Research Report on the Practice of Tax Administrative Reconsideration (2026)

Foreword

The administrative reconsideration system is an important support of China's administrative rule of law system. It is not only the core mechanism to resolve administrative disputes, but also the legal way for administrative organs to correct themselves. It is also the key institutional link to promote the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity. The new Administrative Reconsideration Law, which came into effect on January 1st, 2024, for the first time included "giving full play to the role of administrative reconsideration as the main channel to resolve administrative disputes", which provided a solid institutional support for the functional orientation and practice of administrative reconsideration. According to the data in the White Paper on Administrative Reconsideration (2024) published by the Ministry of Justice, in 2024, administrative reconsideration organs at all levels in China received 749,600 new administrative reconsideration cases, up by 94.7% year-on-year, which was 2.5 times that of administrative cases in the first instance of the court in the same period, which fully reflected the continuous consolidation of the position of administrative reconsideration as the main channel in resolving administrative disputes.

In the field of taxation, the subjects of tax legal relationship include tax subjects (this report focuses on tax authorities) and tax subjects (that is, enterprises, individuals, other organizations, etc.). If a taxpayer thinks that a specific administrative act of a tax authority infringes on his legitimate rights and interests, he can apply to the reconsideration organ for reconsideration, and define the legality and appropriateness of a specific tax-related administrative act by collecting a third party other than both parties. Laws, regulations and departmental rules such as the Administrative Reconsideration Law, the Law on the Administration of Tax Collection and the Rules for Tax Administrative Reconsideration clearly stipulate the core contents of tax administrative reconsideration, such as the scope of accepting cases, the subject definition of applicants and respondents, the application procedure for reconsideration, and the review process for reconsideration. However, in the practice of tax administrative reconsideration, there are still many problems that need to be clarified, such as whether interested parties have the qualifications of reconsideration applicants, how to define the confirmation period of tax guarantee in the pre-tax settlement procedure, and whether a hearing must be held in the reconsideration review stage. These problems are not only directly related to whether the applicants can exercise their reconsideration rights smoothly, but also affect whether both tax and enterprise can effectively resolve disputes through reconsideration procedures, and it is of great practical significance to properly clarify and resolve such disputes, which is of great significance for safeguarding tax collection and management and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers.

The Law on the Administration of Tax Collection (Revised Draft for Comment) promulgated in March 2025 reshaped the relief path of tax disputes, and moved the pre-tax settlement procedure to the litigation link under the rule of "first reconsideration and then litigation", that is, taxpayers can directly file a reconsideration if they are dissatisfied with the tax collection behavior of the tax authorities, and can file a lawsuit after tax clearance if they are dissatisfied with the reconsideration results. The revision of this rule has released a clear signal to strengthen the role of the main channel for resolving administrative reconsideration disputes in the tax field. In practice, taxpayers should accurately understand and grasp the main points of tax administrative reconsideration procedures, and can choose to better safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through reconsideration procedures when tax-related disputes occur.

Huashui has long been focusing on tax-related dispute resolution services and has rich experience in representing tax administrative reconsideration cases. Based on the understanding of the relevant provisions of administrative reconsideration, the in-depth study of controversial issues and the experience of case agency, Huashui wrote this report, systematically analyzing the tax administrative reconsideration procedures, focusing on the main controversial issues in practice, and analyzing them with cases, with a view to providing useful reference for the settlement of tax disputes.