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近年来，不少的企业因处理销售返利的做法不符合国家规定，导致被工商行政或司法机关认定为商业贿赂中的回扣行为。本文通过探讨红字发票的使用及其对事后返利的安全港作用，旨在帮助企业在进行销售折让或返利的过程中控制合规风险。 近年来，不少的企业因处理销售返利的做法不符合国家规定，导致被工商行政或司法机关认定为商业贿赂中的回扣行为。本文通过探讨红字发票的使用及其对事后返利的安全港作用，旨在帮助企业在进行销售折让或返利的过程中控制合规风险。*《关于平销行为征收增值税问题的通知》(国税发〔1997〕167号)，规定购货方必须就返利所对应的进项税金作冲减处理。*《关于商业企业向货物供应方收取的部分费用征收流转税问题的通知》（国税发〔2004〕136号）：对商业企业向供货方收取的与商品销售量、销售额挂钩（如以一定比例、金额、数量计算）的各种返还收入，均应按照平销返利行为的有关规定冲减当期增值税进项税金，不征收营业税。商业企业向供货方收取的各种收入，一律不得开具增值税专用发票。*《关于纳税人折扣折让行为开具红字增值税专用发票问题的通知》（国税函(2006)第1279号）：允许了纳税人销售货物并向购买方开具增值税专用发票后，由于购货方在一定时期内累计购买货物达到一定数量，或者由于市场价格下降等原因，销货方给予购货方相应的价格优惠或补偿等折扣、折让行为，销货方可按现行《增值税专用发票使用规定》的有关规定开具红字增值税专用发票。*《中华人民共和国增值税暂行条例实施细则（2011修订）》：明确了一般纳税人销售货物或者应税劳务，开具增值税专用发票后，发生销售货物退回或者折让、开票有误等情形，应按国家税务总局的规定开具红字增值税专用发票。未按规定开具红字增值税专用发票的，增值税额不得从销项税额中扣减。根据上述规定，事后销售返利可以采用，也必须采用红字发票。当发生事后销售返利时，购销双方均必须严格按照财务制度规定的方式执行，销货方应开具红字发票，扣减其销项税额，购货方应将该红字发票入账，扣减其进项税额。当返利行为发生后，过去，需要由购货方携带填写好的红字增值税专用发票申请单及税务机关需要的其他资料到当地税务部门进行审核，经税务机关审核通过后出具，出具《开具红字增值税专用发票通知单》，获得一个新的发票代码。随后，由购货方将第二联交销货方，由销货方根据返利金额向购货方开具红字专用发票作为购货方的记账凭证，冲减其购货支出以扣减其进项税额;销货方则将红字专用发票的存根联、记账联作为其记账凭证，冲减销售收入以扣减当期销项税额。2014年，国家税务总局出台了《关于推行增值税发票系统升级版有关问题的公告》（国家税务总局公告2014年第73号），取消了开具红字增值税专用发票审核，纳税人可直接通过网络或办税大厅将拟开具红字专用发票数据采集录入系统，系统自动进行数据校验，通过校验后生成开具红字专用发票信息表编号，销货方即可开具红字专用发票，将不再需要税务机关审核后出具通知单的程序。《反不正当竞争法》第八条规定在帐外暗中给予对方单位或者个人回扣的，以行贿论处；对方单位或者个人在帐外暗中收受回扣的，以受贿论处；经营者给对方折扣、给中间人佣金的，必须如实入帐。接受折扣、佣金的经营者必须如实入帐。根据国家工商总局颁布的《关于禁止商业贿赂行为的暂行规定》第五条规定，回扣是指经营者销售商品时在帐外暗中以现金、实物或者其他方式退给对方单位或者个人的一定比例的商品价款。帐外暗中，是指未在依法设立的反映其生产经营活动或者行政事业经费收支的财务帐上按照财务会计制度规定明确如实记载，包括不记入财务帐、转入其他财务帐或者做假帐等。最新的《反不正当竞争法（修订案送审稿）》第七条规定，经营者不得实施下列商业贿赂行为：（二）经营者之间未在合同及会计凭证中如实记载而给付经济利益。《中央治理商业贿赂领导小组关于在治理商业贿赂专项工作中正确把握政策界限的意见》也规定了商业活动中，可以以明示并如实入账的方式给予对方折扣，给予、接受折扣必须如实入账。账外暗中给予、收受回扣的，属于商业贿赂。基于上述规定，我们可以清楚地看到“帐外暗中”“是否明示如实入帐”是判定折扣与回扣的区分标准。根据我们的经验，我们理解在发生销售折扣、折让的情况下，明示如实入账是指：* 如果发生即时折扣，则须在销货时将折扣额与销售额开在同一张发票上；* 如果发生事后折扣，即目前企业常用的达到购买指标后予以部分返利的做法，销货方应开具红字发票（发票金额等同于返利金额），扣减其销售收入，购货方应将该红字发票入账，扣减其进项税额。发生销售折扣时按财务规定明示入账有三大重要原因：一是支付或者接受折扣如实入公司账以防止其非法落入个人或小团体口袋，如果销货方该开具红字发票未开具，而是由购货方向销货方以服务费、赞助费、管理费、佣金等名义另行开具发票，以费用入账，就有可能被认定为是“账外暗中”的行为。例如：某公司在销售产品时与买方约定当对方购买其产品达到一定金额返利。然而该公司未开具红字发票，而是将由第三方开具的运输服务费发票作为做账的原始凭证，并以服务费名义记入营业费用—佣金科目，然后将返利款打入该第三方银行账户。实际上，该第三方并未与该公司发生过运输服务业务，只是代为转账开具发票而已。该公司约定返利的真实目的是通过虚构服务费支出、虚假的资金流向，由得到好处的第三方以现金方式向交易对方支付所谓的返利，并且不需要对方开具任何发票，确保这些所谓的返利更容易地落入个人或小团体口袋。二是在税务层面避免偷漏因此而产生的税收，比如销货方开具了红字发票，以折扣、折让等名目退还购货方商品价款，直接冲减收入科目，同时付出现金或银行存款给购货方，但不按规定向购货方索要退款收据或不将红字发票给购货方，故意或疏忽导致购货方不入账或入假账，因此购货方就通过多抵扣了不该抵扣的进项税额产生偷税漏税行为。三是有助于促使商业企业将折扣利益与终端市场分享。对于购货方而言，如果不使用红字发票，其所取得的销售返利有可能作为本个人或小团体的一种额外收益而私存私放或记入到别的科目上，从而导致终端市场无法分享折扣的结果。但是，我们必须明确，尽管我国没有对于红字发票的使用频率和冲销占比的法律规定，如果某企业极其频繁或者以极高的比例扣减销售收入，可能反倒会引起税务机关的注意，触发不必要的税务调查。此外，如果用红字发票冲抵后的金额低于成本价，有可能会涉嫌低于成本价销售。“账外暗中”是回扣的表现形式，而回扣仅是商业贿赂的一种形式，因此“帐外暗中”不是商业贿赂的必要构成要件。商业贿赂是指经营者为销售或者购买商品而采用财物或者其他手段贿赂对方单位或者个人的行为。经营者无论是否将给予或收受的利益入账，只要这种利诱行为以争取交易为目的，且影响了其他竞争者开展质量、价格、服务等方面的公平竞争，就构成《反不正当竞争法》第八条禁止的商业贿赂。例如：上海某医疗器械有限公司在向医院提供植入材料时同时由该医院反向为其植入材料提供消毒服务，医院对应地开具了'技术服务费'发票并如实入帐，本案中，对帐务的处理并无不当，但工商局认为该公司是为了获得长期交易机会，以消毒费的形式支付给医院财物进行商业贿赂。因此是否构成商业贿赂是看本质上是否为促成交易有收买对方的意图。另一方面，即使本质上并非是为了促成交易收买对方，但在发生折扣行为如果未严格按规定处理时，依然有可能会被工商机关认定为商业贿赂。例如某公司采取了在财务入账上，直接按“返利入账”，尽管不是以所谓虚构的“服务费”或“咨询费”或其它名目。该付款行为可能不具有典型回扣的“帐外暗中”的特征，但在实践中仍然有被工商机关认定为商业贿赂的可能性。综上，如实入账并不代表不存在商业贿赂风险，但如果财务处理有误就有很大的可能会引起商业贿赂的调查。在销售返利方面，红字发票在防止被认定为商业贿赂上能起到重要的安全港作用。会计信息是企业内部经济活动唯一对外可查的书面记录，企业在事后销售返利的情况下，应当按照法律规定使用红字发票以有效避免商业贿赂的查处风险。
Red-Letter VAT Invoice, A Safe Harbor for Sales RebatesRecent years, sales rebates activities by a lot of companies were not compliant to the laws and regulations and thus have been considered as illegal rebates by administrations for industry and commerce (“AIC”) or courts. This article discusses the use of the red-letter VAT invoice and its safe harbor function to post-sale rebates for the purpose of helping companies mitigate the regulatory risks in sales discounts and rebates activities.Taxation Regulations on Rebates and Red-Letter VAT Invoice*Circular on Value-Added Tax Issues in Equal-Price Sales (Guo Shui Fa [1997] No. 167), requires that the input tax of the rebates should be deducted by the purchaser.