Logistics Company's Burden Expected to Ease
The logistics industry is a supplementary sector primarily serving the manufacturing, construction, and retail industries, with its growth closely related to changes in these industries and the overall national economy. The "Opinion" states that relevant departments should promptly improve the trial method of differential tax payment for business tax for logistics enterprises, further expanding the scope of the trial; they should also combine the pilot reform of the value-added tax to promptly study and resolve the issue of inconsistent business tax rates for storage, distribution, and freight forwarding with the transportation sector; and study and improve the land use tax policy for land used for bulk commodity storage facilities, ensuring that it promotes intensive land use by logistics enterprises while meeting the actual logistics needs of bulk commodities.
According to information, there is no unified logistics tax category from the national level down to the local level. The current business tax categorizes logistics services into two main categories: transportation (including transportation, loading, and handling) and services (including warehousing, agency, etc.). The former has a business tax rate of 3%, while the latter is 5%. "In actual operations, the various businesses of comprehensive logistics companies are interrelated and overlapping, making it difficult to differentiate between transportation and service revenues. Tax authorities collect taxes based on the principle of taking the higher rate rather than the lower one."
Increased land support benefits warehousing industry
The "Opinion" also highlights the need to prioritize the development of the agricultural product logistics industry, enhancing policy support, and vigorously promoting direct distribution methods such as "farm-to-supermarket," "farm-to-school," and "farm-to-enterprise" connections. This will reduce overall transaction and logistics costs for agricultural products like Luoniu Mountain, minimize damage during intermediate stages, and achieve long-term profit growth.
Additionally, the "Opinion" calls for increased investment in the logistics industry, promoting technological innovation and application in logistics, and encouraging the integration of logistics facility resources. Strengthening land policy support for the logistics industry, providing key guarantees for land used in logistics parks included in the plan, and creating favorable conditions for large-scale warehousing enterprises like China Storage Share Co., Ltd., and others. Looking at the disclosed semi-annual reports, logistics industry listed companies have seen a year-on-year increase in mid-year performance, with particularly good growth in the second quarter. The business benefits from scale efficiency offer better stability, and as the industry is currently in a period of capacity expansion, there is a possibility of increased profits exceeding expectations. An industry researcher believes that with repeated calls to increase support for the logistics industry this year, and with this latest reiteration, the new logistics policies may catalyze industry development and form a turning point.
