聚焦：企业境外所得税抵免

聚焦：企业境外所得税抵免前言2010年7月，国家税务总局以2010年第1号公告发布了《企业境外所得税收抵免操作指南》（下称“指南”）。

《指南》对整个企业境外所得税收抵免制度做了进一步更深入、更详细的解释和规范。

至此，企业境外所得税收抵免开始具有可操作性。

一、企业境外所得税收抵免的法律框架目前我国企业境外所得税抵免的基本法律框架由《企业所得税法》（下称“法”）、《企业所得税法实施条例》（下称“条例”）、《关于企业境外所得税收抵免有关问题的通知》（财税[2009]125号文，下称“通知”）以及最新发布的《指南》共同构成。

法律法规条文内容法第23条规定了企业境外所得税直接抵免制度法第24条规定了企业境外所得税间接抵免制度条例第7条判断来源于中国境内、境外所得的一般标准条例第77条对《法》第23条中规定的“已在境外缴纳的所得税税额”做出明确条例第78条确立了“分国不分项”的抵免方式和抵免限额的基本计算公式条例第79条对《法》第23条中规定的抵免余额的5年结转期限的起算做出明确条例第80条规定了间接抵免的“合格境外公司”的持股比例条例第81条规定了企业境外所得税抵免的基本征管方式通知对企业境外所得确认、抵免限额计算、直接抵免和间接抵免的条件、税收饶让抵免、简易抵免等各项问题做出补充和进一步解释。

指南对《通知》做出逐条解释，进一步完善了企业境外所得税抵免制度。

二、我国企业境外所得税收抵免的基本制度企业境外所得税抵免是消除国际重复征税的方式之一。

它是指纳税人的母国对居民纳税人的全球所得和财产征税时，允许该居民纳税人从其应纳税额中扣除其已在东道国缴纳的国外税额。

但是，如果东道国的税负低于母国税负，则母国对差额部分还是要补征税款。

直接抵免：适用于同时负有东道国和母国纳税义务的属于同一法律实体的纳税人，例如总公司和分公司。

居民企业来源于中国境外的应税所得，以及非居民企业在中国境内设立机构、场所，取得发生在中国境外但与该机构、场所有实际联系的应税所得，其在境外缴纳的所得税额在我国应纳税额中直接抵免。

间接抵免：适用于母公司和子公司。

即允许抵免的不是由居民企业直接在外国缴纳的税额，而是取得股息的国外子公司在分配股息前，就其利润所缴纳的外国公司税额。

由于居民企业在境外的子公司就经营利润已经在国外缴税，而作为股东的居民企业在取得股息时要向境内缴纳所得税，由此形成了双重征税。

间接抵免即是消除这一性质的双重征税。

需注意，间接抵免目前只适用于居民企业，不适用于非居民企业，并且只适用于我国居民企业在境外设立的，符合持股比例要求的三层下层境外子公司。

限额抵免：我国采用限额抵免制度，即允许纳税人当期从应纳税额中扣除的国外已纳税额，最高不能超过一定的抵免限额。

抵免限额是指，将企业国外所得按照中国税法调整出计税基数，并根据中国适用税率计算出的税额。

超过抵免限额的部分，可以在以后5个年度内，用每年度抵免限额抵免当年应抵税额后的余额进行抵补。

分国不分项：我国采用分国不分项的抵免制度。

即纳税人在一个纳税年度中，在某一东道国的已纳税额中超过抵免限额的部分，不能用于抵免其他东道国的税额，但在同一东道国不同项目的所得的超限抵免额，可以抵免其他项目的税额。

