Draft corporate tax law to be tabled

A draft corporate tax law to unify taxes for domestic and foreign-invested enterprises is expected to be tabled soon for a first reading by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Xinhua reports.

An agreement on the draft law has been reached among local authorities and governmental departments, although a further technical revision of the draft cannot be ruled out.

Pursuant to the draft, the unified tax rate will fall into the 24-27% range, which is lower than the maximum rate of 33% now paid by domestic firms and higher then the 15% rate paid by foreign-invested companies. Foreign-invested companies may be able to get a three to five-year transition period under the draft law.