China's fapiao: what it carries, and how to check one

A fapiao is a receipt with a state behind it. The payer holds it as bookkeeping evidence; the tax authority holds the data. The State Council’s invoice regulation defines one as a payment or receipt voucher issued and collected in the buying and selling of goods, in providing or accepting services, and in other business activities, and says a paper fapiao and an electronic one have the same legal effect (Invoice Administration Measures, third revision 20 July 2023, article 3, read 12 Oct 2026).

Article 5 of the same regulation hands the kinds, copies, contents, coding rules, data standards and permitted uses to the State Taxation Administration, which publishes them (same text, article 5). The implementation rules then list what a fapiao carries (rules, fourth amendment, SAT Order 56, published 15 January 2024, in force 1 March 2024, article 7):

Field	Chinese	Notes
Name of the invoice	发票的名称	e.g. 电子发票（普通发票）
Code and number	发票代码和号码	on paper; the electronic number is assigned nationally
Copies and their use	联次及用途	paper only; see below
Customer name	客户名称	the buyer
Bank and account	开户银行及账号
Goods or business item	商品名称或经营项目
Unit, quantity, unit price	计量单位、数量、单价
Amount in figures and words	大小写金额	细则 article 25 bars changing price or quantity later
Tax rate or levy rate	税率（征收率）
Tax amount	税额
Issuer, issuing date	开票人、开票日期
Issuing entity and its seal	开票单位（个人）名称（章）

Paper comes in three basic copies — a stub, the invoice copy for the payer and a bookkeeping copy for the issuer — and the stub is kept five years (rules, article 6; Measures, article 28). Paper also carries two marks the electronic form does not need: the national supervisory seal for invoices, whose shape, size, content and colour the tax administration fixes, and the issuer’s own invoice seal, bearing the entity’s name and its unified social credit code or taxpayer identification number (Measures, article 10; rules, articles 11 and 16).

Invoices are printed in Chinese; in a national autonomous area a local script may be added, and where there is a real need Chinese and a foreign language may be used together (Measures, article 13). Issuing must be in Chinese (rules, article 30). An English line on the form is allowed; the Chinese fields stay.

Who issues one, and when

On collecting money for a business transaction the recipient issues the fapiao to the payer; in special cases the payer issues to the recipient, which the implementation rules narrow to acquisition units and withholding agents paying individuals (Measures, article 18; rules, article 22).

Issuing follows revenue recognition. A unit or individual must issue when business occurs and revenue is recognised; where none occurred, issuing is not permitted at all (rules, article 24). The buyer has a matching duty: on paying, it must obtain an invoice, and may not ask for the goods name or the amount to be changed (Measures, article 19). Retail sales of small value to individuals may be exempted from per-transaction issuing at a provincial tax bureau’s discretion (rules, article 23). An entity or individual that needs an invoice only temporarily can apply to the tax authority at the place of business, which issues one on their behalf; issuing on another’s behalf outside that route is prohibited (Measures, article 16).

Enforcement sits on both sides. An invoice that does not meet the rules cannot serve as a reimbursement voucher and anyone may refuse it (same, article 20). Failing to issue when required, or issuing out of sequence, missing a column or without the invoice seal, carries a correction order and a fine of up to 10,000 yuan (same, article 33).

Ordinary and special VAT invoices

	Ordinary VAT invoice (增值税普通发票)	Special VAT invoice (增值税专用发票)
Who it is for	any seller making a taxable transaction, including small-scale taxpayers	a general VAT taxpayer selling goods or services
Buyer’s use	expense evidence	evidence of VAT paid, and a basis for crediting input VAT
Statutory shape	not defined by a single article I could find	defined in the special-invoice rules, article 2
Not issuable as this type	—	where the buyer is a natural person, the transaction is VAT-exempt, or other cases the finance and tax authorities set (implementation regulation, article 37); the 2006 rules also bar retail tobacco, alcohol, food, clothing, headwear and cosmetics sold by commercial general taxpayers (rules, article 10)
Ceiling on one invoice	—	100,000 yuan and below approved at district level, 1 million at municipal level, 10 million and above at provincial level

