The State Taxation Administration ("STA") recently issued the Decision on Cancelling a Batch of Tax Certification Items (the "Decision"), immediately effective from the date of issuance.

     The Decision states that, among 15 tax certification items abolished this time are five items previously requiring taxpayers to obtain certificates specifically from third parties, such as the certificate provided by a relevant department to attest a taxpayer's financial difficulty in making tax payments due to impacts caused by natural disasters, which shall be furnished when tax relief formalities for the vehicle and vessel tax are handled, and the resource tax administration certificate provided by the seller which shall be presented when formalities for the exemption of resource tax payments are handled. The other 10 items relate to statutory licenses and permits of taxpayers which are previously required to be provided, such as the vehicle and vessel ownership certificate that shall be provided when formalities for the exemption of vehicle and vessel tax are handled and the active duty retirement certificate that shall be submitted when formalities for the relevant tax relief granted to retired soldiers seeking employment by themselves are handled. Moreover, the Decision explicitly states that, the supporting documents concerned will no longer be required and provided after the cancellation of such 15 tax certification items. Instead, some items will be verified and checked internally by authorities, while others will be replaced by information shared between different departments.

(Source: STA)