The China Certified Tax Agents Association ("CCTAA") has recently issued the Measures for the Accreditation of Ratings of Tax Agent Firms (Revised in 2018) (the "Measures"), with effect from April 17, 2018.
The Measures state that, a tax agent firm may voluntarily file an application for accrediting its rating, and the CCTAA or the local association of certified tax agents will examine its application and accredit the rating. Tax agent firms are rated at five classes, namely the Class A, Class AA, Class AAA, Class AAAA and Class AAAAA. According to the Measures, tax agent firms operating in the organizational forms of "parent company-subsidiary", "headquarter-branch" or "parent company-subsidiary plus headquarter-branch", shall satisfy five requirements, one of which reads as "the head office of a tax agent firm shall own over 50 percent of the equity or voting rights of each branch and gain the actual control right". The headquarter of a tax agent conglomerate may consolidate the business scale and performance of all its branches. Furthermore, the Measures distribute the Criteria on the Accreditation of Ratings of Tax Agent Firms at the same time, which is constituted by the practicing qualifications, business scale and performance, practicing standards, social credibility, internal management, and other assessment items.