'Self-examinations' of tax payments by staff at about 3,200 representative offices of foreign firms in Beijing have revealed problems of varying degrees at 1,000 of them, Xinhua reported. An official of Beijing municipal tax bureau said that the problems mainly arose from misunderstanding of tax law and that Yn64m of tax arrears had been paid. The self-examinations would continue until September. After that, the bureau would conduct spot checks and offenders caught would be prosecuted.
Analysts quoted by South China Morning Post said that this was the latest evidence that China was determined to fight tax evasion. Zhejiang tax bureau is setting up a system covering a wide range of agencies to scrutinise the assets of the wealthy and Guangdong province is investing Yn500m in a tax monitoring system. In Beijing itself, spot checks were conducted on 7,166 individual taxpayers in the first half of this year, leading to the recovery of more than Yn950m in unpaid tax and the arrest of film actress Liu Xiaoqing on charges of tax evasion by companies she owns.