Customs Rectification Of Small Foreign Trade &Nbsp; Online Shopping Platform Suffered Great Impact

The implementation of the new customs regulations will make overseas efforts.

"Suspending sales of digital cameras, camcorders and watch products because of the adjustment of Japanese business."

This is a user announcement published on the front page of Taobao's online shopping platform for Japan.

A customer service staff in Amoy told reporters on the phone that the Japanese government had to suspend the sale of the Japanese digital products due to the tightening of customs policies recently.

Related to this, another announcement in "Amoy Japan" shows: "recent changes in customs customs policy on personal belongings...

Many Japanese goods have been accumulated in Hongkong.

The tax allowance is reduced by nearly 10 times.

According to document No. 43 issued by the General Administration of Customs in July 2nd, personal mail items are imported.

Grey area of small foreign trade

The reporter noted that the starting date of Article 43 was September 1st.

"Although new regulations for the entry and exit of personal belongings have not yet been implemented, new regulations for sample and advertising products have been implemented."

Insiders told reporters.

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In 2009, Taobao's overseas purchases amounted to about 5 billion yuan, and Dunhuang foreign trade amounted to 2 billion 500 million yuan.

Before the publication of Article 43, in May 25th this year, the General Administration of Customs issued "No. 33", which stipulates that except for goods and advertising goods without commercial value, part of the exemption is granted, other import and export samples and advertising products shall be taxed according to the regulations, and will be implemented from July 1st.

Previously, according to the original provisions of the General Administration of Customs in 1990, the import and export samples and advertising products within the amount of less than 400 yuan, you can apply for exemption from customs duties.

"Do not exclude part of the small overseas purchase, through the form of goods and advertising products in the form of tax avoidance."

Analysis of the above industry, No. 33, the purpose is to plug this loophole.

Before and after less than two months, the Customs set out a set of "combination boxing", referring directly to the gray area of small import and export behavior.

"This is equivalent to basically blocking the gray channel of" small amount "foreign trade tax avoidance.

Many foreign trade personages analyzed this reporter, and the introduction of the two new regulations had a huge impact on overseas purchasing, small foreign trade and other emerging industries.

In recent years, the Internet platform has deeply intervened and applied in the foreign trade industry, making use of the convenient overseas purchasing and online e-commerce mode and the small foreign trade export mode, which is in the ascendant. According to the data from Analysys International, in 2009, Taobao's overseas purchasing paction volume was about 5 billion yuan, and the Dunhuang foreign trade volume amounted to 2 billion 500 million yuan.

With the popularity of e-commerce pactions and the rebound of China's foreign trade exports, the scale of "small" foreign trade market will also be enlarged indefinitely.

But behind the increasingly expanding market, "small" foreign trade has been on the brink of customs policy.

"Taking advantage of the state's policy space for tax exemption for some small items," legal but not necessarily reasonable "tax avoidance brings huge cost advantages to Transnational E-commerce pactions, and is also one of its core competitiveness.

An industry analyst who does not want to be named thinks that the introduction of the new customs regulations is undoubtedly a fatal blow to the "small" pnational Internet paction mode.

In fact, it is not only the import links that are affected.

According to reporters, e-commerce platform for small foreign trade, in order to facilitate exports, often in the form of goods and advertising products to avoid customs formalities.

And Article 33 stipulates that "import and export samples and advertising products, whether or not provided free, shall be declared to the Customs by the import and export consignee or their agents registered at the customs, and the customs shall examine and verify the customs according to the regulations."

"Small foreign trade to avoid customs clearance business mode, will face adjustment."

Foreign trade insiders.

"Edge up" edge ball

The biggest impact on new customs regulations will be online purchasing of goods already imported from China.

"Strengthening Customs supervision is the general trend."

In the view of Hu Weiquan, general manager of global market group, the past customs import and export policy has left many "grey areas".

In August 9th, the General Administration of Customs issued an interpretation of the adjustment of management measures for personal mail items in the official website.

The head of the supervision department of the General Administration of Customs said that China's entry commodities are different from the different objects of supervision, such as goods and articles: "goods have the characteristics of" non trade "and are not allowed to be sold or leased after entering the country.

