For cross-border e-commerce sellers, the word they are most afraid of hearing may be “return”.
In the past, a return order not only meant lost freight and discounted goods, but was also often accompanied by complicated customs clearance procedures and unexpected tax costs.
Many sellers face unsalable or returned goods from overseas. They can only deal with them locally at low prices, or even abandon the goods directly, because “the return may be more expensive than the goods themselves.”
Now, the country has given a “reassurance” to the majority of cross-border e-commerce companies.
A key preferential tax policy has been extended, and the core goal is to make you “affordable” so that you can dare to prepare goods, dare to ship goods, and boldly expand overseas markets.
Policy “dry stuff”: one free, one refund, real money.
The core of this policy, jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation, can be summarized in four words: “One exemption, one refund.”
One exemption: If the goods you export through mainstream cross-border e-commerce models such as 1210, 9610, 9710, and 9810 are shipped back to China as they are within 6 months of export due to unsaleable or returned goods, then import duties and import-related value-added tax and consumption tax will be exempted when entering customs.
Refund: At the same time, if the export duties have been paid when this batch of goods was originally exported, the customs will refund the money to you.
Simply put, the state bears most of the “return costs” for you in terms of taxes.
This directly solves a core pain point for sellers: cash flow.
Returned goods are no longer a pure loss, but it is possible to recover part of the loss through domestic secondary sales or repairs, allowing valuable cash flow to “live”.
Who can enjoy it?
Conditions and details apply.
Of course, the offer is not unconditional.
Only by understanding the details clearly can you enjoy the dividends smoothly: The scope is very wide, except for food: the policy covers the four main export methods of cross-border e-commerce, whether it is direct mailing of small packages (9610) or overseas warehouse stocking (9810), they are all included.
However, it should be noted that food products are not included in this discount.
Seize the “6-month” golden period: returns are time-limited.
Goods must be returned to the country within 6 months from the date of export.
For goods stored in the bonded area (1210 mode), this time is calculated from the time the goods leave the bonded area.
This urges sellers to manage overseas inventory more carefully and make timely decisions.
What is “as is”?
Understand flexibility: The policy requires goods to be “returned in their original condition”, but it is not a rigid rule.
It means that the most basic form of the product cannot be changed, parts cannot be added, and processing and modification cannot be performed.
However, unboxing inspection, necessary installation and debugging, and even customer returns due to problems found during trial use are all recognized.
This reflects the policy’s adaptability to the actual business scenarios of e-commerce.
The procedures must be compliant and the materials must be authentic: To apply for this discount, you need to prepare the customs declaration form for export, explanation of reasons for return, and other materials.
If it is returned due to slow sales, just write a self-declaration; if it is returned by a customer, you need to provide proof such as the platform’s return record.
Be sure to ensure the authenticity of all materials, because the announcement also makes it clear that tax evasion and tax fraud will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
Policy combination: make the road to sea more stable.
This return shipping tax benefit doesn’t exist in isolation.
In recent years, the state has launched a “policy package” to support cross-border e-commerce, reducing the burden on enterprises from multiple aspects: “Tax refund upon departure” for overseas warehouses: For sellers who use overseas warehouses (9810 model), as long as the goods are declared to leave the country, even if they have not been sold overseas, they can also apply for export tax refunds in advance (called “pre-tax refund”), which greatly eases the financial pressure during the stocking period.
Supervision continues to be simplified: The customs has successively launched facilitation measures such as simplifying declarations and supporting returns across customs areas to make logistics customs clearance more efficient.
Under the bonus, it is even more necessary to practice internal strength.
The country’s continued policy support has injected strong confidence into the cross-border e-commerce industry.
Data shows that China’s cross-border e-commerce import and export scale has grown rapidly in the past few years, which is inseparable from the support of a benign business environment.
This return tax policy, which extends to the end of 2027, is equivalent to providing a stable “safety cushion” for sellers.
It reduces the cost of trial and error and encourages merchants to more actively explore markets and test new products.
But we must also be clearly aware that global e-commerce competition is shifting from “barbaric growth” to “intensive farming.”
Policy dividends reduce the “hard costs” of operations, and the final victory depends more on the seller’s “soft power” in product innovation, brand building, supply chain efficiency and localized services.
Make good use of policies to reduce worries; practice good internal skills to achieve steady and long-term progress.
For all cross-border sellers, this is undoubtedly an era in which they can move forward with more focus.
