Shanghai Yangpu Upgrades 'Tax Cube' Brand to Support Digital Economy

The Yangpu district tax bureau of the Shanghai Municipal Tax Service, State Taxation Administration, recently launched the first stop of its "Tax Cube · Sci-Tech Service Station" roadshow at Yangpu V Space, comprehensively upgrading the ten-year-old "Tax Cube" tax-law publicity and service brand in light of the development characteristics of industries such as the digital economy. At the event, tax officials presented key service measures of the station, gave practical briefings on platform tax-related information reporting and compliance priorities for platform operators and practitioners, and clarified compliance boundaries through typical cases. In a one-on-one consultation area, officials provided individualised tax guidance, answering common questions such as how platform companies deduct labour remuneration paid to practitioners for corporate income tax purposes and whether managers' salaries qualify for the R&D expense super-deduction. In recent years Yangpu has attracted more than 8,000 digital-economy enterprises including Douyin, Meituan and Bilibili; the digital economy has grown at double-digit rates for years, accounts for more than 40 percent of tax revenue and nearly 60 percent of revenue scale, and has become the main driver of regional economic development. Shanghai's 15th Five-Year Plan outline explicitly supports building the Yangpu riverside into a platform-economy innovation hub. The event venue, V Space, is the first landing scenario in Yangpu's effort to build a cluster for quality internet content creation and has gathered digital culture companies and talent, including many online influencers with millions of followers. "The tax authorities' briefing precisely matches the core needs of platform operators and practitioners; the content is practical and responds to real pain points and confusion over tax compliance," said Qiu Ting, general manager of V Space, noting that V Space will build a long-term cooperation mechanism with the bureau. The "Tax Cube" brand has gradually built a tax-law publicity and service system described as spatially three-dimensional, temporally continuous and multi-dimensional, supporting Yangpu's sci-tech innovation and digital-economy growth. Given the concentration of platform companies and rich digital-economy formats, the bureau planned ahead and took targeted measures. Since the rules on tax-related information reporting by internet platform companies took effect, it has formed a special guidance team of policy specialists and technical backbones, using a combination of one-on-one on-site guidance and real-time online answers, while compiling dedicated operational guides. Zhao Lan, the person responsible for accounting at Shanghai Zhuiguang Shunjian Network Technology, which operates the podcast app Xiaoyuzhou, said the platform tax reporting work both reflects the company's fulfilment of tax obligations and helps it clarify tax risks and standardise internal management. The bureau has fully upgraded its "Tax Cube 1+N" brand matrix, launching alongside the sci-tech service station a "Tax Cube · Digital Economy Research Office", a "Tax Cube · Tax Workshop" and a "Tax Cube · Youth Growth Camp". Wang Tian, party secretary and director of the bureau, said it will use the brand's tenth anniversary to deepen roadshows and targeted guidance and support high-quality development of the regional digital economy.