According to this regulation, overseas purchasing apparently does not belong to the category of "goods".

"Overseas purchasing goods are profitable, and they will enter the trade again, so the goods purchased abroad are not goods, but goods."

The director general of the customs office thinks that

What is more serious is that some overseas purchasing has developed into an organized and "tax break up" foreign trade tax avoidance behavior.

From the procurement of overseas goods, subcontracting and sending to foreign exchange settlement, we use policy space to form a complete industrial chain.

"From our actual supervision, we found that some illegal elements tried to break up the imported goods into multiple votes, forgery as personal belongings, and make use of the preferential provision for personal belongings allowance, and enter the country through mail and express mail to avoid supervision."

The director general of the customs office thinks that

However, insiders have analyzed that the role of many online shopping platforms can not be ignored behind the "tax break up" tax avoidance.

Take foreign exchange payment as an example, because RMB can not be freely convertible, the amount of individual purchase of foreign exchange is 50 thousand US dollars per year. This has provided the possibility of cross-border payment for overseas purchasing.

The offshore payment of Alipay clearly stipulates: "individual year (foreign exchange payment) should not exceed 45 thousand dollars."

The General Administration of Customs thinks that it has evaded the control of imported goods by the state and made the relevant commodities inflow into the domestic market in the absence of safety, hygiene and quality control. Consumers can not get the proper protection.

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In the small export sector, the "grey operation" is also energy.

"Because a lot of small and medium-sized enterprises are not regulated, they do not have value-added tax invoices, and lack of export qualification.

Through the "piecemeal" small express export, we can effectively avoid the complicated customs clearance process.

Insiders familiar with the model revealed that they could not go to customs and go through the normal exchange formalities: "some foreign exchange settlement, or even through underground banks."

Cost test of small foreign trade

"As a policy of" edge ball ", overseas purchasing mode is not recommended.

In view of Cao Fei, an analyst at Analysys International, to some extent, overseas purchasing is similar to "pnational goods".

For overseas commodities that have been introduced into China, overseas purchasing is equivalent to attacking existing marketing channels in China.

"This is not a healthy business model."

Cao Fei analysis.

But on the other side of the reality, despite being subject to various customs policies, the "overseas purchasing", which is different from the existing customs, has developed huge market and relatively rigid user demand in recent years.

"The demand for overseas purchasing will not be weakened due to the introduction of new customs regulations."

A person in charge of Taobao told reporters that even with increased tariff costs, the use of e-commerce platform for overseas purchasing is still a convenient advantage compared to the overseas purchase of friends.

Cao Fei believes that the biggest impact of the new customs regulations will be the online purchase of goods already imported from China: "for overseas goods that are not domestic, even if tariffs are increased, demand will still exist."

By contrast, small exports will face greater adjustment in trade patterns.

"Since the original mode did not go through customs declaration, the original business was almost stagnant after the implementation of the new policy."

A customer service officer of UPS company, which has cooperation with a large domestic small foreign trade website, revealed.

"Small tax avoidance exports and foreign trade will gradually be pformed into normal customs trade."

Xiao Feng, deputy general manager of electronic commerce foreign trade customs service provider, one Datong, said.

Xiao Feng believes that the small and medium-sized foreign trade e-commerce platform is mainly for small and medium enterprises, a considerable part of the lack of export qualification, and even do not open value-added tax invoices.

"As the export tax rebate rate is often lower than the enterprise value-added tax rate, once normal customs clearance, in addition to increasing customs fees, the tax difference between value-added tax and export tax rebate is also the rising cost of enterprises."

Xiao Feng analysis.

After a small amount of foreign trade is pferred to normal customs, the increase of export cost is unavoidable.

How to extend e-commerce from simple information platform to online declaration will become a new way to break through the e-commerce platform of small foreign trade.

According to Xiao Feng, after the introduction of the new customs regulations, the small foreign trade e-commerce platform, including the Dunhuang network, began to negotiate with one Da Tong, acting for e-commerce customs clearance services.