What is the use of the title of high-tech enterprise? The recognition of high-tech enterprises refers to the "Administrative Measures for the Recognition of High-tech Enterprises" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") formulated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the State Administration of Taxation. ), and carried out relevant high-tech enterprise identification work, which has been 14 years since it started in 2008. According to regulations, high-tech enterprises adopt the enterprise initiative declaration system, and the certification qualification is valid for 3 years. During this period, the enterprise enjoys preferential tax policies. If the qualification expires and no reexamination application is submitted or the reexamination fails, the high-tech enterprise qualification will automatically expire upon expiration. This is a guiding policy whose main purpose is to support and encourage the development of high-tech enterprises. The most direct benefit is that certified high-tech enterprises can enjoy a preferential tax rate of 15% (25% before certification), with the tax rate reduced by 10 points and the tax amount reduced by 40%. For enterprises, in addition to real benefits such as tax exemptions and financial subsidies, being recognized as a "National High-tech Enterprise" is also a national honor. This signifies that an enterprise has technological innovation and R&D capabilities, high government recognition, advantages in loan financing, and that its core employees can enjoy local talent recognition policies and enjoy certain policy dividends in terms of settlement and house purchase. If R&D expenses did not meet the standard, the qualification would be revoked. The advantages of having a high-tech enterprise qualification are already obvious. Alipay (China) has been revoked as a high-tech enterprise, which means that the series of tax benefits it could have enjoyed are no longer available. Use allowed. According to Qichacha, Alipay (China) was founded in 2004 and is the holder of the Alipay payment license. It is registered in Shanghai and has technical developers accounting for more than 50%. The registered capital is 1.50 million yuan. As of the end of 2021, the insured The number of people is 1875. Relevant people from Ant Group said that Alipay (China) did not take the initiative to apply again after the Shanghai high-tech enterprise qualification expired. Alipay (China) is a payment license company under Ant, and its R&D expenditures only account for a part of Ant’s overall R&D expenditures. A financial technology company actually fails to meet the standard in the proportion of R&D expenses? What is the situation behind this? It is worth noting that Ant Group has two companies called "Alipay". "Alipay (China)", founded in 2004, is the holder of the Alipay payment license. It mainly engages in payment business and is registered in Shanghai. Another company, "Alipay (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd." (referred to as "Alipay ()", is registered in Zhejiang. Hangzhou)"), is the operating entity of Alipay App, mainly engaged in Internet business, that is, hundreds of small programs on Alipay that link merchants and consumers, as well as thousands of life services, belong to Alipay (Hangzhou) Company. And this time it was The high-tech enterprise certification was revoked by Alipay (China). According to the High-tech Enterprise Recognition Management Network, Alipay (Hangzhou) was recognized as a national high-tech enterprise. Both companies are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Ant Technology Group.
According to the "Measures", it is mentioned in the research and development expenses part of the conditions that an enterprise needs to meet that the proportion of the enterprise's total research and development expenses in the past three fiscal years to the total sales revenue in the same period is between 3% and 5%, depending on the sales revenue. between. People close to Ant Group said that because Alipay (China) is purely for payment and was established in 2004, and payment methods such as quick payment, scan code payment, and facial recognition payment are also relatively mature, its R&D and sales have accounted for 20% of the total in the past two years. It is possible that the certification requirements are not met. According to the global patent database and fast patent search platform Wisdom Ya, the number of Alipay (China) patent applications is 21, all of which are non-appearance patent applications. The earliest patent application was in 2011, and the longest consecutive application years is 6 years. After 2017, No new patents have been applied for or granted. In addition, the total number of Alipay (China) software copyright registrations is 104. According to Wisdom Bud data, Alipay (Hangzhou) has a total number of patent applications of 8,135. The earliest patent application was in 2005, and the longest consecutive application years are 9 years. Due to the patent review system, there is generally a 0-18 month authorization review cycle. Excluding the impact of this factor, companies had the largest number of patent applications in 2020, at 3,282, and the patent authorization rate was 44.64%. In addition, the total number of software works registered is 82. There are still 4 entities that are high-tech enterprises in Shanghai. Alipay (China) was revoked due to "the proportion of R&D expenses not meeting the standard." Industry insiders said that because it is a company-initiated application system, some group companies may choose to give up the application if they adjust their R&D investment expenditures to other business sectors. On August 1 this year, the legal representative and chairman of Alipay (China) was changed from Jing Xiandong to Ni Xingjun. Earlier, Alipay (Hangzhou) also experienced changes in directors, supervisors and senior management, with Li Juan, the person in charge of Alipay App, serving as general manager. It is worth mentioning that currently, four entities under Ant Group are on the list of high-tech enterprises in Shanghai, including Ant Chain, Ant Zhi’an Security Technology, etc. The R&D expenses of the four entities have increased by about 50% every year from 2020 to now. According to the 2021 sustainability report released by Ant Group, it has added more than 6,600 new authorized patents throughout 2021, and the total number of global patent authorizations has increased 37 times in five years. Its R&D investment has grown by more than 39% for three consecutive years, exceeding 18.8 billion yuan in 2021. In the past two years, Ant Group has increased its investment in basic technology fields such as privacy computing, blockchain, databases, and security risk control. In terms of talent investment, as of the end of 2021, the proportion of technical talents among Ant Group’s current employees has reached 63%.