Recently, the State Administration of Taxation ("SAT") has issued the Regulations on the Administration Registration for Tax Agents (for Trial Implementation) (the "Regulations"), effective from September 1, 2017.
The Regulations clarify that a firm should neither be titled as a tax agent nor be entitled to relevant legitimate rights and interests, if the administrative registration has not been made. Tax agents that are established in the form of the partnership or under the limited liability system are required to fulfill four requirements, one of which reads that the legal representative of a tax agent with limited liability should be one of its shareholders, unless otherwise as separately stipulated by the SAT. Meanwhile, according to the Regulations, an administrative counterpart, while applying for the administrative registration for the tax agent, should present three types of materials, including the Administrative Registration Form for Tax Agents, to the provincial tax authority in its locality within 20 working days after obtaining its business license. The provincial tax authority should accept its application immediately if materials provided by the administrative counterpart are complete and in statutory forms; otherwise, the provincial tax authority should inform it of all materials to be corrected and supplemented on a one-time basis. Additionally, the provincial tax authority is required to process the administrative registration for the tax agent within 20 working days upon its acceptance of those materials.