China Withholding tax rates

What this value means

THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. China's withholding enterprise income tax reaches several distinct payment types (dividends, interest, royalties, rents, capital gains) and, although the concessionary rate happens to be 10% for all of them, the statutory rate is 20% and specific exemptions apply (e.g. interest on loans from foreign governments and international financial organisations to the Chinese government is exempt under art. 91 of the Implementing Regulations). A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. China's double-tax agreements frequently reduce the 10% rate (commonly to 5% on dividends for substantial corporate shareholders, and to varying rates on interest and royalties), and treaty relief depends on the recipient's residence, beneficial-ownership status and often an ownership percentage. We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral, run to over a hundred country pairs for China alone, and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. MECHANICS OF THE 20%-TO-10% REDUCTION: EIT Law art. 3(3) charges non-resident enterprises without an establishment in China (or whose income is not effectively connected with one) on their China-sourced income: '非居民企业在中国境内未设立机构、场所的，或者虽设立机构、场所但取得的所得与其所设机构、场所没有实际联系的，应当就其来源于中国境内的所得缴纳企业所得税' (a non-resident enterprise that has no establishment or place in China, or whose income has no actual connection with its establishment or place in China, shall pay enterprise income tax on its income sourced within China). Art. 4(2) sets the statutory rate: '适用税率为20%' (the applicable tax rate is 20%). Art. 27(5) permits reduction or exemption for exactly this income class, and Implementing Regulations art. 91 exercises that permission: '非居民企业取得企业所得税法第二十七条第（五）项规定的所得，减按10%的税率征收企业所得税' (income of a non-resident enterprise described in art. 27(5) of the EIT Law is taxed at the reduced rate of 10%). So the operative rate in practice is 10%, but 20% remains the statutory ceiling. Art. 37 makes the payer the withholding agent, withholding at each payment or when payment falls due. The regime took effect with the EIT Law on 1 January 2008 and the rates have not changed since; the 2018 law amendment and 2024 regulation amendment left these provisions intact. SCOPE NOTE ON SERVICE FEES: China has no separate withholding-tax category for pure technical or service fees. Fees for services physically performed in China by a non-resident enterprise are taxed on a net-profit basis through the establishment/place rules (arts. 3(1)-(2)), not by this 10% withholding; fees recharacterised as royalties (e.g. for know-how) fall under the royalties head. No service-fee entry is therefore served.

Get it programmatically

curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/cn/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/cn/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/cn/withholding-tax

Other China series: PBoC 7-day reverse repo operation rate (主要政策利率) · VAT standard rate (增值税基本税率) · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (no national rate — province-set; highest is Shanghai) · Public holidays (国家法定节假日 + State Council annual arrangement) · CPI inflation (year-on-year, 居民消费价格指数) · Enterprise Income Tax standard rate (企业所得税) · Statutory default interest (法定利率 / 逾期利息) · Individual Income Tax · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Hong Kong · India · Indonesia · Iraq · Israel · all 28