Cross-border e-commerce main operation and compliance risk analysis cross-border e-commerce customs clearance operation and compliance

Cross-border e-commerce export return risk

Customs research on enterprises shows that the cross-border e-commerce export parcel return ratio of about 5%, of which the proportion of textile and apparel part of the category of goods returned more than 10%, the overseas warehouse also appeared to a certain degree of merchandise stagnation problem.

Cross-border e-commerce exporters in the comprehensive consideration of the value of goods, return logistics costs, inbound tax costs and other factors, often choose the overseas discount processing, abandonment of goods and other ways to deal with the export of slow-moving or returned merchandise, undoubtedly will increase the cost of business operations, affecting the enterprise's motivation to expand exports, and restricting the development of cross-border e-commerce.

In view of this, on the one hand, should speed up the implementation of cross-border e-commerce export return facilitation of customs supervision policies, and strive to solve the cross-border e-commerce export commodities, "difficult to return" "return expensive" problem; on the other hand, to increase efforts to introduce the market to adapt to the changes of the Customized insurance - such as a cross-border return insurance on the commitment, whether it is Southeast Asia cash on delivery, or the European Union receipt of goods to pay taxes caused by overseas consumers to cancel the order or return, insured exporters can get "cross-border return insurance" instant claims.

Cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouse business risks

As a new form of cost reduction and efficiency of foreign trade merchants, the overseas warehouse is not only to enrich the cross-border merchandise category, enhance the competitiveness of Chinese brands overseas "weapon", but also become a cross-border merchants during the new crown pneumonia epidemic "business savior! ". By the end of 2019, China's cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses had reached more than 1,200. And with the launch and development of the cross-border e-commerce B2B export overseas warehouse model, China's cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses will usher in a new wave of growth, but with the increase in the number and scale of the expansion, the pressure of overseas warehouse competition and business risks will also likely further increase.

1Country-specific policy and regulatory risks

For example, in terms of the form of operation, warehouse area, whether or not to carry out splitting, repackaging, labeling, tax treatment, intellectual property rights protection, etc., the customs of the import target country may have different regulatory provisions and supervision requirements.

2Operation and financial pressure

For example, land leasing, warehouse construction, warehouse leasing, warehouse maintenance, labor costs, miscellaneous expenses, such as large upfront investment, a long profit cycle, the risk of bursting the warehouse, the wrong / omitted / misrecorded resulting in inventory or inventory loss, the lack of economies of scale, in and out of the warehouse customs clearance risk.

3 Inventory stalling risk

Industry statistics show that for inventory stalled goods, about 70% of cross-border e-commerce enterprises choose to sell at a low price, 19% of enterprises choose to destroy, 11% of enterprises choose other ways, but will reduce the operating income and profitability of the overseas warehouse, increasing the risk of overseas warehouse operation.

Therefore, it is suggested that cross-border e-commerce enterprises should focus on risk prediction and prevention when conducting overseas warehouse business.

1Develop a flexible overseas warehouse operation model and promote the diversification of risk transfer mechanisms. For example, multi-channel financing through government-social capital cooperation, bank borrowing, securities financing, etc.; making full use of the transfer price and flexible payment system to avoid exchange rate risks; operating virtual overseas warehouses to reduce the pressure of upfront investment.

2Adopt a new type of cooperation model to improve risk prevention ability. For example, actively promote the overseas warehouse from the primary mode of collection / delivery to the multi-functional "one-stop" logistics transit center; explore "logistics line + border warehouse + overseas warehouse" "logistics line + overseas warehouse" "logistics line + overseas warehouse" "cross-border e-commerce" "cross-border e-commerce" "cross-border e-commerce" and "cross-border e-commerce". "" cross-border e-commerce platform + foreign trade integrated services + overseas warehouse "and other mixed mode of operation; drawing on the Amazon logistics service model, and actively expand the return and exchange of goods, transfer warehouse, labeling, labeling, product testing, containerization, payment of customs duties and insurance and other integrated multifunctional services.

3Actively build an intelligent overseas warehouse system to reduce the risk of misdelivery and leakage; optimize the financial system to facilitate inventory counting and comparison, and timely detection and treatment of the risk of inventory surplus.

Overseas Taxation Risks of Cross-border E-commerce Exports

With the booming development of global cross-border e-commerce, the topic of cross-border e-commerce taxation has become a hotspot of global concern, and more and more countries or regions have strengthened the cross-border e-commerce taxation regulation, and explored and practiced cross-border e-commerce taxation modes and paths.

British law clearly stipulates that all online sales of goods are subject to value-added tax (VAT), with the general standard rate amounting to 17.5 percent and the preferential rate of 5 percent.

Decree No. 1861 of 2017 of the Russian Federation Customs Service stipulates that, as of July 1, 2018, all parcels sent by mail must provide the consignee's personal tax ID number and a link to the web site where the purchases were made, in order to check that tax-free imports are not in excess of the amount of tax due, or the parcels will be returned to the consignor.

Japan requires cross-border e-commerce companies exceeding 10 million yen to make a written registration in the country and appoint a tax agent as a representative unit.

