Core Analysis of 2026 Export Tax Refund Declaration Process for Manufacturers

Since 2026,China’s export tax refund policies have been continuously optimized around the principle of "precise empowerment,speed-up and efficiency improvement".As the core players in foreign trade exports,the compliance and efficiency of the tax refund declaration process for manufacturers directly affect their capital turnover speed.Recently,multiple manufacturing enterprises in Shanghai have reported that some policy detail adjustments have caused declaration delays; however,with the assistance of professional foreign trade agencies,the tax refund fund arrival cycle can be shortened by more than 40%.

I.Key Points Analysis of the 2026 Latest Export Tax Refund Policy

Combined with Announcement No.3 of 2026 issued by the State Taxation Administration and supporting notices from the General Administration of Customs,the core policy adjustments can be summarized into the following 3 points:

• DifferentialAdjustmentstoTaxRefundRates:Thetaxrefundratesfor12categoriesofmechanicalandelectricalproductsincludingphotovoltaicmodulesandnewenergyvehiclebatteriesremainat13%.Thetaxrefundratesfor8categoriesofagriculturalproductsincludingteaanddehydratedvegetableshavebeenincreasedfrom10%to11%,coveringapproximately3,000manufacturingexportenterprisesacrossthecountry;thetaxrefundratesforsomelow-endplasticproductshavebeenreducedfrom9%to8%,guidingenterprisestooptimizetheirexportproductstructure.
• OptimizationofDeclarationTimeLimitandVerificationMechanism:Theelectronicdeclarationreviewtimelimithasbeenreducedfrom15workingdaysto10workingdays.Materialssuchaspapercustomsdeclarationsandbillsofladinghavebeenchangedfrom"submittedbeforedeclaration"to"retainedforinspection",soenterprisesnolongerneedtosubmitpaperdocumentstothetaxauthoritiesinadvance.
• CreditRating-linkedTaxRefundPriority:ClassAcredit-ratedmanufacturingenterprisescanenjoythe"refundfirst,verifylater"policy,withfundsarrivingwithin3workingdaysafterthereviewisapproved;ClassBenterprisesneedtocompletethedocumentconsistencyverificationbeforereceivingtaxrefunds;ClassCandlower-ratedenterprisesneedtoprovideproofofgoodsflowandcapitalflowissuedbythird-partyinstitutions,andtheverificationtimelimitisextendedto15workingdays.

II.Opportunities and Challenges of Policy Adjustments for Manufacturing Enterprises

Policy changes bring dividends to compliant enterprises while also putting forward higher requirements for process management:

III.Zhongshen Agency Service Implementation Solutions

In response to the 2026 policy changes,Zhongshen,with over 20 years of foreign trade agency experience,provides the following implementation services for manufacturing enterprises:

• AccurateCommodityCodeMatching:Throughthelinkagebetweenthecustomsdatabaseandthetaxsystem,wematchtheoptimalcodeforenterprises’exportcommoditiestoensureaccuratetaxrefundratesandavoidtaxrefundlossescausedbycodeerrors(lastyear,wehelpedaphotovoltaicenterpriserecoverapproximately1.2millionyuanintaxrefunddifferences).
• Full-processAssistanceforElectronicDeclaration:Weassigndedicatedpersonneltoconnectwiththetaxsystem,completetheentireprocessoperationsincludingexportcustomsdeclarationdatasynchronization,VATinvoicecertification,andtaxrefunddeclarationformfilling,ensuring100%accuracyofdeclarationinformation,withtheaveragereviewapprovaltimeshortenedto7workingdays.
• CreditRatingOptimizationAdvice:WeprovidestandardizeddocumentmanagementguidanceforClassBenterprisestohelpthemupgradetoClassAcreditratingswithinoneyearandenjoythe"refundfirst,verifylater"policy;weprovidethird-partyproofmaterialpreparationservicesforClassCenterprisestospeeduptheverificationprogress.
• StandardizedDocumentRetentionService:Wehaveestablishedadigitalsystemof"exportdata-documentarchiving",classifyandretainpaperandelectronicdocumentsinaccordancewithtaxrequirements,conductregularself-inspections,andreduceinspectionrisks.

IV.Practical Recommendations for Manufacturing Enterprises

Combined with policy requirements and agency service experience,it is recommended that manufacturing enterprises complete the electronic declaration of last month’s export data by the 10th of each month,and at the same time archive paper documents in the order of "export invoice → customs declaration form → bill of lading → packing list → special VAT invoice",with a retention period of no less than 5 years.In addition,enterprises need to regularly update their commodity code libraries to avoid tax refund applications being rejected due to code adjustments.

Mr.Fan,general manager of a Shanghai new energy parts manufacturing enterprise,stated that with the assistance of Zhongshen for declaration in 2026,the tax refund fund arrival cycle was shortened from the previous 18 days to 6 days,significantly improving capital turnover efficiency and providing strong support for the enterprise to expand its export scale.