May 24, Shenzhen Municipal Office of SAT (State Administration of Taxation) has joined hands with Tencent to launched a innovation lab named “Smart Tax”. The Smart Tax lab is aiming to build a modern “technological innovation+” tax mechanism. The lab also remarks Tencen’s blockchain-based digital invoices solution as a core concept for further research.

According to the cooperation agreement, Shenzhen Municipal Office of SAT and Tencent will apply advanced technology including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data in different taxation scenarios, as well as promote in-depth cooperation in the “Internet + taxation” field.

Shenzhen Municipal Office of SAT and Tencent will jointly build a new ecological modern taxation management platform which builds connection between consumers, merchants, tax authorities, enterprises and WeChat accounts, to establish a digital invoice ecological chain involves multi dimensions includes tax administration, taxpayers, and government management.

Zhang Guojun, commissioner of Shenzhen SAT indicated that, Shenzhen Municipal Office of SAT and work teams from Tencent have jointly conducted in-depth research in blockchain to launch a new digital invoice solution.

“the new digital invoice based on blockchain technology can be more effective than the traditional ones. The whole process can be entered on a block, all the information cannot be altered or tampered with. Which may speed up the invoice supervision processes and minimize the security risk,” said Li Wei, the vice director of Shenzhen SAT.

Li also emphasized that the market economy in Shenzhen is very active. The number of newly registered commercial entities hit 552,000 in 2017 and the amount of tax-related business is huge. The tax authorities are under pressure from the high taxation cost and the large amount of paper work.

By adopting blockchain technology, enterprises may complete invoice application and tax filing on blockchain. A smart paperless tax-management system may be established which can lower the taxation cost and enhance the effectiveness of tax administration.