(Economic Observation) Interpretation of the "Strictest in History" Small and Micro E-commerce Registration Policy: Don't let high thresholds "stumble" small and micro businesses
China News Service, Beijing, October 30th. Title: Interpretation of the "Strictest in History" Small and Micro E-commerce Registration Policy: Don't let high thresholds "trip over" small and micro businesses
China News Agency reporter Wang Qingkai
The “Administrative Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions (Draft for Comment)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Draft for Comments”) recently published by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China refines the regulations on the registration of market entities by online transaction operators, clarifying that there are more than 52 transactions per year Online shop owners whose amount exceeds the average annual salary of employees in urban private units in the previous year in the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government need to register as a market entity.
Analysis believes that this means that most online shop owners need to register and involve a series of obligations such as paying taxes.
On the 30th, the China News Service "State is the Forum" held a special seminar on this topic: How to interpret the "most stringent in history" small and micro e-commerce registration policy?
The forum invited a number of experts in the fields of e-commerce law, fiscal, taxation and financial policies, and online shop owners to discuss this provision of the draft for comments.
Online and offline operators should be treated fairly
Should online shop owners register?
Xue Jun, deputy dean of Peking University Law School and director of the E-commerce Law Research Center, said that market operators must register whether they are online or offline. This is one of the ways for the state to monitor the market.
Xue Jun said that what needs to be discussed now is how the registration standards should be set.
Objectively speaking, scientific calculations are needed to finally adjust the standards to be roughly the same online and offline, so that all parties will think that the regulatory system is equal.
According to Bai Jingming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, the draft for comments embodies the principle of the supremacy of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. This is actually in line with the "E-Commerce Law of the People's Republic of China" and also stipulates some principles. It has been refined.
"The method must be understood from the perspective of fair trade. Online and offline should be a principle."
Will increase the barriers to entry for small and micro-electronic stores
However, Alams, the founder of E-commerce Legal Network and an expert on the E-commerce Law Drafting Group, believes that the draft for comments has too strict requirements on the registration of online shop owners, which may create a higher barrier to entry for small and micro electronics shop owners.
"In the new era, we should use new ideas to manage online transactions." Almaty said that the rapid development of Chinese e-commerce in recent years is largely due to the government's registration of e-commerce in the previous online transaction supervision. A relatively vague definition of the conditions has created a good environment for the rapid growth of online transactions.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law and vice chairman of the Beijing Law Society E-commerce Rule of Law Research Association, said that similar online store operators should not be set up as long as the annual number of transactions exceeds 52 times and they need to register for market entities. Regulations.
Zhu Wei believes that the draft for comments does not only involve online transactions, but also includes social e-commerce and wechat businesses. Since they are all covered, it is difficult to calculate them mathematically, and the current legal system of thinking cannot be used to manage the current Internet. thing.
As the most directly affected person in the draft, Wang Peng, the representative of the online store operator, believes that from the perspective of businesses, this regulation is too strict and reduces the living space of small and micro businesses.
Wang Peng believes that at this stage, some e-commerce platforms are already supervising stores through multiple means.
As long as platform responsibilities are consolidated and big data cross-screening, a lot of supervision work can be achieved through platform supervision, consumer supervision, and industry supervision.
Laws must be grounded and enforceable
One of the key issues surrounding the debate over the draft for comments is the issue of tax payment after the registration of online shop owners.
How do taxation experts view this issue?
Teng Xiangzhi, director of the Case Study Center for Fiscal and Taxation Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that with regard to the issue of "sporadic small transactions", the recent series of national preferential policies for tax reduction and fee reduction are very strong.
Under the impact of the epidemic, many people have engaged in online sales. They may be just vendors or unlicensed operators.
On the one hand, some people do have the objective need to subsidize their families; on the other hand, we also have the need to benefit the people's livelihood, ensure employment, and protect the people's livelihood.
Teng Xiangzhi believes that there will be people who have traded more than 52 times, but in fact they have not reached the tax threshold, so there will be no tax liability.
The registration of market entities will inevitably create tax obligations.
This creates an inherent conflict with the tax registration laws and regulations, and raises a new topic for tax administration management.
Teng Xiangzhi said that whether the original departmental regulations or other normative documents are good, their social effects must be grounded, they must be in line with the current times, and they must be consistent with the relevant central strategic deployment.
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