VAT in Chinese Supplier Quotes

Cover: an AI-generated illustration of comparing supplier offers, not an actual quotation or transaction.

One supplier quotes CNY 100 per item. Another quotes CNY 110. The first price says 不含税; the second says 含税. If you compare only the two numbers, you may choose the more expensive offer without realizing it.

Those labels mean excluding tax and including tax. They are useful starting points, but the comparison still needs a named tax, an applicable rate or treatment, the same goods and the same delivery arrangement. A domestic purchase through a sourcing agent is not automatically priced on the same basis as a supplier's direct export.

This guide explains how to read VAT in a mainland Chinese supplier quote, ask for a comparable total and connect the eventual invoice to the company selling to you. It uses hypothetical figures to illustrate price comparisons; the example rate is not advice about the tax treatment of your order.

Put both offers on one basis

For this example only, assume both sellers offer the same item, quantity, delivery and payment terms, and that a 13% VAT rate applies to both transactions. Supplier A quotes CNY 100 before VAT. Supplier B quotes CNY 110 including VAT. Freight is already treated identically, so it does not change the comparison.

For one item	Supplier A	Supplier B
Quoted price	CNY 100 excluding VAT	CNY 110 including VAT
Total payable on the example assumptions	CNY 113	CNY 110
Difference	Supplier B is CNY 3 cheaper per item.

For 500 items, those totals become CNY 56,500 and CNY 55,000: a CNY 1,500 difference. Supplier A's lower headline number did not make it the lower total. Equally, this calculation says nothing about product quality, delivery reliability or whether the assumed tax treatment is correct.

Do not copy the example into a real purchase until the supplier confirms the actual treatment. An amount labelled “tax” could need explanation, a quoted rate may be outdated, or the sellers may be describing different transaction routes. Compare the named goods, selling entity and delivery terms before making the totals look comparable in a spreadsheet.

Read the price labels precisely

Ask what “included” covers. A quote can include VAT while excluding delivery, tooling or a particular packaging charge. Another can include delivery to a mainland warehouse but leave international freight to you. These are commercial differences even when both prices use the same tax wording.

Chinese wording	Useful reading	Point to confirm
含税价	Tax-inclusive price	Which tax and what final amount are included.
不含税价	Price excluding tax	The applicable treatment and the total payable.
税率/征收率	Tax rate or levy rate	The rate or treatment used for this transaction.
价税合计	Total including tax	Whether the amount covers the entire agreed purchase.

The word “invoice” needs similar care. Confirm whether the seller means a Chinese tax invoice, a commercial invoice or a pro forma invoice. Asking for a fapiao is not the same as requesting a new price quotation. Our document comparison helps distinguish the files.

If a supplier says “the price changes when you need an invoice,” ask for a written breakdown of the quoted basis, tax and final price. Do not assume that buying without a document makes a taxable transaction tax-free. A price agreement and the seller's legal invoicing or tax obligations are separate matters.

The calculation behind the total

China's VAT Law, effective January 1, 2026, describes VAT as separate from the taxable sales amount. Article 16 of its Implementing Regulations gives the calculation when sales value and VAT are combined in a price.

Using the assumed rate in our example, CNY 113 including VAT contains CNY 100 before VAT and CNY 13 of VAT. To work backwards, divide 113 by 1.13. Simply subtracting 13% of 113 gives the wrong tax-exclusive amount because that percentage was applied to the wrong base.

At the order level, retain the seller's original unit prices and precision. Rounding each item and then multiplying can differ from calculating tax on the order subtotal. If a small difference appears, ask how the seller calculated the lines, discounts and total before treating the discrepancy as a hidden charge.

Do not use a blanket 13% adjustment for every Chinese quote. The law distinguishes rates and transaction categories, while the applicable rules can include relief or other treatment. Ask the issuing business to state the basis for this purchase; a buyer should not infer it from a product photograph or a familiar company type.

Domestic purchase and export route

The person buying, the company selling and the route taken by the goods matter. Goods bought from a mainland seller and delivered to a domestic sourcing agent involve a different set of parties and documents from goods exported directly by that seller to an overseas buyer.

