Scenario analysis of private fund managers paying value-added tax
Before analyzing the scene of private equity fund managers paying VAT, it needs to be put under the general framework of the specific operation of private equity funds. Generally speaking, private equity funds (including partnership funds, contract funds and corporate funds) involve three levels of value-added tax issues:
0 1. Is the basic management fee and excess remuneration collected by private fund managers subject to VAT? 02. Investment link: Does the fund investor pay VAT on the income from investing in private equity or stocks? Do fund investors need to pay VAT when transferring private equity or shares? 03. Operation link: Private equity funds will use the raised funds for interest, dividends or transfer price difference income of investments such as debt instruments or equity instruments. Is VAT payable? The problems involved in the three different forms of funds are similar, but there are also obvious differences.
First, no matter what kind of fund it is, the management fee and excess reward charged by private fund managers are essentially the same, and the fund pays the management fee and excess reward to the fund managers.
Secondly, in the operation of the fund, because there is no taxpayer in the contractual fund, the taxable behavior of the fund manager in its operation is the VAT taxpayer. However, the taxable behavior of value-added tax in the operation of partnership funds and corporate funds is the taxpayer of the funds themselves.
Management fees charged by private fund managers and value-added tax on excess income.
The management fee charged by the fund manager is essentially the labor fee charged by the private fund manager for providing asset management services entrusted by the fund. This part of the income needs to pay VAT. According to whether the private fund manager is a small-scale taxpayer (3%) or a general taxpayer (6%), the value-added tax paid is management fee /( 1+ value-added tax rate) * value-added tax rate. In private equity funds, fund managers usually enjoy a certain agreement on excess returns, which is called arbitrage. That is, the contract stipulates that when the overall income of the fund exceeds a certain proportion (such as 8%), the manager can get 20% of the remaining excess income. Whether this part of excess income needs to pay value-added tax has different explanations in practice. Carry is the management fee: that is, the floating management fee that Carry gets for the manager to manage the private equity fund. Therefore, the value-added tax should be paid according to the financial service fee charged directly. Carry is the distribution of investment income: in some agreements, Carry appears in the profit distribution part, which belongs to the income distribution clause, not the expense clause. In practice, some places think that the share of excess income belongs to the income provided by managers, and some local tax authorities tend to think that the share of excess income belongs to investment income and does not have security interests. Even so, in most cases, excess income is still recognized as labor income and needs to be paid value-added tax.
Value-added tax payment scenarios involved in contractual fund operation
Contract funds have no legal entity, and their VAT payment scenarios are similar to asset management products. According to the provisions of Caishui [2065 438+06] 140, the manager of asset management products is the VAT taxpayer for the VAT taxable behavior that occurs during the operation of asset management products. Specifically, asset management product managers (private fund managers) may have a variety of VAT taxable behaviors in the process of operating asset management products in their own names.
0 1. Direct Charge Financial Services
According to Circular 36, direct charge financial services refer to the business activities of providing related services for financial business and charging fees. These include providing services such as asset management, trust management and fund management.
For contractual fund managers, that is, fund management fees and excess income, this part of the income is no different from partnership funds and corporate funds.
Loan service provider
The loan service here not only refers to issuing loans in a narrow sense. Under the background of value-added tax, loan business also includes all kinds of income from occupying and borrowing funds, as well as interest income (including capital preservation income, remuneration, capital occupation fee, compensation, etc. During the holding period of financial commodities, the interest income from buying and selling financial commodities and discounting bills shall be subject to VAT according to the loan business.
Generally speaking, the fixed profit or guaranteed profit charged by monetary fund investment needs to pay VAT according to the loan service, that is, the guaranteed income needs to pay VAT. The so-called "capital preservation" income refers to the investment income that is clearly promised in the contract that the due principal can be fully recovered.
It should be noted that the judgment of capital preservation income only depends on whether the contract is promised, not whether it can be repaid. In other words, the contract promises to protect the capital, and the corresponding income belongs to interest income, so value-added tax should be levied.
Common types of investment that need to pay VAT according to the income from "loan service" are:
(1) Hold bonds until maturity (interest income from holding national bonds and local government bonds is exempt from VAT).
(2) Hold principal-guaranteed wealth management until maturity. (3) Issuing entrusted loans. Therefore, the non-guaranteed income obtained by contractual funds during the period of holding financial commodities (including maturity) is not interest income, and VAT is not levied.
Financial commodity transfer
The transfer of financial commodities mainly refers to the business activities of transferring the ownership of financial commodities such as foreign exchange, securities, non-commodity futures, asset management products and financial derivatives.
According to the "financial commodity transfer" income should pay VAT common investment types are:
(1) buying and selling (not held to maturity) bonds, stocks and other securities.
(2) buying and selling (not held until maturity) asset management products such as funds, trusts and bank wealth management. It should be noted that the registered equity transactions of companies or partnerships are regarded as trading funds.