China is intensifying efforts to collect taxes on citizens’ overseas income, expanding its scrutiny to less wealthy individuals after targeting the ultra-rich last year, according to people familiar with the matter.
Officials are now scrutinizing a broad range of offshore income, including investment returns, dividends and employee stock options, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Investment gains can be taxed as much as 20%.
Tax service providers have seen a surge in inquiries in recent months from clients with less than US$1 million ($1.3 million) in assets, a notable shift from last year’s crackdown that largely targeted individuals with at least US$10 million ($13 million). Chinese residents with offshore investments, especially in US and Hong Kong stocks, are a key focus of the tax authorities, one of the people added.
The State Taxation Administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chinese authorities are seeking to boost fiscal income and narrow a record budget deficit as Beijing has ramped up stimulus to counter US tariffs. Local governments are pressed for revenue as a protracted property crisis and deleveraging has meant they can no longer rely on land sales or excessive borrowing to fund their spending.
At the same time, Chinese investors have been shifting more wealth overseas as the economy has struggled and after a crackdown on private enterprise. President Xi Jinping’s push for “common prosperity” has also dented confidence, though the Chinese leader has recently made a high-profile push to shore up confidence among entrepreneurs.
See also: Taylor Swift locked in her billionaire status before acquiring music
Mainland investors have poured about HK$658 billion ($107 billion) into Hong Kong-listed stocks via the cross-border trading link so far this year, according to Bloomberg calculations, more than double the outflows for the same period last year.
China’s Ministry of Finance sees room to boost revenue by tightening tax collection on income that’s subject to individual income tax but hasn’t been declared by the taxpayer or identified by tax authorities, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named speaking about confidential discussions. The ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Total income in the Chinese government’s two main fiscal books fell 1.3% year-on-year in the first four months of the year, while expenditure soared 7.2%. That prompted the budget gap to swell by more than 50% to upwards of US$360 billion ($463 billion), the most ever for the period, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the Finance Ministry.
See also: Over 90% of Single Family Offices make allocations to private equity: report
Tax bureaus in Beijing, Shanghai, and provinces such as eastern Zhejiang have urged residents to check their overseas gains and make tax declarations by June 30, when the reporting season for 2024 income ends, according to notices seen by Bloomberg as well as public statements.
Local authorities have acted in concert since at least late March after their big data analysis discovered some residents had failed to declare their offshore gains for taxation, according to government records. In cases publicized by the tax offices, the amount that residents were asked to pay back in overdue tax and fines was as low as RMB127,200 ($22700).
China’s tax push also followed its 2018 implementation of the Common Reporting Standard, a global information-sharing system aimed at preventing tax evasion. While local regulations always stipulated that residents be taxed on worldwide income, including investment gains, it had rarely been enforced until last year.
Under the CRS, China has been automatically exchanging information with nearly 150 jurisdictions about accounts belonging to people subject to taxes in each member country for the past few years.
Personal investable assets in mainland China could soar to US$80 trillion ($102.5 trillion) by 2030, with overseas investments rising to 11% of households’ investable assets, up from its 8% in 2023, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
