Announcement No. 16 of 2026 by the Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs, and State Administration of Taxation

To support the development of new forms of cross-border e-commerce, the tax preferential policies for exported and returned goods in cross-border e-commerce are hereby announced as follows:

1、 For goods (excluding food) declared for export under the cross-border e-commerce customs supervision codes (1210, 9610, 9710, 9810) from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2027, and returned in their original state within 6 months from the date of export due to unsold or returned goods, import tariffs, import value-added tax, and consumption tax will be exempted; The export tariffs already collected at the time of export are allowed to be refunded, and the value-added tax and consumption tax already collected at the time of export shall be subject to the relevant tax regulations for the return of domestic sales goods. Among them, the exported goods under regulatory code 1210 should be returned to the domestic and foreign areas within 6 months from the date of departure from the customs special supervision area or bonded logistics center (type B).

2、 For goods that meet the requirements of Article 1 and have already processed export tax refunds, enterprises shall make up for the refunded taxes in accordance with current regulations. Enterprises should apply for exemption from import tariffs, import value-added tax, and consumption tax, and refund of export tariffs, based on the "Certificate of Supplementary Tax Payment/Non Refund of Export Goods" issued by the competent tax authority.

3、 The "original state return to the country" stipulated in Article 1 refers to the minimum form of the exported goods when returned to the country, which should be basically the same as the original form when exported, without adding any accessories or components, and without any processing or modification, but can still be regarded as "original state" after unpacking, inspection (chemical) testing, installation, debugging, etc; The returned imported goods should not have been used, except for situations where quality defects can only be discovered after trial use or can be proven to have been returned by the customer after trial use.

4、 For goods that meet the requirements of Articles 1, 2, and 3, enterprises shall submit export commodity declaration lists or export declaration forms, reasons for return, and other materials to prove that the goods were indeed returned to the country due to unsold or returned reasons, and shall bear legal responsibility for the authenticity of the materials. For goods returned due to unsold goods, enterprises should provide a "self declaration" as the reason for the return, promising to return the goods due to unsold goods and handle procedures such as tax exemption for the return accordingly. For goods returned due to return, enterprises should provide return records (including return records or rejection records on cross-border e-commerce platforms), return agreements, and other materials as reasons for return, and customs will handle procedures such as return tax exemption based on these materials.

5、 Enterprises engaging in illegal and irregular activities such as tax evasion and fraud shall be dealt with in accordance with relevant national laws and regulations.

This is hereby announced.

Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs, State Administration of Taxation

February 6, 2026