China has yet to develop a timetable to unify its two-tiered corporate income tax rate for foreign-invested and domestic firms, Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng says.
'This is something we definitely will do. But right now I don't have a timetable. I can't tell you whether it will be next year or a few years later,' Mr Xiang said yesterday on the sidelines of the 16th World Congress of Accountants in Hong Kong.
He said unification of the corporate income tax rates was a complicated issue requiring extensive consultation and public hearings before the plan's finalisation. 'After we carefully study the issue, we still need to go through China's legal system to amend the taxation law,' he said.
China's tax code imposes a standard 33 per cent corporate income tax rate. However, for years the country has sought to attract foreign investment through preferential tax treatments.
