Recently, the General Administration of Customs issued the Announcement on Publishing the “Table of Customs Commodity Codes for Items Subject to Partial-Coverage Policies for the 9% Import VAT Rate”. This document serves to interpret its key contents.
I. Background
The Value-Added Tax Law of the People's Republic of China and Regulations on the Implementation of the Value-Added Tax Law of the People's Republic of China came into force on January 1, 2026. Pursuant to Article 10 of the Value-Added Tax Law, imports of the following goods by taxpayers are subject to a 9% VAT rate:
1. Agricultural products, edible vegetable oils, and edible salts;
2. Tap water, heating, refrigeration, hot water, coal gas, liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas, dimethyl ether, biogas, and coal products for residential use;
3. Books, newspapers, magazines, audio visual products, and electronic publications;
4. Feed, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery, and agricultural film.
A VAT rate of 13% applies to the importation of all goods other than those listed above. Preferential import VAT policies, where applicable, shall prevail.
To this end, Announcement No. 9 [2026] was jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration on January 30, 2026, publishing the Explanatory Notes on the Scope of Goods Subject to the 9% VAT Rate (hereinafter referred to as the Explanatory Notes).
II. Announcement Details
In administering and collecting import VAT, the General Administration of Customs has updated the applicable import VAT rates based on the Explanatory Notes. Where imported goods falling under a single eight-digit Harmonized System (HS) code are subject to differing VAT rates (either 9% or 13%), the General Administration of Customs has compiled and issued the Table of Customs Commodity Codes for Items Subject to Partial-Coverage Policies for the 9% Import Value-Added Tax (VAT) Rate (hereinafter referred to as the Table of Codes) through this Announcement, to provide clear guidance and facilitate compliant Customs declarations.
| For instance, both crude sunflower-seed oil and crude safflower oil are classified under the same HS code, 1512.1100. As stipulated in the Explanatory Notes: "Vegetable oils refer to fats and oils processed and extracted from the roots, stems, leaves, fruits, flowers, or germs of plants. Edible vegetable oils, which shall comply with the National Food Safety Standard - Vegetable Oil (GB 2716-2018), are strictly limited to the following: sesame oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, rice bran oil, sunflower-seed oil, cottonseed oil, corn germ oil, tea seed oil, linseed oil, palm oil, aniseed oil, crude coconut oil, walnut oil, olive oil, Sichuan pepper oil, almond oil sweet, grape seed oil, peony seed oil, and blended oils produced from the aforementioned oils." Accordingly, "crude sunflower-seed oil" falls within the scope of goods subject to the 9% VAT rate. In contrast, "crude safflower oil" is excluded. Therefore, the Table of Codes creates a subdivision under HS code 1512.1100, assigning the specific code 15121100.10 to "crude sunflower-seed oil," which is thereby subject to the 9% VAT rate. |
Given that the Explanatory Notes took effect on January 1, 2026, goods imported between that date and the release of the Announcement are subject to the following transitional rule. Where the commodity code declared at the time of import differs from that specified in the Table of Codes, the importer shall, in accordance with the relevant regulations, amend the Customs declaration form to ensure the correct application of the import VAT rate.
III. Rate Inquiry Guidance
For reference in Customs declaration, the applicable import VAT rates are available in the "Government Services - Tax Rate Inquiry" section on the official website of the General Administration of Customs (URL: https://online.customs.gov.cn/ociswebserver/pages/jckspsl/index.html).
Prepared by: Department of Duty Collection of the General Administration of Customs
Disclaimer：The above content is translated from Chinese version of GACC. The GACC version shall prevail.
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