另外，根据《企业所得税法》规定，企业在汇总计算缴纳企业所得税时，其境外分支机构的亏损不得抵减境内营业机构的盈利。

根据企业境外所得税抵免制度，在不同国家的分支机构发生的亏损也不得相互弥补，但可以用同一国家（地区）其他项目或以后年度的所得按规定弥补。

税收饶让抵免：税收饶让是指在计征居民纳税人全球所得应纳母国税额时，对其在国外因得到税收优惠而减免掉的应纳而未纳的税额，视同已纳国外税额而准予抵免的税收优惠措施。

根据我国税法规定，我国与有关国家签订的税收协定规定有税收饶让抵免安排，可以适用税收饶让抵免。

三、境外投资结构的税收抵免考虑1、税收抵免与反避税规定如前文所述，中国的企业境外所得税抵免制度包括了直接抵免和间接抵免。

根据《企业所得税法》的规定，间接抵免只适用于“居民企业从其直接或者间接控制的外国企业分得的来源于中国境外的股息、红利等权益性投资收益”，即间接抵免不适用于非居民企业。

从目前较普遍的返程投资模式来看，其典型的三层结构，即“中国居民企业A-外国企业B-中国居民企业C”中，两个中国居民企业A和C之间不能适用间接抵免。

因为中国居民企业C企业不是外国企业，不适用境外间接抵免。

而A对C不是直接投资，也不能适用境内间接抵免。

外国企业B与中国居民企业A之间则是可以适用间接抵免的。

但是，新《企业所得税法》中同时规定了针对“受控外国公司”反避税制度，即由居民企业，或者由居民企业和中国居民控制的设立在实际税负明显低于我国税率水平的国家（地区）的企业，并非由于合理的经营需要而对利润不作分配或者减少分配的，上述利润中应归属于该居民企业的部分，应当计入该居民企业的当期收入。

目前的“返程投资”模式中，不少中国居民企业下属的外国企业B是设立在开曼、BVI等避税地，如果B被认定为作为避税手段的“受控外国公司”，其利润中应归属于该居民企业的部分，应当计入该居民企业的当期收入，但是此时作为“受控外国公司”的B是否还能享受间接抵免，目前法律法规都没有规定，《指南》亦未做出解释。

值得注意的是，《企业所得税法》中规定的“居民企业”，也包括照外国（地区）法律成立但实际管理机构在中国境内的企业。

如果认定为居民企业，则应当就其全球收入缴纳所得税，但是，其与母公司A之间就可以适用居民企业之间的间接抵免。

并且，如果B公司的下层子公司是外国企业的话，还可以突破企业境外所得税间接抵免的三层限制条件，变为四层。

此外，新《企业所得税法》还规定，“符合条件的居民企业之间的股息、红利等权益性投资收益”为免税收入。

这可以看作是符合条件的居民企业之间的境内所得税“间接抵免”，可以看出整个企业所得税抵免制度已经趋于完整。

2、母公司与子公司的结构在企业境外所得税收抵免的制度框架下，居民企业选择不同的境外投资项目的组织形式，在税务上会产生不同的效果。

如果境内企业在境外设立分公司，则其作为境内总公司的分支机构，与境内总公司之间适用直接抵免。

《指南》特别强调了，分支机构不具有分配利润职能，因此居民企业在境外设立不具有独立纳税地位的分支机构取得的各项境外所得，无论是否汇回中国境内，均应计入该企业所属纳税年度的境外应纳税所得额。

如果境内企业在境外设立子公司，在不适用“受控外国公司”的反避税条款的前提下，则子公司只有在股息汇回中国时才缴纳所得税，并且可以适用境外所得税间接抵免。

因此，相对于总分公司结构而言，设立母子公司结构，可以通过控制子公司的股息分配时间以适当地递延企业所得税的纳税。

3、中间层公司的设置通常，境内企业根据经营需要会在不同国家设立分支机构或子公司，这些国家的企业所得税税负会高于中国或低于中国。

根据前述“分国不分项”的抵免制度，企业境外所得税的抵免按照国别计算和抵免。

由于抵免限额按照中国的企业所得税税率计算，对于企业所得税税率高于中国的国家，抵免限额小于企业在境外实际缴纳的所得税，而对于企业所得税税率低于中国的国家，抵免限额则大于企业在境外实际缴纳的所得税，这就出现了一方面抵免限额不够，而另一方面抵免限额有余额无法充分利用的情形。

