What annual filings must a Chinese company make?

A Chinese subsidiary has a fixed yearly rhythm, and it runs whether or not the company traded. Most foreign owners never see it, because an accounting firm handles it. The problems start when that firm stops being paid, or when nobody at head office knows what should have been filed. This page sets out the cycle so that you can ask the right questions.

The annual cycle, in order

1. The tax year ends on 31 December. The company prepares its annual financial report.
2. The report is audited by an accounting firm where the law requires it. For a foreign-invested company, expect an audit every year. The Company Law requires a company to prepare a financial report at the end of each financial year and have it audited by an accounting firm as the law provides.
3. The company files its annual corporate income tax return and settles the year with the tax bureau. This is the annual reconciliation (汇算清缴). The financial report goes in with the return.
4. The company submits its annual report (年度报告) for the previous year to the market regulator, through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The report is published.
5. A foreign-invested company completes the foreign investment sections of that same report. The market regulator passes them to the commerce authority, so there is no second submission.

Filing	Goes to	When	Set by
Audited annual financial report	Prepared by the company, audited by an accounting firm	After the end of each financial year	Company Law, Article 208
Corporate income tax annual return and reconciliation	Tax bureau	Within five months of the year end. The tax year is the calendar year, so that is 31 May	Enterprise Income Tax Law, Articles 53 and 54
Annual report (年度报告)	Market regulator, through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System	1 January to 30 June, for the previous year	Interim Regulation on Enterprise Information Publicity, Article 8
Foreign investment information annual report	Commerce authority, through the same system and in the same window	1 January to 30 June, for the previous year	Measures for Foreign Investment Information Reporting, Article 14
Corporate income tax prepayment returns	Tax bureau	Within 15 days of the end of each month or quarter	Enterprise Income Tax Law, Article 54
VAT returns	Tax bureau	Within 15 days of the end of a monthly or quarterly period. The tax bureau sets the period	VAT Law, Article 30, in force 1 January 2026

Tax deadlines move when they land on a holiday. Under the implementing rules of the Tax Collection and Administration Law, where the last day of a period is a statutory rest day, the period ends on the day after the rest day. Ask the accounting firm for the actual dates each year.

A company registered part-way through a year files its first annual report in the following year. The same rule applies to the foreign investment report.

What the annual report contains

The annual report is a statement by the company about itself. It is not a set of accounts. The regulation lists contact details, whether the company is operating, investments in other companies, each shareholder’s subscribed and paid-in capital with dates, equity transfers, and websites or online shops. Those items are published. The financial figures (headcount, assets, liabilities, revenue, profit and tax paid) are reported too, and the company chooses whether to publish them.

The foreign investment report is folded into it

Since the 2019 reporting year, a foreign-invested company files one combined annual report through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The market regulator, the Ministry of Commerce and the foreign exchange administration set this up together, and the market regulator passes the data to the Ministry of Commerce. The commerce sections cover the company’s basic details, its investors and their actual controllers, its operations, and its assets and liabilities. The ministries’ own explanation says an enterprise does not report to the two departments separately.

Tax returns do not stop when revenue does

This is the point most often missed with a quiet subsidiary. The implementing rules of the Tax Collection and Administration Law say that a taxpayer with no tax payable in a period must still file the return. The Jiangsu tax bureau’s 12366 service gave the same answer in June 2023 to a person who had registered a limited company and had not yet started trading. A company with no invoices and no staff still has VAT returns, corporate income tax prepayment returns and an annual reconciliation to file, each one showing nothing.

What happens when a filing is missed

• Annual report not published in time. The market regulator places the company on the list of enterprises with abnormal operations (经营异常名录) and imposes an administrative penalty as the law provides.
• Two years in a row. Where a company has missed the annual report for two consecutive years, has not put it right, and cannot be reached at its registered address, the regulator revokes the business licence. Under the Company Law a revoked licence is a ground for dissolution, so the company must still be liquidated and deregistered.
• False information. Hiding the true position or falsifying the report brings fines and, in serious cases, the list of seriously unlawful and dishonest enterprises. The legal representative of a company on that list may not serve as legal representative of another company for three years.
• Doors that close. Local governments are told to restrict or bar listed companies in government procurement, tendering for works, state land grants and honours.
• Late tax returns. The tax bureau orders the company to file within a set time and may fine it.
• Foreign investment report not filed. The commerce authority gives notice, then orders correction within 20 working days, and a fine follows if that deadline passes.

Where practice varies

• The window for the annual report can differ locally for domestic companies. Shenzhen’s notice of 23 April 2026 puts companies outside a list of exceptions on a rolling window of two months from the anniversary of establishment. The exceptions include foreign-invested companies (1 January to 30 June) and representative offices of foreign enterprises (1 March to 30 June). Read the local regulator’s notice each year.
• The entry point can be local too. The Shenzhen notice has companies, foreign-invested ones included, log in to the annual report system on the city regulator’s own website. The report is still published on the national system.
• Who asks to see the audit report differs by city and by authority. Banks, tax bureaux and head-office auditors each have their own habits. Confirm locally and do not assume.
• Whether VAT is filed monthly or quarterly is set by the tax bureau for each taxpayer.
• Other periodic returns depend on what the company does, whether it employs anyone, and where it is registered. The firm that keeps the books should be able to give you the full list for your entity.

What to ask for each year

1. The signed audit report for the year.
2. The filed corporate income tax annual return, with the tax bureau’s acknowledgement.
3. A screenshot or print of the published annual report, showing the year and the date it was submitted.
4. Confirmation that the foreign investment sections were completed.
5. A record of the monthly or quarterly returns filed, including the nil ones.

A note on scope

Bookkeeping, tax filing and audit are performed by licensed accounting firms, not by a consultancy. What an owner can usefully do is check that the work was actually done. The public record shows whether the annual report was filed and whether the company is listed as abnormal, and the five documents above show the rest. That independent check is what our compliance service provides.