China Platform Tax Rule Boosts Reporting: 9,692 Firms, 39% Rise, 37% More Tax-Paying Merchants; 12,000

Rong Hailou of the State Taxation Administration stated at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that the Regulation on Tax-Related Information Reporting by Internet Platform Enterprises, which took effect on June 20 last year, has achieved notable results over the past year. Nearly 9,700 domestic and overseas platforms have actively fulfilled their tax information reporting obligations. In the first quarter of this year, 9,692 platforms submitted tax-related information, a 39% increase from the initial reporting period in October 2025, essentially achieving full compliance. During the first-quarter reporting period, over 70% of platforms completed their submissions by April 20, up 6 percentage points from the previous period. The second-quarter reporting is currently underway, with 80% of platforms having completed submissions by July 20. Compared with the first reporting period last year, the number of platform operators and employees whose information was submitted in the first quarter grew by 21% and 19%, respectively. The information reported by leading platforms has shown increasing consistency with their industry positions and cross-verification with other data.

Tax compliance among merchants on platforms has continued to strengthen. In the first quarter, the value of invoices obtained by small-scale taxpayers on platforms from upstream enterprises increased by 48% year on year, up 20 percentage points from the previous quarter, and more than doubled from the first reporting period last year. The number of merchants on platforms that self-reported income exceeding the amount reported by platform enterprises to tax authorities has been rising, with their share among all platform merchants increasing by 26 percentage points from the first reporting period. The number of merchants filing and paying taxes on platforms grew by 37% compared with before the regulation came into effect, and was 5 percentage points higher than in the previous reporting period.

The implementation of the regulation has made online transaction information more visible and transparent, curbing behaviors such as failure to register, fake orders and inflated ratings, and income splitting by some platform merchants, leading to more compliant operations. In the first quarter, the number of platform merchants that registered as business entities in accordance with the law increased by nearly 10 percentage points from the first reporting period last year. Tax authorities have actively collaborated with relevant departments in joint governance. Recently, a case was investigated in which a group manipulated 12,000 accounts to provide fake order services for platform merchants, generating illegal gains of over RMB 1.8 million. The case has been handed over to relevant authorities for legal processing.