*Circular about Imposing Circulation Tax on Partial Income of Commercial Enterprises from Suppliers (Guo Shui Fa [2004] No. 136): For incomes of the commercial enterprises that have positive connection with volume and saleroom (for example, return profits according to a certain percentage, sale volume and saleroom), value-added tax will be reduced according to related regulations of return profits and sales tax shall not be imposed. Specific invoice of value-added tax shall not be supplied for the incomes of the commercial enterprises from suppliers.*Notice on the Issue Concerning Issuance of Red-letter Special Value-added Tax Invoices by Taxpayers for Sales Discounts or Allowances (Guo Shui Han (2006) No. 1279): With respect to a taxpayer selling goods and issuing special value-added tax invoices to a purchaser, if the seller offers such discounts or allowances as preferential prices or compensations to the purchaser, due to reaching a certain amount of goods purchased by the purchaser over a certain period or market price falls, the seller may issue red-letter special value-added tax invoices according to the relevant provisions set forth in the current Regulations on the Use of Special Value-added Tax Invoices.*Implementation Regulations for the Provisional Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Value-added Tax (2011 Amended): Where there is an occurrence of return of goods sold or discount or error in invoicing etc., after sale of goods or provision of taxable labor services by a general taxpayer and issuance of a special value-added tax invoice, a red-letter special value-added tax invoice shall be issued pursuant to the provisions of the State Administration of Taxation. Where the general taxpayer failed to issue the red-printed special value-added tax invoice pursuant to the provisions, the value-added tax amount shall not be deducted from the output tax amount.According to the rules mentioned above, post-sale rebates can and must be given in the form of red-letter VAT invoice. Where there is an occurrence of post-sale rebate, both the purchaser and the seller should comply strictly with the financial system. The seller should issue red-letter VAT invoice and deduct the output tax; the purchaser should enter the red-letter VAT into the account and deduct the input tax.
Procedure for Issuing the Red-Letter VATIn the past, to issue a red-letter VAT invoice, the purchaser first has to submit the red-letter VAT invoice application form and other necessary materials to the local tax authority for approval. After the tax authority approves, it will issue Notice for Issuing of Red-Letter VAT Invoice and the purchaser will obtain a new invoice code. After that, the purchaser should give the second copy of the Notice to the seller who will then issue a red-letter VAT invoice to the purchaser as an accounting voucher in order to deduct its payment. The seller will use the stub copy and accounting copy as accounting voucher and deduct sales revenue in order to deduct its output tax. In 2014, the State Administration of Taxation issued Announcement on Issues concerning the Implementation of the Updated Version of the Value-added Tax Invoice System (Announcement of the State Administration of Taxation [2014] No.73) which abolished the approval procedure for issuing a red-letter VAT invoice. The tax-payer can directly enter the information of the intended red-letter VAT invoice through the Internet or at tax service hall. The system will automatically verify the information and produce a red-letter VAT invoice number. The seller can then issue a red-letter VAT invoice with this number. Thus, approval and notice procedure is no longer required. Sales Discounts and Illegal RebatesArticle 8 of Anti-Unfair Competition Law stipulates that any undercover rebates to units or