Declaration Quality Reminder Helps Ningbo Enterprises Correct Errors Promptly

This article is reprinted from China Tax News

Once the declaration is completed, there will be a reminder. If issues are found, they should be corrected immediately to prevent risks and hidden dangers. Now in Ningbo, after businesses file their taxes, they receive an electronic Tax Bureau “Tax Declaration Quality Reminder Service Report.” Based on the reminders in the service report, taxpayers can quickly identify problems and correct data, promptly eliminating declaration errors. As of now, 7,036 taxpayers have independently corrected their declarations following these reminders.

The quality of declaration data is the “first barrier” to improving tax collection and management efficiency. To ensure this first barrier is secure, in 2025, the Ningbo Tax Bureau of the State Taxation Administration conducted a special survey, analyzing suspicious data across various taxes and fees over the past two years, risk cases from the past three years, and frequently asked questions from taxpayers. They also visited grassroots tax offices to understand actual conditions. The survey found that common issues in tax declarations include “inconsistent VAT sales figures and other tax and fee sales figures,” “discrepancies between corporate income tax and financial statements,” and “inconsistent property transaction tax source information with other tax and fee declarations.” “These fundamental issues may seem trivial, but they directly impact the quality of tax declarations,” said Zhang Jiangang, Director of the Tax Administration and Technology Development Department of the Ningbo Tax Bureau.

To address these pain points in taxpayer declarations, the Ningbo Tax Bureau formed a cross-departmental team. Based on the intelligent self-check indicators from the State Taxation Administration, they designed a three-layer declaration verification indicator system that combines “basic indicators + targeted indicators + innovative indicators” to verify the accuracy of corporate tax declarations. To ensure the indicators are precise and effective, the bureau selected three district and county tax bureaus for pilot testing. “The pilot results showed that the accuracy rate of 34 indicators exceeded 96%, laying a foundation for subsequent citywide promotion,” said Zhang Jiangang.

Relying on this precise verification indicator system, the Ningbo Tax Bureau converts backend data comparison results into an easy-to-understand “Tax Declaration Quality Reminder Service Report,” clearly listing abnormal items, detection times, risk causes, and including specific operational guidance to ensure taxpayers can “understand and correct.”

“The core function of the service report is to provide prompts and assistance, not to replace the legal obligation of enterprises to file declarations independently,” emphasized Zhang Jiangang. The purpose of the report is to identify potential issues early through data comparison and remind enterprises to correct them promptly. He recommends that businesses file their declarations as early as possible to allow sufficient time to make corrections based on the reminders during the declaration period.

A new material R&D company in Ningbo, due to complex operations, had multiple discrepancies between corporate income tax and financial statement data. “In the past, we had to wait for tax authorities to verify and find out about errors later. Now, after filing, we receive reminders, and following the guidance in the service report, we can complete corrections in half an hour, greatly reducing tax-related risks,” said Ms. Lai, an employee handling tax affairs for the company.

Building on precise reminders, the Ningbo Tax Bureau also established a graded response mechanism: for low-risk issues that appear for the first time, an online report is pushed for prompt notification; for recurring but low-amount tax issues, targeted communication or on-site guidance is provided; for repeated and high-amount tax issues, tax administrators conduct specialized risk responses.

“For example, a foreign trade company in our jurisdiction triggered a medium-risk warning due to cross-period expense accounting issues. We provided phone guidance combined with offline visits, helping the company streamline its accounting process. Not only did we correct the current deviation, but we also guided the company to establish internal control mechanisms, preventing similar issues from recurring,” said Zhu Haizhou, Director of Dandong Tax Office, Xiangshan County Tax Bureau.

Additionally, the Ningbo Tax Bureau has built a “online + offline” dual guidance system: online, through the tax-collecting interaction platform, they deliver targeted “health check reports” and answer questions; offline, they conduct face-to-face training at tax service halls and taxpayer academies, and prepare a “Declaration Error Case Guide” for taxpayers. This guide covers various common errors faced during declaration. For grassroots tax officials, the bureau has also developed “System Operation Manuals” and “Frequently Asked Questions,” and conducted multiple special training sessions to ensure consistent policy implementation and standardized operations.

From “post-verification” to “pre-emptive reminders,” the declaration quality reminder service has promoted a “double leap” in Ningbo’s tax collection efficiency and taxpayers’ compliance levels. “Next, we will continue to focus on the needs of taxpayers and grassroots units, dynamically improve indicator rules and management mechanisms, and continuously enhance the quality and effectiveness of the declaration quality reminder service,” said a relevant official from the Ningbo Tax Bureau.