Export Sales Income to The Year which They Belong
The year to which export sales or service revenue belong shall be in basis of the date of customs declaration upon export sales and listed as income at that fiscal year. In the circumstance that the export sales were made by postal express or delivery agent, the basis date shall be in accordance with the date of stamp, instead of the date of payment made by buyer to list it as income.
In the condition of the export sales through customs, according to the item 2 in article 15th in “Regulations Governing Assessment of Profit-seeking Enterprise Income Tax”, the export sales shall be listed as income at that year of date of customs declaration, but for freights in small and light package which delivered by postal express or delivery agent, the basis date shall be in accordance with the date of stamp to recognize the fiscal year.
On the other side, the basis date of export services shall be in accordance with the date of fulfillment of services. If the services are related to the sales, export, or services used in Taiwan or foreign countries, the basis date shall be in accordance with the date of fulfillment of services to list as sales income at that year.
The different ways of export sales as abovementioned sorted at the following table:
| Export Sales Method | Bookkeeping Recognition | Tax Recognition |
| Export sales of goods through customs (with export declaration) | Based on trade terms as FOB or DAP | Custom declaration date |
| Export sales of postal express or delivery agent | Based on trade terms as FOB or DAP | Date of stamps made by postal office or delivery agent |
| Export Services | Recognized by each stage of provision of services in usual (percentage of completion method) | Date of fulfillment of services |
For example, Company A declared the export freights in value as TWD 1,000,000 at the end of December in 2022 with trade term “DAP”. If the freights are arrived at the foreign destination and received and paid by the buyer at the beginning of January in 2023, the income shall be listed at sales income in 2022.
Besides, to encourage export sales, if the amount of input is exceeded than the amount of output, the company is applicable to zero tax rate and tax refund, but if the small-scale business entity receives an order, the business tax should be imposed with the sales and tax amount verified by Taxation Bureau. The zero-tax rate is not applicable.
For business entity applied to 5% business tax rate and issuing uniform invoices, the calculation method for business tax shall be the output tax amount at that term to deduct the input tax amount as the tax payable or overpaid tax to proceed tax return each term regularly. If the output tax amount is zero but the input tax amount is overpaid, the tax refund is available. For small-scale business entity, due to the sporadic transaction number, the amount of sales income is under the requirement to issue invoices and verified by Taxation Bureau to impose taxes on payment bill in 1% rate each season. The calculation method is different than usual and the zero-tax rate is not applicable.
For example, garment store A is a small-scale business entity. The verified amount of sales income is TWD 168,000, but the store received orders from foreign countries which the amount of sales exceed than TWD 100,000. Thus, the calculation method should be applied to small-scale business entity rate 1% to verify the sales income.