Before May 20 16 1, the copyright transfer needs to pay business tax.
Announcement of the Ministry of Finance of People's Republic of China (PRC), State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China, on comprehensively pushing forward the pilot project of changing business tax into value-added tax (Caishui [2016] No.36) marks the withdrawal of business tax from the historical stage, and there has been no business tax since then. From then on, all taxable activities belong to the category of value-added tax and need to be paid.
According to the annex of Caishui [20 1 6] No.361:Pilot Implementation Measures for Changing Business Tax to VAT.
Sales of intangible assets: refers to the business activities of transferring the ownership or use right of intangible assets. Intangible assets refer to assets that have no physical form but can bring economic benefits, including intangible assets such as technology, trademarks, copyrights, goodwill, natural resource use rights and other rights and interests.
According to Annex 3 of Caishui [2065438+06] No.36: Transition Policy of Changing Business Tax to VAT Pilot.
Paragraph 14 of Article 1: Individual transfer of copyright is exempt from value-added tax.
Web page link
To sum up, the copyright transfer before the "camp reform" needs to pay business tax; However, after the "VAT reform" on 20 16, copyright transfer belongs to VAT taxable behavior. At the same time, the state has set up a preferential tax reduction policy for individual copyright transfer, so individual copyright transfer is exempt from value-added tax.