Beijing: China is stepping up international cooperation in taxation, including with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is striving to advance global taxation services to open up the country’s economy even more, officials from the State Taxation Administration (STA) say.

China’s tax authorities have helped businesses, including foreign-funded companies, save more than 14 trillion yuan through tax refunds, as well as tax and fee cuts and deferrals over the past decade, said STA spokesman Rong Hailou last Friday.

“It is also part of the country’s broader effort to facilitate tax services and optimise the taxation and business environment for taxpayers globally.

“More efforts will be made to strengthen international tax cooperation and governance,” he added.

The remarks came as China unveiled the latest version of its investment and taxation guide that spans 105 countries and regions.

The guide aims to help companies with overseas investments understand the local investment environment and taxation system, and reduce risk.

As this year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the BRI, the administration has been working to promote global taxation services under TaxExpress, a long-term mechanism for cross-border investment tax services, said Meng Yuying, director of the STA’s international taxation department.

TaxExpress mainly leverages professionals to help companies better understand taxation policies and related information while investing overseas, and smoothen service channels.

“Further efforts will also be made to promote the BRI Tax Administration Cooperation Mechanism, or Britacom, to smoothen trade and improve tax governance so as to build a multilateral taxation cooperation platform with international influence,” Meng said. — China Daily/ANN