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anonymous
Q: What is this whole business with fapiao?
A lot of my friends are being forced to collect fapiao for their jobs, saying it is for tax reasons. What are they? Why are they important? Should I be collecting them??
They are small coupons printed and issued by government approved companies that have a representative value when presented for tax purposes. For example, if you pay 300 rmb for a business lunch, the restaurant is supposed to give 300 rmb worth of "fapiao" coupons. In English, they are often referred to as "official receipts". The company that supplies the goods or services to you will be taxed according to Chinese business law. Hence, you will often hear Chinese people ask for a discount or perhaps a gift in lieu of the "fapiao". That means the customer pays less and the company providing the goods or services do not have to pay the tax. The government caught onto this infringement and introduced a system of cash prizes on "fapiao" to encourage customers to take the coupon rather than the discount or gift. However, the effects of the prize are limited because the chances of winning and the size of the likely cash prize is often negated by the greater certainty of the discount or gift. Registered businesses in China can claim back tax by presenting the "fapiao" to the government. Therefore, business owners and executives will collect them. Employees are usually expected to present the "fapiao" when reclaiming business related expenses. Unless you are a business owner or an employee that relies on reclaiming expenses, "fapiao" are not much use to you (other than the remote chance of winning a few rmb).
Scandinavian:
I always ask for a fapiao if I've had dissatisfactory food in a restaurant. Actually a couple of years ago, several of the people I'd frequently have dinner with would get the receipt because "then they pay tax and contribute to society" this idealism has since been killed by the "they'll just use the tax money on Audi's"
in many companies the employees have to collect the amount of fapiaos worth of their own salary so the boss can get some of the money back from the tax
everyone is cheating
I asked my wife about this some time ago. The explanation I got led me to see that paying tax is almost voluntary and you can avoid quite a lot of it.
At my school we are given a uniform allowance and must give in 'fa piao's' or 'invoices' to the total amount, ie if we get 150 rmb we must provide invoices to the amount of 150 rmb.
It is for tax purposes, but the weird thing is the invoices don't need to relate to what the money is for. We get money to buy a uniform but we can give invoices relating to noodles, rice, anything.
