Tax

Fangda’s tax team, in collaboration with the firm’s experts in other practice areas, offers a comprehensive, high-quality “one-stop” professional tax service to international and domestic clients in all tax aspects related to their key deals and transactions. It is our clear objective to help our clients improve tax benefits and efficiency, mitigate tax non-compliance risks, and safeguard their legitimate interests under the legal framework.

Our tax lawyers provide technical analysis and professional guidance on cross-border and PRC tax issues involved in major investment projects and M&A deals, from both tax compliance and tax planning perspectives. We represent clients in dealing and communicating with tax authorities, issue legal opinions, assist in resolving disputes with tax authorities on tax compliance matters, render technical support and assistance during tax inspections, tax audits and transfer pricing investigations undertaken by tax authorities, and represent enterprises when raising tax administrative appeals and litigations.

We have the following strengths:

Fully integrated tax and legal services

Our team includes PRC-qualified lawyers as well as Certified Tax Agents (CTAs). They are not only tax specialists but also proficient in other related laws, enabling us to offer informed comprehensive advice on the tax, legal, accounting and commercial factors arising in transactions. We are therefore able to provide fully integrated tax and legal solutions to our clients.

Comprehensive and professional tax services

Our team consists of members who have a mixed backgrounds with the “Big Four” accounting firms, the Chinese tax authority and leading domestic and international law firms.Most of our members have practiced PRC law for more than 10 years, and, in some cases, for over 20 years. We leverage our professional experience and expertise in this specialized area to provide comprehensive professional and practical tax services to our clients.

One-stop service together with other practices

In deals involving complex investment and financing, M&A and capital markets elements, our tax lawyers collaborate and communicate directly and seamlessly with our lawyers in other practice areas, thus offering a “one-stop” service that is both more efficient and cost-effective for our clients.

Recognition

  • Tax: PRC Firms – Firms to watch
    The Legal 500, Asia Pacific-China (Mainland), 2023

Our services include:

Tax

General Tax Advisory Services

We provide tax advisory services to a wide range of clients with respect to all tax-related matters arising from their daily business operations. Common issues include the application of tax incentives, tax planning for supply chain management, invoice compliance management, company relocations and liquidations, intellectual property licensing and R&D-related tax consulting, applications for High & New-tech Enterprise status, super-deduction of R&D expenses, export VAT refund, non-resident tax matters, and application of tax treaties.

Tax Advisory Services for M&A and Restructuring

We have solid experience in advising on and designing tax-effective plans and steps for M&A transactions, including equity acquisition or transfer, asset/business acquisition or transfer, merger and spin-off, reinvestment and the associated indirect transfer of domestic equity or assets, special tax treatment, tax deferral, all of which are aimed at tax optimization.

We also represent enterprises being restructured in bankruptcy restructuring projects to optimize the reorganization plans from a tax perspective and quantify the tax impact of different plans to enable the parties easily to reach consensus on the right structure for the restructured enterprise.

Tax Advisory and Optimization Services for IPO and Financing Projects

We provide tax advisory and planning services for domestic and overseas IPO projects, including but not limited to IPO structure planning, pre-IPO asset and business reorganizations, and employee equity incentive arrangements. We also provide tax advisory and planning services for major and complex delistings and financings, including overseas delisting and privatization transactions, dismantling of red-chip structures, asset securitization transactions, and innovative bond issuances.

Transfer Pricing Services

We provide transfer pricing advisory services to our clients, conduct risk assessment and render planning advice for pricing policies of related-party transactions conducted or to be conducted within the group, and assist enterprises in preparing annual related-party transaction filings, transfer pricing contemporaneous documentation or other transfer pricing compliance matters, all with the objective of controlling and mitigating the potential transfer pricing risks of enterprises with large amounts of related party transactions.

We also represent our clients in transfer pricing investigations conducted by tax authorities on related party transactions, collaborate with the finance and tax management personnel as well as accounting firms of our clients, communicate and negotiate with the tax authorities on behalf of our clients, propose feasible recommendations, and eventually assist our clients in resolving the differences and reaching a settlement with the tax authorities.

Tax Planning Services for Fund Investments

We provide tax planning services for the structuring, establishment, investment, profit distribution and withdrawal of domestic or cross-border funds, and assist our fund clients to reasonably mitigate tax costs and control tax risks.

Tax Dispute Resolution Services

When it comes to disputes arising out of tax compliance between our clients and tax authorities, we assist our clients in analyzing and assessing the tax issues involved, provide tax opinions and solutions, and communicate with the tax authorities.

We have extensive experience in handling tax inspections and tax audits carried out by tax authorities, and, where necessary, initiating tax administrative appeals and tax administrative litigations on behalf of our clients, and assist our clients in dealing with tax-related criminal cases.

Tax Due Diligence and Tax Compliance Services

In M&A transactions, we assist our clients to identify the target’s potential tax issues through tax due diligence and formulate tax-related clauses in transaction documents in order to protect as best we can our clients’ tax interests. Furthermore, in daily business operations, we have the expertise to conduct regular tax health checks for enterprises and review their tax compliance status to prevent and mitigate tax risks in advance.

Tax Advisory and Planning Services for High-net-worth Individuals, Executives and Employee Incentives

Together with our lawyers from our private wealth management team, we provide all-round tax services to high-net-worth individuals, including but not limited to tax planning for their investments, establishment of trust structures, inheritance and allocation of family wealth, post-immigration residence arrangements and asset allocation planning. We also assist our clients in developing employment and secondment arrangements, compensation plans and incentive plans for their executives and employees, and provide tax advice in order to achieve optimal individual income tax treatment.