The five-year tax rule is an important and misunderstood factor in determining a tax strategy for expatriates living in China. Foreign nationals who reside in China for more than five years can be considered Chinese tax residents and therefore liable with tax authorities on their global income. In this article, we outline the main points of this rule and consider strategies for compliance.
- According to the 5-year rule, expatriates who have lived in China for more than 5 consecutive full years become Chinese tax residents and are subject to individual income tax on their worldwide income from the sixth year onwards for every full year spent in China.
- Once the 5-year residence is established, the expatriate will be subject to IIT on his or her income from sources within and outside China, including earnings from dividends, capital gains, foreign interest, rental income, etc. from the sixth year onwards for every full year spent in China.
- One full year is defined as a fiscal year (Jan 1 to Dec 31) during which the expatriate does not leave China for a period of more than 30 days consecutively or 90 days cumulatively. Note, a fiscal year for expatriates from Hong Kong is considered as a period of consecutive 12 months. Also, days of arrival and departure from China are counted as days in China. For example, if you are flying to the United Kingdom on Monday and returning on Friday, it counts as three days outside China.
- The full five-year period is interrupted and restarts from zero when the expatriate leaves China for a period of more than 30 days consecutively or 90 days cumulatively within a fiscal year.
- If the expatriate has been in China for five full consecutive years then he or she pays tax on his or her worldwide earnings. However, the expatriate can break the five-year residence in China only if he or she spends less than 90 days inside China any one-year after the sixth year.
- The requirement to file annual tax return was applied in 2006, which means after 5 years, (i.e. in 2011) it becomes easier for tax officials to trace the tax records of individuals who have living in China since 2006.
Example: Mr. A, an expatriate has been living in China since January, 2005 and making a lot of short trips out of China ever year. Since he has been residing in China for over seven years, he would like to know if the five-year rule is applicable to him. Below are the details of his time spent inside and outside China:
what about the rules from 1st Jan 2019, does the 5 year rule still operate the same way?
Hi Andrew, thank you for your inquiry! To answer briefly – yes, the 5 year rule is still valid in 2019! However, there are some minor changes regarding the tax residency status, which may have an effect on the rule. Read more about this topic in a more recent post here: https://www.sjgrand.cn/implementing-regulations-iit-law-china/