Macau | SAR residents need more advantageous policies to move and work in China – Scholar

Macau (MNA) – Current residence permit policies enforced by China are mainly beneficial for Special Administrative Region (SAR) residents who are already residents on the Mainland, but SAR residents could be attracted to move to and work on the Mainland if more beneficial policies are rolled out, opined Doctor Henry Lei Chun Kwok, a professor from the University of Macau.

The Chinese central government launched the Residence Permit policy on September 1 for SAR residents as well as residents of Taiwan so that they could enjoy more civil benefits while living and working in Mainland China.

“The attraction of working and doing business in Mainland China has existed for a long time,” said Mr. Lei. “If there is special tax exemption for SAR residents who only have properties and income from China, it will undoubtedly attract more residents.”

However, he said it is also invariably reasonable for SAR residents to pay tax to the places they earn their income from.

Earlier this week, Ho Iat Seng, chairman of the Legislative Assembly (AL), confirmed the clarification made by the Chinese Finance Minister that Residence Permit holders would not be double-taxed on their income and properties by Macau and China authorities owing to a taxation agreement signed between the city and the Mainland in 2003.

Ho informed that the agreement will be updated in order to accommodate the new Residence Permit policy.

According to related Chinese regulations, anyone residing for more than 183 days in China must pay taxes.

Mr. Lei believes that it is likely that the central government will roll out special policies that will be convenient to SAR and Taiwan residents since the goal of the new policy this time is to attract more SAR residents to develop opportunities in the cities of the Greater Bay Area.

According to Macao Daily newspaper, as at September 9 Guangdong Provincial Public Security had approved 18,818 applications for a Residence Permit, of which 2,936 were applications by Macau residents.