《指南》明确，境外第二层及以下层级企业归属不同国家的，在计算居民企业负担境外税额时，均以境外第一层企业所在国（地区）为国别划分进行归集计算，而不论该第一层企业的下层企业归属何国（地区）。

通过这一规定，企业可以在各个高税负国家和低税负国家的子公司之上，再设立中间层持股企业，从税负高于我国的国家和税负低于我国的国家取得的利润就可以在中间层持股企业汇总，通过合理安排向中间层持股企业利润汇回的时间和金额，可以充分运用间接抵免的规定，起到“中和”的作用，最大化地抵免企业所得税。

结语企业境外所得税抵免制度对于企业境外投资是极为重要。

了解企业境外所得税抵免制度，对企业境外投资的方式选择、架构安排、经营模式、股息分配等各个方面的考虑可以更全面，在符合法律法规的前提下做出最优的投资决策。

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------瑛明律师事务所是一家具有中国法律执业资格的律师事务所。

本刊物的内容并不构成，也不应被视为构成正式的法律意见或建议。

由于个案中的具体事实和情况各不相同，在根据本刊物的信息作出行动决策之前，您应当先向具有相应法律执业资格的律师咨询。

Foreign Investment Guidance:The PRC Enterprise Foreign Tax Credit RegimeBackgroundOn July 2, 2010, the State Administration of Taxation (“SAT”) issued the “Guidance on Administration of PRC Enterprise Foreign Tax Credit ” (“Guidance”). The Guidance is the latest release by PRC authorities to provide further details and examples to clarify the PRC’s enterprise foreign tax credit regime (“FTC”) and make its operation more certain and convenient.1. Framework of the FTCThe current PRC FTC is provided for by the “PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law ” (“EIT”), which became effective on January 1, 2008. Related regulations include the “Implementation Rules of the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law ” (“Implementation Rules”), the “Notice on Foreign Tax Credit Issues for Enterprise Income Tax ” (“Notice”), which provided the first significant details on the workings of the PRC foreign tax credit (‘FTC”) regime, and, now, the Guidance. Table 1 lists the applicable laws and regulations establishing the PRC FTC and summarizes their related provisions.Law/regulation ArticleProvision Article 23 Established the direct FTC rules.EIT Article 24 Established the indirect FTC rules.Article 7 Established the general principles for determining theChinese-sources of foreign sourced of income.Article 77 Clarified the “income tax” paid overseas under Article 23 ofEIT.Article 78 Established the rules of “overall credit on a per-countrybasis” and the formula for calculating the FTC limit.Article 79 Explained the starting point of the five-year period foroffsetting the excess amount that can not be credited in thecurrent year, as stipulated in Article 23 of the EIT.Implementation Rules Article 80 Stipulated the necessary equity ratio for applying for theindirect FTC.Article 81 Stipulated the basic rules of administration of FTC.Notice Supplemented and further explained the problems with applying the FTC, including: the recognition of foreign enterprise income, the calculation of credit limit, conditions for applying for direct or indirect credit, tax sparing credit, and simplified approach of credit, among others.Guidance Provided further explanations for each article of the Notice,complementing the FTC mechanism.2. Basic Concepts of the PRC Enterprise Foreign Tax CreditUnder the EIT, a resident enterprise, which includes enterprises established in China and enterprises established abroad but with their effective place of management in China, is subject to taxation on its global income. Accordingly, a PRC resident enterprise must pay EIT on PRC sourced income as well as income derived from its operations in other countries (“Foreign Source Country”). Because the latter income is often also taxed in the Foreign Source Country, the PRC resident enterprise potentially faces the prospect of double taxation.The FTC creates an offset against EIT obligations for income tax paid abroad on income derived in a Foreign Source Country. Although the FTC can eliminate the risk of double taxation, its scope is limited in some circumstances. For example, if the effective tax rate in a Foreign Source Country is lower than the applicable EIT rate, the resident enterprise must pay EIT equal to the difference between the two rates on income from the Foreign Source Country.The EIT provides for direct FTC and indirect FTC.PRC Direct FTC:Applies to taxpayers of the same legal entity that incur a tax liability in both a Foreign Source Country and in China, for example, a PRC company and its overseas branches.When a resident enterprise pays income tax in a Foreign Source Country on income derived in that country, or when a non-resident enterprise pays income tax in a Foreign Source Country on income that is effectively connected with its operations in China, the amount of taxes paid may be directly credited against its EIT liability. Indirect FTC: Applies to an enterprise resident taxpayer and its