On March 21, 2019, Thailand's new e-commerce tax bill came into effect, and business operators who meet the conditions are required to pay the tax.

At the end of May 2019, Turkey began imposing import duties of up to 20% on e-commerce products as well as other postal items, and capped the value of imported goods at 500 euros.

Effective January 1, 2020, Indonesia drastically reduced the starting amount of import tax on cross-border e-commerce goods from $75 to $3 per day.

From January 1, 2021, the European Union (EU) will implement a new VAT standardization bill for cross-border e-commerce trade, the main measures of which include the extension of the "one-stop-shop" system of taxation to intra-EU and non-EU remote sales to the EU, the elimination of low-priced imports from non-EU countries into the EU, and the introduction of a new VAT exemption for imports - in the case of non-EU imports into the EU, a new VAT exemption for imports from non-EU countries. Import VAT exemption - In the EU VAT reform, products in the regular price range, whether in overseas warehouses or shipped directly from outside the EU, are subject to import VAT; when the goods are sold, the merchant can refund the VAT and then pay the corresponding sales tax on the sales.

With the tightening of regulation, the importance of VAT compliance for cross-border e-commerce enterprises that want to develop the European market is becoming more and more prominent; in the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the tax policies of the relevant countries or regions are also speeding up the adjustment of the cross-border e-commerce enterprises need to pay attention to changes in VAT policies in various countries, so as to be ready for the recovery of the market after the new coronary pneumonia epidemic.

Cross-border e-commerce violations bear the risk of a wider range of subjects

Compared with traditional general trade, the cross-border e-commerce trade industry has a longer chain and more participants, including third-party operating platforms, logistics companies, payment companies, software developers, and supply chain companies at multiple levels.

The Announcement on Matters Relating to the Supervision of Cross-border E-commerce Retail Import and Export Commodities requires that platform companies, payment companies, logistics companies, etc. should be registered with the Customs, and for the first time, the above companies are included in the scope of Customs' management relative. In addition, the Customs has the right to impose penalties in accordance with the law on enterprises involved in creating or transmitting false transaction, payment and logistics information, facilitating secondary sales, failing to exercise due diligence in auditing the authenticity of consumers' identity information, etc., which results in the theft of personal identity information or annual purchase quota, secondary sales and other violations of the Customs' regulatory requirements. Penalties; suspected of smuggling or violation of the Customs and Excise Department in accordance with the law; constitutes a crime, shall be investigated for criminal responsibility.

It can be seen that in cross-border e-commerce import and export, to ensure the authenticity of the declared information is no longer just a matter for the cargo owner and customs brokerage company. In addition to e-commerce companies, other participants in the process may also constitute the main body of the smuggling crime, such as the owner of the goods, overseas buyers, customs clearance companies, cross-border e-commerce platform developers. Therefore, in order to ensure that the "three single" real, the upstream and downstream links of the enterprise will assume more responsibilities and obligations, but also means that will face greater legal risks, should be more vigilant and attention.

Cross-border e-commerce payment risk

In the cross-border e-commerce payment process, compared with the domestic payment, it involves more regulatory laws and regulations, such as the "People's Republic of China Anti-Money Laundering Law", "People's Republic of China Foreign Exchange Regulations", "Foreign Exchange Management Guidelines for Trade in Goods," and so on.

Therefore, cross-border e-commerce enterprises should choose qualified third-party payment institutions with Payment Business License for fund collection and payment and foreign exchange settlement and sale, and ensure that fund collection and payment and foreign exchange settlement and sale behaviors are in line with the "Payment Institutions Cross-border E-commerce Foreign Exchange Payment Business Pilot Guidelines" and other laws and regulations, and strictly comply with other national laws and regulations in foreign exchange management, in order to achieve legal compliance with business operations.

Cross-border e-commerce

Cross-border e-commerce intellectual property rights compliance risk

With innovation and knowledge becoming an important driving force for economic development, countries have strengthened the protection of intellectual property rights, and disputes over intellectual property rights have become an important content and area of international economic and trade disputes.

For example, the European Union is highly concerned about intellectual property rights in international trade. The report "Trends in Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods" issued by the OECD and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the EU Customs Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Report have had a great impact in the international arena. The EU believes that the volume of global trade in counterfeiting and infringement is still growing, and has risen from 200 billion US dollars in 2005 to 500 billion US dollars in 2019, accounting for 3.3% of global trade; among them, cases through cross-border e-commerce courier, railroad, road transportation and other channels have seen a substantial increase; and in the EU Customs Early Warning System, China's commodities are ranked as "high-risk" and "high risk".

Also, Chinese goods are ranked as "high-risk" in the EU customs warning system.

As another example, at the end of 2019, a nationwide social survey conducted by the Intellectual Property Service Center of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) concluded, among other things, that e-commerce platforms have become the hardest-hit areas for infringing and counterfeiting goods. The seriousness of e-commerce infringement and online piracy also ranks alongside the "hot and difficult" issues that need to be resolved in China's intellectual property protection, such as malicious trademark registrations or imitations, patent dispute resolution and market access facilitation that need to be improved, regulations and systems for the protection of trade secrets that still need to be perfected, and judicial and law enforcement penalties that need to be further strengthened.