The special invoice’s definition and its other rules are in the rules on the use of special VAT invoices (Guo Shui Fa 2006 No. 156, in force 1 January 2007, amended with effect from 27 December 2024 by SAT announcement 2024 No. 15): article 2 makes it the document a general taxpayer issues and the buyer uses to credit input VAT, article 10 requires a small-scale taxpayer to apply for the tax authority to issue on its behalf, and article 5 sets the approval levels for the maximum single-invoice amount and requires an on-site check. Those rules are not in the tax administration’s list of documents cleared after the VAT Law, which names 144 (announcement 2026 No. 18, 10 August 2026).

Since 1 January 2026 the VAT Law is the top-level rule: article 34 says taxpayers issue and use VAT invoices, paper and electronic alike with the same legal effect, and that the state promotes them (VAT Law of the PRC, passed 25 December 2024, article 38 on commencement). The State Council’s implementation regulation took effect the same day and sets the issuing duties at that level: article 37 requires a seller to issue an invoice to the buyer on a taxable transaction (implementation regulation, Order 826, 25 December 2025).

Electronic invoices, now the ordinary case

Nationwide rollout was announced on 12 November 2024 and took effect on 1 December 2024 (SAT announcement 2024 No. 11). The announcement answers the basics:

Question	What the announcement says
What it is	a kind of electronic invoice under the Measures: digitised face elements, a number assigned nationally, a quota granted by the platform, data flowing through the tax digital account (article 1)
Copies	one, digital only (article 2)
Categories	electronic invoice (special VAT invoice), (ordinary invoice), (air passenger itinerary receipt), (railway e-ticket), (motor vehicle sales invoice), (used vehicle sales invoice), plus business-specific labels (article 2)
Face contents	invoice name, invoice number, date, buyer details, seller details, item name, specification, unit, quantity, unit price, amount, rate or levy rate, tax amount, subtotal, total with tax, remarks, issuer (article 3)
The number	20 digits: two for the calendar year, two for the provincial tax bureau area, one for the issuing channel, fifteen for sequence (article 4)
Quota	a monthly ceiling on total issued amount excluding VAT, set from risk, credit rating and actual business, adjusted dynamically (article 6)
Identity	real-person verification when issuing (article 7)
Correction	red-letter invoice; where the buyer has confirmed neither use nor booking, the seller starts it, and a confirmation form unconfirmed for 72 hours voids itself (article 8)
Delivery	automatic through the platform, or by email, QR code or download; a printed copy shows download and print counts (article 9)
Credit and refund	the buyer confirms the use through the tax digital account before claiming input credit or an export refund (article 10)
Where to check	the tax digital account, the e-invoice service platform, or the national verification platform, free (article 11)

Two transport documents moved into the same system. Railway e-tickets have been issued through the 12306 site and app since 1 November 2024, after a trip ends or a refund or change fee is paid and within 180 days of that point, using the buyer details the passenger supplies (official interpretation of announcement 2024 No. 8, section 2); the number is 20 digits; paper reimbursement tickets for travel on or before 30 September 2025 stay valid, and the paper and electronic versions cannot both be issued (SAT, MOF and China Railway announcement 2024 No. 8, dated 29 September 2024, article 11 on commencement).

Air itinerary receipts follow from 1 December 2024, issued by the airline or sales agent after every segment is flown, delivered by download or email. Their face carries the passenger’s identity document details, the itinerary, fare, fuel surcharge, VAT amount and rate, the civil aviation development fund and a QR code, and the number is again 20 digits, with the second and third pairs holding the administrative division code (SAT, MOF and CAAC announcement 2024 No. 9, dated 6 November 2024, articles 2 to 4). Paper receipts for flights on or before 30 September 2025 remain valid, and the paper form, the electronic form and any other invoice cannot be issued for the same journey twice (article 5). A general taxpayer works out input VAT from the electronic itinerary or from a special invoice (article 6).