The 2026 VAT Law provides a zero rate for exports of goods, subject to stated exceptions. Its Implementing Regulations define the relevant export category by actual customs departure and sale to an overseas customer, alongside specified deemed exports. A foreign customer's name or a plan to ship goods later does not, by itself, establish that an individual domestic sale falls within that category.

Instead of asking “Can you remove VAT because we are overseas?”, describe the proposed transaction. Identify who buys from the factory, who sells to you, who will handle the export and where delivery occurs. Ask the supplier or agent to explain which quote covers which sale.

For example, a sourcing agent may purchase goods domestically and issue its own commercial invoice to your company. The factory's invoice to the agent and the agent's invoice to you need not show the same customer or amount. Keep each document attached to the transaction it actually describes.

Export rebates add another separate question. A supplier's potential rebate is not automatically money owed to the overseas buyer, and it should not be deducted from a quote by assumption. If the commercial agreement mentions a rebate-related adjustment, obtain its terms explicitly. Our export VAT rebate guide covers that issue in more detail.

The company issuing the invoice

Record the full Chinese legal name and USCC of the proposed seller. If the quote uses only a brand or English trading name, ask which registered company stands behind it. ChinaValidate Company Search can help match that identity to available mainland registration information.

A supplier's taxpayer status is useful context when your purchasing process requires it, but a business license is not a tax-rate calculator. Nor does one invoice category establish all the supplier's tax qualifications. Use the separate VAT taxpayer-status guide if the qualification itself needs checking.

Ask who will issue the eventual invoice before payment. A related company may have a legitimate role, but “same group” is not a sufficient explanation of every document difference. Request a clear account of the seller, purchaser, invoice issuer and any agent, with the relevant order references.

If you receive a supported Chinese VAT invoice later, invoice verification is a separate check of that document. It does not prove that the original quotation was the cheapest, that a tax interpretation is correct or that an overseas buyer can reclaim the displayed VAT.

Get the final price in writing

A useful confirmation is short enough for the seller to answer completely. Name the order and ask for the facts that are still missing rather than sending a generic demand for every tax document the company holds.

Please confirm the final price for [goods and quantity]. State the selling company's Chinese legal name, the currency, the amount before tax, the applicable VAT treatment and the total payable. Please list any delivery, tooling or packaging charges separately, confirm the delivery point, and identify the company and document type used for invoicing.

If the seller replies with a new quotation, compare more than its final total. Check the quantity, specification, currency, delivery basis and payment schedule too. A new tax breakdown should not silently change the product or the receiving account.

Keep the accepted version with the purchasing record. A chat message saying “tax included” is much less useful when nobody can tell which revision it refers to. Where only one point changed, a clear written amendment may be enough; avoid creating several competing versions of the same order.

A pro forma invoice can record the agreed proposal in a more useful form. The US International Trade Administration describes it as a quotation in invoice form. Ask the supplier to carry the clarified price basis into that document, so the accepted offer and payment request do not tell different stories.

Currency deserves its own line. If one offer is in CNY and another in USD, retain both originals and label the exchange rate and date used for your internal comparison. A currency conversion is your comparison method, not a new price accepted by the supplier. Ask who bears any bank or conversion charges instead of burying them inside an unexplained “tax” adjustment.

For a partial shipment, agree which quantity and charges the next payment covers. A deposit, the invoice total and the balance due can all be correct while showing different amounts. Link each amount to its purpose, and confirm whether tax is already included before adding it again to the payment request.

Compare the real payable amounts

Return to the CNY 100 and CNY 110 offers. On the stated assumptions, Supplier B costs less. If Supplier B excludes domestic delivery while Supplier A includes it, the arithmetic must be updated. If one seller is quoting a different export route, first resolve the transaction structure rather than applying the same percentage to both.

Give your approver the comparable totals and the assumptions beside them. Separate any unresolved tax treatment from settled commercial terms. This makes it possible to see whether a decision is ready or still depends on a supplier's reply.

A reliable comparison connects price, transaction and company. Read the tax labels, confirm the actual sale and preserve the accepted quotation. Then check the invoice when it arrives, using its own fields and the issuer's identity. Each step answers a different part of the purchase.