Interim Measures Issued on the Administration of Tax-free Shopping Policy

Oct. 29 – China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) released the “Interim Measures for the Supervision and Administration on the Tax-free Shopping of Visitors Departing from Hainan Island (Announcement of the GAC [2012] No. 50, hereinafter referred to as ‘Announcement’)” on October 24, 2012. The Announcement is scheduled to take effect from November 1, 2012 with the Announcement of the GAC [2012] No. 20 and the Announcement of the GAC [2012] No. 22 repealed simultaneously.

According to the Announcement, tourists departing from Hainan Province who are residents of the island may only enjoy the offshore tax-free policy once in each calendar year, while those who are not residents of the island may enjoy such policies not more than twice in each calendar year.

The accumulative value of the tax-free goods purchased each time by a visitor departing from Hainan Island is limited to RMB8,000 and the quantity for each individual type of good allowed to be purchased is shown in the Annex below. As long as the import duty of the goods has been paid, each visitor may also purchase one product priced over RMB8,000.

Annex:

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