foreign subsidiaries. Passive income from a foreign subsidiary to a resident taxpayer, including dividends, interests, royalties, rents, and capital gains, is subject to EIT. However, because a foreign subsidiary has usually already paid income tax on its earnings in the Foreign Source Country, the imposition of EIT liability on the dividends creates a doubletaxation situation.Where applicable, the indirect FTC eliminates this double taxation. It is noteworthy that the indirect FTC only applies to passive income paid by a qualified overseas subsidiary, which is one that is no more than three tiers removed from the resident enterprise and meets certain equity holding requirements. The Guidance provides detailed examples to further explain these requirements.FTC Limit: The EIT and related FTC regulations limit the amount of qualified foreign income taxes eligible for FTC treatment. Calculating the maximum FTC amount (“FTC Limit”) is a two-step process:First, the taxable foreign sourced income is adjusted according to Chinese tax laws and regulations, yielding a theoretical PRC income tax liability that establishes the maximum FTC Limit.Second, the FTC Limit is then compared with the tax amount already paid in the Foreign Source Country. If the amount of paid foreign income taxes exceeds the FTC Limit, the excess amount may be carried forward and applied against EIT over the subsequent five years.Per Country Computation: The FTC Limit is calculated on a per country basis. If the taxpayer’s amount of paid foreign taxes for a particular Foreign Source Country in a given year exceeds the calculated FTC Limit for that country, the excess may not be used to offset income taxes paid in another Foreign Source Country. .In addition, according to the EIT, a resident enterprise may not use losses incurred by overseas branches to offset profits in the PRC. And under the principle of Per Country Computation, the losses of foreign branches in one country shall not be used to offset taxable income derived by it branches in other countries.Tax Sparing Credit: Under the FTC, where a Foreign Source Country has a preferential tax regime that affords an exemption of or a reduction in taxes on foreign-sourced income, the amount of the deduction or reduction is deemed as paid on the foreign sourced income. Thus the taxpayer can fully enjoy the preferential tax policies of other countries without suffering a penalty under the EIT.Likewise, the FTC regulations provide that a tax sparing provision in a tax treaty between the PRC and a Foreign Source Country should be accounted as foreign income tax available for credit.3. FTC in Overseas Investment Structure(1) FTC and EIT Anti-Avoidance ProvisionsAs noted previously, the FTC regime provides both direct FTC and indirect FTC. The indirect FTC rules only apply to the passive income from a directly or indirectly controlled foreign company of a Chinese resident enterprise. They do not apply to non-PRC resident enterprise.Applying the FTC rules to the typical “return investment” model adopted by many PRC enterprises, i.e., Chinese Resident Enterprise A establishes Foreign Enterprise B which makes inbound investment to establish Chinese Resident Enterprise C, the indirect FTC applies between A and B, as B is A’s foreign subsidiary, but not between A and C, as C is A’s Chinese subsidiary.However, the EIT law also adopted an anti-avoidance rule applicable to Controlled Foreign Companies (“CFC Rule”). It provides that when a resident enterprise or a Chinese resident establishes an enterprise in a Foreign Source Country, as routinely identified by the SAT, where the actual tax burden is obviously lower than China’s (e.g., currently BVI and Cayman, among others), if the controlled enterprise in the Foreign Source Country fails to distribute profits or reduces the amount its distributions in a given year for a reason unrelated to its business operations, the profits of the established enterprise shall be included in full in the income of the resident enterprise or enterprise controlled by a resident enterprise or by a Chinese resident.This arrangement poses a question: if the Foreign Enterprise B is identified as a Controlled Foreign Company, can it adopt the indirect FTC rules? That is, can the enterprise income taxes paid in China by Chinese Enterprise A for the profits it received from Foreign Enterprise B (a Controlled Foreign Company) be offset the by enterprise income taxes paid in the foreign