GUANGZHOU: A new mechanism to supervise income tax payments by foreigners in the Guangzhou Development District works so well that revenue from the personal income taxes has surged in the first 10 months.

The district taxation bureau has collected US$338 million (US$41.68 million) from international employees in the first 10 months of this year, 30 per cent more than the same period a year ago.

Guangzhou Development District is home to 1,844 foreign-invested enterprises employing 3,373 international employees.

In May, the Guangzhou Local Taxation Bureau directed all businesses employing foreigners within the city to set up a file for every international employee, said Zheng Xiaowu, an official with the district local taxation bureau.

The software-based file system provides tax collectors with easy access to detailed information on personal income tax payments by foreigners, allowing them to determine whether people are paying the appropriate amount of tax, said Zheng.

He added that since the system had been set up, his bureau had detected about 40 foreigners who had not declared their personal income taxes honestly. Statistics indicate only about a third of the foreigners working in Guangzhou had declared income taxes as required before the mechanism was put into effect.

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