individuals which have not been entered into the accounts shall be treated as bribes, and the acceptance by any unit or individual of such rebates shall be treated as the acceptance of a bribe. According to Interim Provisions of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on Prohibition of Commercial Bribery Article 5, rebates mean a certain proportion of commodity price returned to counterpart organizations or individuals by a business operator by cash, in kind or other means off the book and secretly at the time of sale of commodities. Off the book and secretly mean failure to clearly and truthfully make records in financial accounts which are set up pursuant to the law and reflect incomes and expenditures of the production and business activities or administrative operating expenses in accordance with the provisions of the financial accounting systems, including records not entered into financial accounts, transferring into other financial accounts or fraudulent accounting, etc. Article 7 of the latest Anti-Unfair Competition Law (Exposure Draft) requires that a business operator not have any of the following commercial bribery acts: (2) Make payments of economic interests to other business operators without truthfully recording such payments in the contract and accounting documents. Opinions of the Central Governmental Leading Committee for Commercial Bribery on Management of Policy in the Governance Work of Commercial Bribery also stipulates that during business operations, sellers may, in an express manner, give discounts to buyers and both parties should enter the amount into the accounts truthfully. Any undercover rebates given or accepted will be considered as commercial bribery. Based on the rules mentioned above, we can come to a clear conclusion that “undercover” and “enter into the accounts truthfully” are the standards to differentiate discounts and illegal rebates.According to our experience, we understand that where sales discounts occur, “enter into the accounts truthfully” means that:* In an instant-discount situation, discount amount and sales amount should be both included in the same invoice;* In a post-sale discount situation (which means rebates are given to the purchaser when certain amount of sales target is met – a common practice used by companies now), the seller should issue red-letter VAT invoice (the invoice value shall be the same as the rebate amount) and deduct its sales revenue. The purchaser should enter the red-letter VAT invoice into its accounts and deduct its input tax.There are three main reasons for express records of the sales discounts into the accounts: first, entering the discount truthfully into the accounts of the company can prevent certain individual or small group from obtaining such amount of money illegally. If the seller does not issue the red-letter VAT invoice when it should, and the invoice is issued in the name of service fee, sponsorship fee, management fee, commission etc. that are entered into the accounts as “payment”, such acts may be considered as “undercover rebates”. For example: a seller promised that if the buyer met the sales target, it would be given a certain amount of rebates. But the seller did not issue red-letter VAT invoice but used a third-party-issued transportation service invoice as accounting voucher and entered the invoice into the “operating expenses – commission” subject. The seller then transferred the rebates to the third-party’s bank account. In fact, that third-party never provided any transportation service to the seller – it just transferred money and issued invoice instead of the seller. The purpose of the seller was to give the cash in the name of rebates directly to individuals or small groups of the purchaser through the benefited third-party by falsifying a fake payment of service see and fake money flow. Second, truthful recording of accounts can prevent tax fraud and tax evasion. For