"Replacement of Business Tax with a Value-added Tax" - A Countermeasure Adopted by Construction Enterprises

Along with the constant development of the socialist market economy, the disadvantages of the traditional business tax collection method, such as frequent repetitive taxing, have begun to arise, increasing the operating cost of enterprises, posing an obstacle to the development of the national economy. In this context, the state has clearly proposed to extend the collection range of value-added tax and reduce business tax. On January 01st, 2012, Shanghai was chosen as the first pilot region for replacement of business tax with a value-added tax, and since then, the range of this replacement has been continuously enlarged, and some part of modern service industry, railway transport industry, postal service industry and telecommunication industry has been successively involved in the pilot change from business tax to value-added tax. According to the original plan, 2015 would be the deadline for the full completion of value-added tax expansion, but from the current perspective, the replacement of business tax with value-added tax may be finished in 2016. With the development of market economy in China, the overall scale of construction industry has been expanded continuously at a low developmental level, and now it's just in the stage of extensive development. The collection mode of construction business tax is a constraint on its development, mainly reflected in repeated taxation and heavy tax burden, etc. The implementation of "change from business tax to value-added tax" policy will emphatically eliminate the existing tax restraints and promote the sound, benign development of construction industry.