country where B was established for B’s profits? Currently, neither the EIT nor the FTC rules clearly answer this question. Additionally, under the PRC EIT law, a resident enterprise includes enterprisesregistered in a foreign country or region pursuant to foreign laws but which have their place of effective management in China. In the aforementioned return investment pattern, if Foreign Enterprise B is identified as a resident enterprise, it can utilize the indirect tax credit between resident enterprises because it was directly invested in by Chinese Resident Enterprise A. Furthermore, if Foreign Enterprise B has foreign subsidiaries, the indirect FTC would apply to subsidiaries up to 4 tiers removed from Chinese Resident Enterprise A.It is noteworthy that the EIT Law also provides that the indirect tax credit may be used between directly invested resident enterprises. This can be regarded as a supplementary preferential policy to the Foreign Tax Credit regime.(2) The Parent-Subsidiary PatternThe taxable income figure of a resident company should include the income of its foreign branches, regardless of whether the income is actually repatriated to China. However, in the case of an overseas subsidiary established by a Chinese resident enterprise, unless the CFC Rule applies, any profits derived by the foreign subsidiary are not taxable under the EIT until they are repatriated to the parent resident company. Thus the EIT can be effectively deferred by controlling the distribution of profits of offshore subsidiaries.(3) Use of an of Intermediary Company to Maximize FTCA Chinese resident enterprise will often establish subsidiaries in some countries where the tax burden is higher than in China and in other countries where tax burden is lower than in China. Under the aforementioned, Per Country Computation principle, the FTC limit shall be calculated country by country.So, where a Chinese resident enterprise establishes a foreign subsidiary in a high tax country, the corresponding FTC limit will typically be lower than the enterprise income tax it actually pays in the foreign country, meaning that some of the foreign enterprise income tax can not be offset and is potentially wasted.Conversely, where the foreign subsidiary is established in a low tax country, the corresponding FTC limit is often higher than the enterprise income tax it actually pays in the foreign country, which prevents it from making full use of the FTC limit.The Guidance stipulates that if a resident enterprise establishes multiple tiers of foreign subsidiaries in different countries or regions, it may utilize the Per Country Computation principle only with respect to the first tier company or companies in each foreign country when calculating the foreign taxes attributable to its investment income.To make full use of the FTC with respect to income from overseas operations in different countries, a resident enterprise can establish an intermediary foreign subsidiary to act as a holding company for its disparate lower tier subsidiaries in both high tax and low tax burden countries. Under this arrangement, the intermediary foreign subsidiary aggregates the profits of the subsidiaries in both high tax and low tax burden countries, and the FTC limit is calculated only with respect to the country where the intermediary subsidiary is established. And by reasonably controlling the distribution of profits to the parent Chinese resident enterprise, the excess FTC Limit generated by the foreign subsidiaries in high tax burden countries may be utilized by the foreign subsidiaries in low tax burden countries to enable them to make full use of the indirect FTC and, therefore, reduce overall income tax liability.ConclusionThe FTC regime is important for enterprises’ outbound investments. Enterprises should reasonably choose the form of business operation, arrange investment structures and control the repatriation of dividends under the FTC rules to make optimal investment decisions in line with relevant laws and regulations.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chen & Co. is a PRC law firm licensed to practice law in the PRC. The information presented in this report is of a general nature and for reference only. It does not constitute and should not be construed as constituting a legal opinion or advice. Because individual facts and circumstances will vary, you should consult with licensed PRC counsel before acting upon this information.。