base erosion transactions including outbound payments and transfer of equity. In the meantime, the use and transfer of intangibles, intragroup services, and financial transactions have gradually come to the fore of Chinese tax administration’s work, which has contributed to the quantitative analysis of location specific advantage.
2.6 加大反避税调查力度
2.6.1加大反避税集团联查和行业联查，以提高结案质量。
应以一致和标准化的方式进行调查，以免因税务主管部门处理涉及同一行业的公司或同一集团的子公司的案件的方式不同而造成的调查调整结果的不一致。因此，转让定价调查可以更有效地作为反避税威慑措施。在过去的几年中，中国已经针对鞋类、计算机、高速公路、零售商店和酒店以及快速消费品等行业发起了集团联查。除了要接受国家协调的调查之外，还在行业层面对汽车行业、奢侈品行业和制药行业进行了行业联查。STA推广“收益法”，并将其应用于多个案例，以解决关联方之间股权和无形资产转让定价带来的挑战。STA高度重视几个关键行业，并一直关注可能发生的税基侵蚀交易，包括对外支付和股权转让。同时，无形资产的使用和转让、集团内部劳务以及金融资产交易已逐渐成为中国反避税工作的重点，这为中国地域特殊优势（LSAs）的定量分析做出了贡献。
2.6.2The tax revenue contributed by the anti-avoidance work was RMB 679,000,000 in 2006 and RMB 64,634,000,000 in 2019. The number was more than 94 times higher with an annual increase rate of 41.97%. The revenue contribution from the administration measures was 56,872,000,000, whereas the revenue collected through the service measures was 2,719,000,000. And the rest was contributed by the audit adjustments.
2.6.2 2006年，中国反避税收入为6.79亿元，2019年为646.34亿元，是2006年的94倍，年增长率为41.97%。其中“管理环节”的税收收入贡献为568.72亿元，“服务环节”的税收贡献为27.19亿元，其余部分则由“调查环节”贡献。

2 .7APA Programme and MAP Process
2.7.1 China has in place a MAP mechanism to eliminate double taxation resulted from transfer pricing audits and a bilateral APA programme to provide early certainty for cross border taxpayers. Unilateral APAs can also be reached between the Chinese tax administration and the taxpayers. By the end of 2019, China has signed 76 bilateral APAs and 113 MAP agreements with 15 countries. During the negotiations, where appropriate, concepts such as value chain analysis and factors contributing to value creation long held by the Chinese tax administration were discussed with and recognized by some treaty partners. In order to better inform the public of China’s APA programme, the STA started to release “China APA Annual Report” in 2010. So far 10 reports have been published on the OECD official website and met with well reception from the international community.
2.7完善APA和MAP管理
2.7.1中国已经建立了MAP机制，以消除转让定价调查调整导致的双重征税，并制定了双边APA规则，为跨境纳税人提供早期确定性。中国税务机关和纳税人之间也可以达成单边预约定价安排。截至2019年底，中国已与15个国家签署了76个双边APA和113份MAP协议。在谈判期间，适当时，与一些协定合作伙伴讨论并认可了价值链分析和有助于中国税收征管的长期价值创造因素等概念。为了更好地向公众介绍中国的APA，STA在2010年开始发布“中国APA年度报告”，到目前为止，经合组织官方网站已发布了10份“中国APA年度报告”，受到了国际社会的广泛好评。
  
2 .8Expand Data Sources for Comparability Analysis
2.8.1 Internal data extracted from corporate income tax returns and VAT refund database has played a primary role in identifying high-risk taxpayers. Meanwhile, external data obtained from National Bureau of Statistics, General Administration of Customs, State Administration of Foreign Exchange along with business information compiled in the National Database of Companies in Secondary Sector, Bureau van Dijk, Standard & Poor’s Net Advantage was also put to good use in comparability analysis.
2.8 拓展转让定价分析数据库
2.8.1从企业所得税纳税申报表和增值税退税数据库中提取的内部数据在识别高风险纳税人中起了主要作用。同时，还很好地利用了从国家统计局、海关总署、国家外汇管理局获得的外部数据，以及其他公开数据库，如BVD数据库、标准普尔（Net Advantage）数据库等用于转让定价可比性分析。
  
2 .9Enhance International Communication and Cooperation
2.9.1The STA has actively participated in meetings organized by the UN and the OECD. The STA has also presented China’s position on important issues including intangibles, transfer pricing documentation and comparability analysis and brought in concepts like exploitation of intangibles, quantification of location specific factors, value contribution by decision execution that were later incorporated into the updated OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations (hereafter referred to as “OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines”). By taking opportunities to talk to tax officials from other countries as well as representatives from MNEs, the STA was able to foster mutual understanding with them. On top of that, the STA has always been willing to share China’s experience in transfer pricing legislation and practice with other developing countries. Productive discussions on application of location savings and market premium in transfer pricing was generated in the process.
2.9 加强国际交流与合作
2.9.1 STA积极参加了联合国（UN)和经合组织(OECD)组织的重要会议，介绍了中国在无形资产、转让定价同期资料和可比性分析等重要问题上的立场，并引入了诸如无形资产开发、地域特殊优势（LSAs）、决策执行的价值贡献等概念，这些概念后来均被纳入了更新版的《OECD转让定价指南》中，用以对跨国企业转让定价进行税务管理。通过抓住机会与其他国家的税务官员以及跨国公司代表进行交谈，STA得以增进了与他们之间的相互了解。最重要的是，STA一直愿意与其他发展中国家分享中国在转让定价立法和实践方面的经验。在此过程中，就成本节约和市场溢价在转让定价中的应用进行了富有成效的讨论。
  
2 .10 Build a Professional Transfer Pricing Team
2.10.1 Building a dedicated transfer pricing team has always been the priority of the STA. Trainings on anti-avoidance has been conducted in various forms such as discussions on domestic legislation, peer-to-peer case sharing, seminars delivered by experts from the OECD as well as from other countries, special training sessions on difficult topics such as transfer pricing involving intangibles, financial service sector, and pharmaceutical industry. The combination of in-class training and on-job learning has yielded good results as evidenced by significant improvement in tax officials’ professional capabilities. On the other hand, resources have been devoted to transfer pricing administration as well. Tax bureaus specialized in anti-avoidance work were set up in Beijing, Jiangsu province and Shenzhen. The purpose was to pool the local talents and let them focus on transfer pricing and other anti-avoidance work. In addition, in response to the increased workload related to transfer pricing audits and bilateral negotiation in the post-BEPS era, the STA has enhanced efforts in the training and development of talents for transfer pricing to ensure that sufficient resources and manpower is allocated to the work.
2.10 建立转让定价专业团队
2.10.1建立专门的转让定价团队一直是STA的工作重点。为此STA开展了各种形式的反避税培训，包括：关于国内立法的讨论、相关案例分享交流、参加OECD和其他国家的专家举办的研讨会、开展无形资产转让定价问题培训、金融服务业和制药行业转让定价难题培训等。通过课堂培训和在职学习的结合产生了良好的效果，税务官员的专业能力得到了显著改善。另一方面，为更好进行转让定价管理，STA对人力资源进行合理调配，在北京，江苏省和深圳设立了专门从事反避税工作的税务管理局，目的是汇集本地专业人才，让他们专注于转让定价和其他反避税工作。此外，为了应对后BEPS时代与转让定价调查和双边谈判有关的工作量增加，STA加大了对转让定价人才的培训和开发力度，以确保转让定价管理岗位有足够多的人才胜任该工作。