Tax provisions on collecting and paying utilities on behalf of others

Legal analysis: taxpayers who provide property management services charge tap water fees to the clients, and the sales amount is the balance after deducting the tap water fees paid by them. Value-added tax is calculated and paid at the rate of 3% according to the simple tax calculation method. According to the announcement, no matter whether the invoice issued by the water department is sent to a property company or a real estate company, as long as the property company charges the service object and pays the water fee externally, it should be regarded as a sales behavior. If there is a difference between the amount collected and the amount paid, the value-added tax will be calculated and paid according to the simple taxation method, and the tax burden of the company will not be affected by the difference in tax rates. If there is no balance, that is, the sales amount is zero, which does not affect the company's tax burden. The announcement is conducive to standardizing the tax treatment of water charges collected and remitted by property companies, and also solves the problem of increasing corporate tax burden caused by tax rate differences. However, in practice, some places still need to be handled with caution by accountants. Usually, the time of collecting the owner's water fee lags behind the time of external payment. The time difference leads to less water charges than paid this month, and more water charges than paid next month or later. This will lead to no actual difference between the collection and payment of water charges, but the financial data of a month or a year shows that the collection is more than the payment. Relevant accounting personnel must establish a good ledger to clearly record each business of collecting and remitting water charges, so as to facilitate verification, avoid tax disputes and affect the tax credit of enterprises.

Legal basis: People's Republic of China (PRC) Tax Collection and Management Law.

Article 1 This Law is formulated with a view to strengthening the administration of tax collection, standardizing tax collection, safeguarding national tax revenue, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers and promoting economic and social development.

Article 2 This Law is applicable to the collection and management of various taxes collected by tax authorities according to law.

Article 3 The collection, suspension, reduction, exemption, refund and supplementary payment of taxes shall be carried out in accordance with the law. Where the State Council is authorized by law, it shall be implemented in accordance with the administrative regulations formulated by the State Council.

No organ, unit or individual may, in violation of the provisions of laws and administrative regulations, arbitrarily make decisions on tax collection, suspension, tax reduction, exemption, tax refund, overdue tax and other decisions inconsistent with tax laws and administrative regulations.

Article 4 Units and individuals that are obligated to pay taxes according to laws and administrative regulations are taxpayers.

Units and individuals that have the obligation to withhold and pay taxes according to laws and administrative regulations are withholding agents. Taxpayers and withholding agents must pay taxes, withhold and remit taxes and collect and remit taxes in accordance with the provisions of laws and administrative regulations.