Beijing is moving to clarify new tax rules on offshore trusts that have sowed confusion among wealthy Chinese citizens and their advisers. China's State Taxation Administration is conducting large-scale training for local tax officers to align on how the levy on offshore trusts – some of them set up decades ago – should be applied:
The tax agency has also sent out draft guidelines to onshore law and accounting firms, and plans consultation sessions with lawyers in the coming weeks:
Last month, Beijing imposed a 20% tax on offshore trusts – a structure long used by China's wealthy families to hold hundreds of billions of dollars outside the country:
While the rules ended decades of regulatory ambiguity about the vehicles, they have also created fresh confusion over implementation:
The tax agency has also toughened its stance on capital leaving the country:
