Filing on time is the minimum. We go further — reviewing your invoices, expense records, and reporting patterns to identify compliance gaps before the tax bureau does. Proactive review is significantly less expensive than responding to an audit.
China’s tax authorities now cross-reference invoice data, bank transactions, and payroll records automatically. A pattern of unverified invoices, non-deductible expenses, or zero reporting is visible to the tax bureau before it is visible to you. We find these issues first.
Every invoice your company issues or receives is recorded in China’s Golden Tax System in real time. We review your invoicing records to confirm that what you have booked reflects genuine transactions — and that the invoices themselves meet the standards required for deductibility and VAT recovery.
Invoice compliance review report. High-risk invoice list with specific recommendations for each item. Priority-ranked remediation plan — addressing the most exposed items first.
Not all business expenses are tax-deductible in China — and the rules on what qualifies, how it must be documented, and what limits apply are detailed. We review your expense records to identify items that are likely to be disallowed in a tax audit and recommend how to correct them.
Expense compliance review report. Non-deductible and at-risk expense list with specific remediation recommendations. Adjustments to apply in the annual CIT settlement to reduce audit exposure.
For ongoing monthly filing management, including tax declaration submission and bookkeeping, see our Tax Filing & Compliance service → and Accounting & Bookkeeping service →
Zero tax reporting — filing returns showing no revenue and no tax liability month after month — is sometimes used as a cost-cutting measure by companies that are not yet operational or have paused activity. It is one of the most commonly misunderstood compliance risks for foreign-invested companies in China.
The core problem is not the filing itself — nil returns are legitimate for genuinely inactive periods. The risk arises when zero filings continue while the company has actual bank activity, employee payments, or business transactions that are visible to the tax bureau through cross-system data matching.
Zero tax reporting risk assessment. Clear view of whether your current filing pattern is defensible. Recommended remediation steps and timeline where a gap exists.
Why we strongly discourage long-term zero tax reporting — and what we have seen happen to clients who maintained it too long. Read our in-depth guide based on real cases.
Read the Guide →No. Bookkeeping is the ongoing process of recording transactions and preparing financial statements. An invoice compliance review is a point-in-time assessment of whether the invoices already in your books meet the standards required for deductibility, VAT recovery, and audit defence. The two services complement each other — bookkeeping creates the records, compliance review checks their quality. For ongoing bookkeeping, see our Accounting & Bookkeeping service →
Partially. Business entertainment expenses (业务招待费) are deductible at 60% of the amount incurred, subject to a cap of 0.5% of annual revenue — whichever is lower. Expenses above this limit are non-deductible and must be added back in the annual CIT settlement. Documentation requirements are strict: the invoice must clearly describe the nature of the entertainment, and the business purpose should be documented. Personal entertainment or expenses without a valid fapiao are entirely non-deductible.
The answer depends on whether any actual financial activity occurred during those two years. If the company genuinely had no transactions, no bank activity, and no employees, zero filing is defensible. If there was any activity — payments, transfers, salary, or service fees — that was not reported, the gap between your filings and the data visible to the tax bureau creates material audit risk. The longer the gap continues, the larger the potential back-tax, interest, and penalty exposure. We assess your specific situation and recommend a structured remediation approach. For further context, read our guide: Why We Strongly Discourage Long-Term Zero Tax Reporting →
Common audit triggers include: sustained zero or near-zero tax filings inconsistent with industry norms; large discrepancies between VAT invoicing and bank receipts; unusual expense patterns, particularly high entertainment or management fee ratios; cross-border payments without proper withholding tax treatment; and data mismatches identified through Golden Tax Phase IV’s automated cross-referencing. A proactive compliance review identifies which of these patterns exist in your records before they attract attention.
We identify invoice risks, expense gaps, and reporting patterns that create audit exposure — before the tax bureau does.