At 14:30 on January 12, 2019, the Dentons China Tax Practice Group held its first meeting in 2019. The meeting was hosted by Mr. Leng Xuefeng of Beijing office, the leader of the China Region Tax Practice Group. 14 tax lawyers from various offices across the country, including co0leads Shi Junming of Shanghai office, Shi miao of Guangzhou office, Liu Bing of Lanzhou office, Wei Jinji of Shenzhen office, Fang Lishan of Nanjing office, Li Jie of Nanning office, Fan Li of Qingdao office, Xiong Yue of Hangzhou office, Xu Wei of shijiazhuang office, and Feng Zheng of Shenyang office, participated in the meeting.
This conference is the first on-site exchange of tax lawyers across offices of Dentons China. It aims to strengthen mutual understanding, promote business exchanges, and explore the development direction of Dentons China’s taxation business, with a view to jointly establishing Dentons China tax legal service brand and enhancing Dentons China tax legal services in the industry and the influence in the market. Meanwhile, Leng Xuefeng introduced the requirements of the global firm’s Tax Practice Group and the connection between China and the global firm to the participating lawyers, and advocated the tax lawyers in China region to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the global firm’s tax Practice Group.
On the second day of the meeting, the special forum “Interpretation of New Personal Income Tax Law and Sharing Insight of Tax Legal Service” was successfully held. This special forum on tax is the first business exchange event held by the Tax Practice Group of Dentons China and the Tax Practice Group of Beijing office for the whole firm in 2019.
Given the recent tax legislation, this forum invited experts from the Income Tax Department of the State Taxation Administration to interpret the new personal income tax law and related supporting policies. At the same time, lawyers of the tax practice group in China region combine theory and practice to share service experience of tax law with colleagues. Ever since the notification was sent to all offices, the forum has received enthusiastic attention from colleagues. Nearly 100 lawyers and relevant clients signed up.
In the morning of this forum, Leng Xuefeng and Shi Junming respectively delivered a speech at the forum, aiming to encourage colleagues to focus on and support this event. Subsequently, the lawyers of the taxation practice group in China region made detailed description of how lawyers could carry out tax legal services and analysis of current tax legal issues through their own practice experience. Among them, Wei Jinji introduced the connotation and extension of lawyers' taxation legal services from many aspects such as business operations, mergers and acquisitions and cross-border taxation services. Liu Bing focused on his discussion and sharing of the revision process, highlights and impact on the lawyers' practice of the new personal income tax law.
Su Qi took the new tax law and the cross-border wealth management plan under CRS as the entry point, and shared experience of lawyers’ practice development with colleagues. Shi Junming started from the social hotspot case and analyzed the urgency of corporate tax compliance and the necessity of reasonable risk control when lawyers carry out tax legal services.
Fang Lishan made a comprehensive explanation of lawyers' working process, main legal provisions, core operational stages and implementation points and other aspects around the tax planning of non-residential mergers and acquisitions. Xu Wei used personal income tax cases of equity transfer to reveal the possible tax burden and corresponding planning thoughts under different trading modes.
Making private equity funds his core, Shi Miao focused on the causes of tax risks of private equity funds, tax-related disputes in the theory and practice of private equity fund establishment, and difficult issues related to taxation, such as partner changes, investor dividends, and GP management fee income. Li Jie explained the procedural focus of the tax-related dispute handling process in light of the advice of the tax authorities and the case of tax enterprises disputes.
The morning event lasted for nearly three and a half hours. The wonderful sharing of the lawyers received warm response from the participants.
In the afternoon of the forum, experts of the Income Tax Department of the State Taxation Administration took the legislative perspective as the entry point, made comprehensive and in-depth elaboration and analysis of 15 aspects from “the introduction of the personal income tax law and implementation regulations and related transition policies, what is the combination of taxation and new tax laws for taxpayers, the provisions of its tax liability, the new provisions of the tax rate, the calculation of the taxable income of the comprehensive income, the calculation of the taxable income of the operating income, the taxation method of other classifications, the source of income and the new provisions of the tax credit, the anti-tax avoidance regulations, the shift of tax incentives, the improvement of the new regulations on individual tax collection and management, the departmental collaboration and social co-governance, the joint punishment, to the scope and specific operation of special additional deductions, and the personal income tax transition policy, and answered questions from colleagues in the interactive Q&A session. The afternoon event lasted for nearly five hours, but the colleagues in the meeting were still enjoying and looking for more activities. They expressed their hope for China Tax Practice Group to continue organizing such exchange events with rich content and integration with practice.
This forum is closely related to latest development in taxation, rich in content and novel in ideas. It has a very strong pertinence and reference for lawyers' practices and their own tax arrangements and understandings. It not only satisfies the practical needs of Dentons China’s colleagues to improve their tax professionalism and practice ability. At the same time, it also fully demonstrates the strength and style of Dentons China’s tax lawyers in the field of tax legal services.