Making Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective – Consolidated Information on Mutual Agreement Procedures 2023

China (People's Republic of)

Recent developments relating to MAP in China prior to 15 August 2023

Developments relating to MAP in the tax treaty network

• Entry into force of the tax treaty with Rwanda occurred in 2023.

Other developments relating to MAP

• No developments were reported

Latest Action 14 Peer Review report

18 October 2021 - https://doi.org/10.1787/2819971c-en

Tax treaty network of China

• 107 treaties, applicable to 108 jurisdictions (covering all treaties signed, although not necessarily in force)

• status of MLI: in force.

Table 1. State of play of China's tax treaty network

Treaties in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard following MLI impact	Treaties where actions are ongoing to make them in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard	Following impact/actions, remaining treaties that are not in line with Action 14 Minimum Standard
105	3	0

Source: OECD

China's MAP programme

Organisation of competent authority function

• 31 persons:

  • four heads of unit

  • 31 persons working on MAP cases:

    • 23 persons work on attribution/allocation cases and eight persons work on other cases.

• contact persons for MAP requests:

  • For attribution / allocation cases: the taxpayer should make the MAP request directly to the STA headquarters, with the “Application for Initiating Mutual Agreement Procedures Concerning Special Tax Adjustments” and relevant information related to the special tax adjustments within the time period specified in the tax treaty.

  • For other cases: Chinese resident (national) should make the MAP request to the relevant Provincial Tax Authority, and the Provincial Tax Authority will forward the file to State Taxation Administration (STA) after collecting all necessary information.

Figure 1. Competent Authority Organisational Structure

Source: OECD

Table 2. Guidance on the MAP process

MAP guidance	For non-TP cases: STA Public Notice [2013] No. 56, 24 September 2013	http://www.chinatax.gov.cn/n810341/n810755/c3523242/content.html (Section XX to be referred to for form and content of a MAP request, including information requirements)
	For TP cases: STA Public Notice [2017] No. 6, 17 March 2017	http://www.chinatax.gov.cn/n810341/n810755/c2538695/content.html
MAP profile	28 January 2019	https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/china-dispute-resolution-profile.pdf

Overview of China's MAP Statistics for 2022

Please refer to https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/map-statistics-china.pdf for details with respect to China (People's Republic of)'s MAP Statistics.

Figure 2. Cases closed in 2022

Source: OECD

Figure 3. Evolution of China's MAP caseload (2016-22)

Source: OECD

Table 3. Overview of China’s MAP caseload for 2022

Inventory for year 2022	Opening Inventory 1/1/2022	Cases started	Cases Closed	End Inventory 31/12/2022
Attribution/allocation cases	64	16	12	68
Other cases	98	23	10	111
Total	162	39	22	179

Source: OECD

Table 4. China’s average time to resolve MAP cases in 2022

Cases resolved in year 2022	Pre-2016 cases		Post-2015 cases		All
	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time
				Start to End
Attribution / Allocation cases	1	102.41	11	33.44	12	39.19
Other cases	1	160.96	9	28.84	10	42.05
All cases	2	131.69	20	31.37	22	40.49

Source: OECD