Whether you're heading to teach English, join a multinational company, or explore new business opportunities, China offers a fast-paced lifestyle, deep cultural roots, and endless career potential.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about relocating to China from a personal tax perspective, including tax residency, income tax, special tax regimes and tax return obligations.
TaxPilot recommend that you organize your affairs in good time to get ahead and make the most of favorable tax treatment while making sure you’re meeting your tax return obligations.
China follows a residence taxation model. If you are resident, you will pay tax worldwide incomes. If you are non-resident, you will pay tax on local incomes only.
if you spend more than 181 days in China during the tax year.
if you are Chinese domiciled.
Providing that you are considered non-domiciled, foreign incomes will be exempt from taxation in China for six years. China can be a very tax efficient place to live for expats and nomads and as such, Global Tax Consulting recommends seeking personalized tax planning advice to take advantage of the special tax regime.
Exempt from Chinese taxation.
Applied for six years.
Tax on property and share sales
Tax on value of owned assets
Tax on assets passed to heirs
Tax to contribute to state welfare
If you receive incomes overseas while you are living in China, you may find the source country, as a starting point, continues to tax the income which may cause double taxation unless you are using special tax regime.
Double taxation agreements can be used to mitigate double taxation and receive tax free income. As such, the more double taxation agreements a country has, the better, as agreements will ensure you’re not taxed twice and even better, ensure your income is tax free.
At present, China has 114 double taxation agreements signed.
