Taxation is closely linked to the economy and society, making tax big data a crucial window for observing economic and social development. On July 28, at a State Council Information Office press conference themed "A Strong Start to the 15th Five-Year Plan," the Director of the State Taxation Administration, Hu Jinglin, analyzed the operational highlights of the economy in the first half of 2025 from the perspective of tax big data.
Market entities are the basic units of economic operation, and their activity level is a key indicator of economic vitality. Hu Jinglin noted that in the first half of this year, the number of active market entities handling tax matters and operating normally nationwide increased by 20.2% year-on-year, while the number of tax-paying registrations rose by 10%.
Tax big data shows that the upgrading of the domestic industrial structure towards higher-end sectors has accelerated in the first half of this year. Sales revenue from high-tech industries and core digital economy industries grew by 15% and 8.7% year-on-year, respectively, with their shares of total corporate sales revenue increasing by 1.7 and 1.1 percentage points year-on-year. Corporate profits in high-tech manufacturing and digital product services surged by 29.2% and 64.4% year-on-year, respectively. During the same period, the foreign-related economy maintained strong resilience. The number of foreign-funded tax-paying entities increased by 10.9% year-on-year, total declared profits of foreign-invested enterprises grew by 4.5% year-on-year, and tax authorities processed export tax rebates for enterprises, which increased by 7.7% year-on-year.
Leveraging tax big data, Hu Jinglin summarized four prominent characteristics of China's economic operation: moving towards reality, moving towards innovation, moving towards optimization, and moving towards green.
Moving Towards Reality
The foundation of China's economy is solidifying. Tax big data reveals that the share of industry, particularly manufacturing, which forms the bedrock of the real economy, has steadily increased. In the first half of the year, sales revenue from industrial enterprises grew by 7.1% year-on-year, with manufacturing revenue increasing by 7.3%. Industrial enterprises' sales revenue accounted for 36% of total corporate sales revenue, up 2.2 percentage points from the same period last year. The total investment in equipment by industrial enterprises grew by 9.8% year-on-year.
Moving Towards Innovation
New quality productive forces are developing strongly. In the first half of this year, sales revenue from three sectors closely tied to it—equipment manufacturing, information transmission, software and IT services, and technology services—accounted for 23.5% of total corporate sales revenue, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from the previous year, showing a rapid upward trend.
Moving Towards Optimization
Value indicators reflecting efficiency have improved and optimized. In the first half of the year, reported profits of the nation's top 1 million tax-paying enterprises grew by 12.8% year-on-year, indicating continuous improvement in corporate profitability. Driven by the positive development of key industries, the total amount of declared salary income for individual income tax increased by 5% year-on-year.
Moving Towards Green
Green development is accelerating. In the first half of the year, sales revenue from the ecological protection and environmental management sector grew by 6.9% year-on-year. Sales revenue from clean energy power generation, represented by wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power, increased by 17.1% year-on-year, accounting for 38.8% of total power production sales revenue, up 3.8 percentage points from the prior year. Sales revenue from the new energy vehicle and lithium battery manufacturing sectors grew by 13.1% and 38.9% year-on-year, respectively, showing a continuous improvement in the application of new energy.
"These figures highlight some of the bright spots in China's high-quality development since the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan," Hu Jinglin stated. He added that as the foundation for sustained and stable economic growth continues to strengthen, China's economy is well-positioned to achieve both effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth.
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