Aggregate Tax Payment

Summary taxation is a tax collection facilitation measure promoted by the General Administration of Customs of China since 2017. It means that eligible enterprises importing goods multiple times within a month do not need to pay taxes on a per-declaration basis, but instead pay on a monthly consolidated basis. Its core is 'release first, tax later; consolidated tax payment.' After the enterprise provides a tax guarantee, goods can be released quickly, and the previous month's taxes must be paid in a consolidated manner by the 5th of the following month. It is mainly applicable to enterprises with frequent imports, low value per declaration, and high requirements for customs clearance timeliness. Precautions include: enterprises need to apply to customs for qualification and submit a guarantee; overdue taxes will incur late fees; summary taxation is opposite to 'per-declaration taxation,' under which each customs declaration is taxed separately, involving cumbersome procedures. Easily confused with 'summary taxation' is 'centralized declaration,' which focuses on consolidated declaration of customs declarations, while summary taxation focuses on consolidated tax payment. In addition, summary taxation does not apply to dishonest enterprises, and enterprises must ensure sufficient guarantee quota. This model can significantly reduce enterprise capital occupation and customs clearance costs, and is an important direction of customs tax reform.