AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

The present work researches the taxation and tax planning of foreign-invested holding companies in the People's Republic of China. The scientific field of the work is the science of Tax Management. The research is undertaken with the goal to deliver a profound presentation of the corporate taxation of such foreign-invested holding companies established in the PRC. Based on such presentation, internationally known tax planning methods are examined to find clues for valid tax-planning means and methods for such holding companies. The scientific approach is to be seen as content-analytical with a strong reference to the basics of corporate holding taxation as exercised in Austria. The author describes the legal nature of holding companies, as they exist in Austrian and Chinese law setting the focus on incorporated holding companies. The legal conditions of establishing a foreign-invested holding company in the PRC are explained and clues for the tax examination are presented. Based on the finding that the Austrian "Gruppenbesteuerung" offers a tax consolidation model, which allows the setting off tax results amongst qualifying members, the author researches the Chinese tax laws for a similar group-relief system. However, as the research shows Chinese law does not contain any form of tax group-relief regime for foreign-invested holding companies. Therefore, the work continues to research further tax facts and tax events of Chinese tax legislation for means that allow foreign corporate investors to efficiently structure their investments from a tax point of view. In order to conduct such a search of alternative tax planning clues the research, basically, follows the systematic of the balance sheet of corporations determining the taxation of the individual balance sheet items. Finally, the work hints to the coming introduction of a new Chinese enterprise tax law which may change the situation of the taxation and tax planning of foreign-invested holding companies in the PRC altogether. (author's abstract)