The "VAT exemption" preference long enjoyed by the international freight forwarding industry is essentially a special tax arrangement for cross-border taxable behaviors, but the scope of application of this policy has always had strict boundaries: only income from "directly providing international cargo transportation agency services" can be exempted from tax, while supporting services such as customs declaration, warehousing, loading and unloading handling, if accounted for separately, usually need to pay VAT at a rate of about 6%.

"In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, freight forwarders issue tax-exempt invoices regardless of domestic or overseas, and some have already been caught." An industry insider said.

Once a company is identified as having enjoyed the tax exemption policy in violation of regulations, it not only needs to pay back taxes, but may also face late fees and fines. This is not an exaggeration. According to research data from the Shenzhen Qianhai Tax Bureau of the State Taxation Administration in January 2026, among the enterprises applying for freight forwarding tax exemption in the jurisdiction, 62% were required to make corrections due to irregular accounting treatment, of which 31% involved the loss of tax exemption qualifications due to failure to update filing information in a timely manner.

It can be seen thattax compliance in the freight forwarding industry is an inevitable trend, and Shenzhen has taken the "first shot".

Many cross-border sellers think that the freight forwarding tax self-examination is the freight forwarding's own business and has nothing to do with themselves. It's a big mistake. The relationship between freight forwarding and sellers can be described in four words: interdependent. Every invoice issued by the freight forwarder is a crucial link in the seller's tax chain.Once the freight forwarder is investigated, the seller's risks will fall like dominoes.

In the past, many freight forwarders, in order to help sellers "save tax", bundled the customs declaration fees, warehousing fees, and domestic transportation fees into "international cargo transportation agency services" tax-exempt invoices for you. You use these invoices to deduct VAT and apply for export tax rebates, seemingly taking advantage.

But now, the tax system is retroactively investigating the freight forwarders' tax-exempt invoices. Once the freight forwarder you cooperate with is identified as issuing invoices in violation of regulations, the invoices he issued to you will be judged as invalid invoices that "cannot enjoy tax exemption". The consequences are obvious.

The VAT you deducted before must be paid back in full;

The completed export tax rebate will be recovered;

The costs that have been included in the cost must be recalculated for corporate income tax, and it is likely that tax and late fees will have to be paid.

What's more troublesome is that if the tax authorities identify that the freight forwarder has "false issuance" suspicion, the invoices in your hand will even be directly marked as abnormal vouchers.At that time, not to mention deducting tax rebates, you will have little room for explanation.

Therefore, choosing a freight forwarder cannot only look at the price—who is cheaper, who can bundle and issue tax-exempt invoices, choose whom. The compliance capability of the freight forwarder directly determines yourtax safety and business stability.

Therefore, it is recommended that sellers in future freight forwarding choices:

Prioritize verifying the qualifications and credit of the freight forwarder, and put tax compliance above price factors;

Clarify service splitting and billing requirements to ensure that the invoice type matches the actual business;

Fully retain business documents (contracts, bills of lading, payment vouchers, etc.) for at least 5 years to form a complete business evidence chain.

Shenzhen has fired the "first shot" of freight forwarding tax compliance, but this shot will definitely not be the last.