example, if the seller issues a red-letter VAT invoice and refunds the discounts to the purchaser but does not ask for receipt of the refund or does not give the red-letter VAT invoice to the purchaser, the purchaser will end up with non-accounting or false-accounting. Under such circumstances, the purchaser may conduct tax fraud or tax evasion by deducting more input tax (which it should not deduct). Third, truthful recording of accounts will help incentivize share of the discount benefits with the end market. If the purchaser does not enter the red-letter VAT invoice, the discounts given by the seller may be obtained by certain individual or small group or be recorded into other subject. The end market will not be able to share the effect of the discounts in such situation.However, we have to clarify that, although there is no rule for frequency of use of the red-letter VAT invoices and deduction ratios, if a company deducts extremely high sales revenue or deducts too often, such acts may draw attention of the tax authorities and trigger unnecessary tax investigations. Besides, if the deducted price of the product is below cost, it may be considered as selling below cost.Undercover and Commercial Bribery “Undercover” is a form of rebate but “rebate” is only one form of commercial bribery. Therefore, “undercover” is not a necessary condition to the constitution of commercial bribery. Commercial bribery means the acts of business operators who bribe the counterpart organizations or individuals by adopting property or other means for the purpose of selling or purchasing commodities. No matter whether the operators record the given or accepted benefits into the book or not, so long as the inducement is given for the purpose of competing for business opportunities and affects the fair competition with other operators in the aspect of quality, price, service etc., such conducts will be considered as commercial bribery prohibited by Article 8 of Anti-Unfair Competition Law. For example: a medical device company in Shanghai sold implant materials to a hospital. Meanwhile it accepts the disinfection service from the hospital. The hospital correspondingly issued “technical service fee” invoice and entered it truthfully into the accounts. In this case, the dealing of accounts was proper. But the AIC considered the service fee as a kind of commercial bribery given by the company in order to obtain long-term transaction opportunity. Therefore, whether a conduct constitutes commercial bribery depends on the intention – whether the operator bribes the counterpart with the intention to facilitate a transaction.On the other hand, even if the operator does not bribe its counterpart with the intention to facilitate a transaction, non-compliant discount activities may still be considered as commercial bribery by the AIC. For example, a company recorded the rebates directly as “rebates” although not a forged “service fee” or “consultancy fee” or other subjects set out on the invoice. Such recording is express and is not an undercover rebate which, however, might be considered as commercial bribery because it is not strictly compliant with the rules of invoice issuance. In practice, there are cases where such conducts were determined as commercial bribery by the AIC.In conclusion, truthful accounting doesn’t necessarily mean non-commercial-bribery conducts. But improper financial records may result in investigation on commercial bribery. With respect to sales rebates, red-letter VAT invoice can be used as safe harbor to prevent determination of commercial bribery.Accounting information is the only written records of internal economic activities that can be checked by authorities. Under the situation of post-sale rebates, companies should use red-letter VAT invoice pursuant to the laws and regulations in order to avoid investigations on commercial bribery.
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