China’s capital Beijing has revealed that the city’s tax department will introduce blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT)-powered invoicing. The new service was reportedly launched on March 2, 2020.
Officials in Beijing said they are planning to take advantage of DLT’s unique transparency, traceability and immutability features in order to improve standard invoicing systems.
The announcement noted:
“To reduce taxpayers operating costs, save social resources, increase consumer convenience for saving invoices and build a healthy and fair tax environment … The tax bureau of Beijing has decided to pilot the application of blockchain electronic general invoice”
The Beijing blockchain invoice comes with several new features. Each invoice code consists of 12 digits, and there are 8 digits in the invoice number.
Beijing’s tax department wants to encourage users to determine the authenticity of the invoices by checking the invoice details via its official website or on the licensed Ruihong website.
The tax bureau stated:
“The information recorded in the electronic common invoices shall be consistent with the results obtained on the website … Consumers have the right to reject electronic invoices with inconsistent results, and can call the tax service hotline 12366 of the Beijing tax bureau to report.”
Beijing’s tax authority noted that it will introduce the DLT-based invoicing service throughout the capital city. The agency also said that it will be issuing regular invoices for parking and tickets for local parks for the time being. Other Chinese industries also plan to take part in the pilot.