How to check one

The national platform is at inv-veri.chinatax.gov.cn, opened by announcement 2016 No. 87 dated 23 December 2016 and in force from 1 January 2017, which put invoices from the VAT invoice management system into one query (SAT announcement 2016 No. 87). The platform’s own rules page, read on 12 October 2026, asks for the invoice code (not marked as required), the invoice number, the issuing date, the amount excluding VAT, and a captcha, and states three limits: an invoice issued that day can be checked that day, one invoice can be checked at most five times a day, and the previous five years are in scope (platform rules page). One field changes with the invoice type: for invoices from the e-invoice service platform the instructions give the total with tax, not the amount excluding VAT (instructions). XML verification sits on the same three limits, and the page names the 12366 hotline (platform).

A holder may also ask the tax authority to authenticate an invoice; it must accept the request, and can call on the authority that supervised the printing (rules, article 38).

Why a fapiao is not a commercial invoice

	Fapiao	Commercial invoice
Issued by	the Chinese seller, under tax administration rules	the seller, under the contract and the destination’s rules
Numbering	invoice code and number on paper; 20 digits in the electronic system	the seller’s own reference
Seal	national supervisory seal plus the issuer’s invoice seal on paper	company letterhead and signature is enough
Language	Chinese is required	English, or the destination’s language
Verified by	the tax platform, free, for five years back	no tax platform; the buyer or customs checks the papers and the money
Role in a shipment	none at the border	the declaration document at customs

The last row decides disputes. When goods are declared for export, customs asks for a contract, an invoice, a packing list, a loading list or manifest, a bill of lading or waybill, a broker authorisation, licence documents and anything else required, and the declarant is answerable for the truth of the declaration (GACC Order 277, published 27 March 2025, in force 1 May 2025, articles 6 and 8). That invoice is the trade document my customs clearance notes walk through field by field. A fapiao does not take its place.

The reverse is written into the same rules. Blank fapiao may not be carried, mailed or transported out of the country (Measures, article 25); the penalty is up to 10,000 yuan, rising to between 10,000 and 30,000 yuan where the circumstances are serious (article 34). A voucher obtained outside China is treated as foreign material: where the tax authority has doubts during an assessment it may require confirmation from a foreign notary or a certified public accountant before accepting it as bookkeeping evidence (Measures, article 32). A commercial invoice raised abroad therefore has to come inside that gate, and it sits outside the platform, which covers invoices from the e-invoice service platform or the VAT invoice management system (platform rules page).

How I checked this

Everything above was fetched on 12 October 2026. The two regulations came from the tax administration’s own legal database: the Measures at their third revision, and the implementation rules at their fourth amendment. Older copies circulate with article numbers that no longer line up, so I used the amended text and its numbering.

The 2024 announcements came from the State Council gazette and the tax administration’s legal database; the platform’s pages needed a browser, and its fields were read off those pages. I did not log in anywhere, issue any invoice, or test a real one.

What I could not check

Where the platform’s three limits are written. The same-day rule, the five checks a day and the five-year scope appear on the platform’s own pages and on the XML page; the 2016 announcement covers the platform without them.
The construction of the invoice code. Article 5 of the Measures delegates coding rules to the tax administration. I did not find a current published coding rule, so no structure for the paper code is given above.
How the 2006 rules sit under the new regulation. The August 2026 clearance list does not name them, and article 37 of the implementation regulation states its own exclusions; I found no single page saying which governs a given sale.
A functional definition of the ordinary invoice. The rules define the special invoice and list what cannot be issued as one. I found no article that defines the ordinary invoice the same way; the implementation regulation imposes the duty without defining it.
The specimens. The template attachments to announcements 2024 No. 11, No. 8 and No. 9 are downloads I did not open, so no layout is described.
Invoices a visitor buys through an overseas channel. No page I found states which fapiao, if any, a traveller receives when a hotel room, flight or tour is booked and paid outside the mainland system.
Rates and deductibility. Nothing here states a VAT rate, and I did not check what may be credited.