China issues the VAT Law Implementation Regulations (State Council Order No. 826), in force from 1 January 2026

What changed in detail

State Council Order No. 826 promulgates the Implementation Regulations of the Value-Added Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国增值税法实施条例). The Regulations were adopted at the 75th executive meeting of the State Council on 19 December 2025, and the order was signed by Premier Li Qiang on 25 December 2025. Article 54 brings them into force on 1 January 2026, the same day as the VAT Law.

The Regulations have 54 articles in six chapters:

1. general provisions, including the scope of taxable transactions;
2. tax rates, including what counts as exported goods for the 0% rate under Article 10(4) of the Law;
3. calculation of tax payable;
4. tax incentives;
5. administration, including export refunds by the exempt-credit-refund or exempt-refund method at the State Council’s refund rates;
6. supplementary provisions.

Article 53 lets the tax authorities adjust arrangements without a reasonable business purpose that reduce, exempt or defer VAT, or that bring forward or inflate refunds.

What it means

The Regulations are in force and are the working rulebook for the VAT Law. Most day-to-day questions — whether a receipt is a taxable transaction, which rate a mixed supply takes, how an export refund is computed — are answered here rather than in the Law. The anti-avoidance rule in Article 53 is easy to overlook. Later MOF and STA announcements, such as Announcement No. 25 of 2026 and the withholding rules for individual service providers, apply these Regulations.