China considers taxing ecommerce companiesThe increased use of ecommerce in
Updated: 2010-03-09
The increased use of ecommerce in China has led certain political leaders to consider implementing taxes on the companies who start businesses and sell items online, according to People's Daily Online.
Zhu Yilong, an advisor in the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, proposed the measure in recent days to a general political body meeting.
"Online shopping has become one of the mainstream commerce models in China, but few stores on B2C and C2C websites are registered or report their incomes to the taxation departments," Zhu said, according to the news provider. "We must fill the taxation vacuum."
Companies can avoid taxation in China by registering their ecommerce business with a website that helps them design the site and handles billing issues. The Chinese government wants to collect a portion of that money; in China last year, there was about $37 billion spent in online purchases. About 80 percent of the spending was on TaoBao.com, an apparel retailer.
China's handling of internet regulation has become an increasingly polarizing topic in recent months. In January, Google, recently declared it would no longer censor its search results to comply with Chinese censorship standards due to speculation that a hacking attack that took place was authorized by the Chinese government.
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