Precious Metals Perspective: Golden Tax Phase IV is forcing the pharma sector into a wave of huge back-tax payments
After the close on June 26, BeiGene, Ltd. (688235.SH) announced that its wholly owned domestic subsidiary had recently received a notice from the local tax authority. The company agreed to make certain adjustments to previously filed tax returns and has already confirmed the related tax matters with the authority. It will pay back taxes and late fees totaling about RMB 446 million as required, roughly 30% of its 2025 net profit.
According to BeiGene's 2025 annual report, the company generated RMB 38.225 billion in revenue in 2025, up 40.46% year on year; net profit attributable to shareholders turned from a loss of RMB 4.978 billion to a profit; and net profit excluding non-recurring items turned from a loss of RMB 5.379 billion to a profit of RMB 1.42 billion.
BeiGene said it recently received a notice from the local tax authority on related tax matters and made certain adjustments to the tax returns it had previously filed. It communicated with the authority on technical determinations and differences in tax and accounting treatment and will make payment as required. This matter does not involve administrative penalties. Based on the relevant provisions of accounting standards, the matter is not an accounting error from prior periods and does not require retrospective restatement of prior financial data.
The company also said: "It is expected to be recognized in 2026 current-period profit or loss. The exact impact on net profit will be subject to the audited financial statements. This matter is not expected to have a material adverse impact on the company's financial position, going-concern ability or normal operations."
Many listed pharma firms have disclosed significant back-tax amounts this year
On May 20, Aier Eye Hospital Group Co., Ltd. (300015.SZ) announced that after conducting a self-review of tax-related matters in accordance with laws and regulations, it confirmed that it needed to pay RMB 348 million in taxes and RMB 176 million in late fees, totaling RMB 524 million.
China National Medicines (600056.SH) announced on January 1 that its wholly owned subsidiaries Sanyao Pharmaceutical and Kangli Pharmaceutical had received tax notices and needed to pay about RMB 65.2178 million in taxes and late fees combined. Of that, Sanyao Pharmaceutical had to pay RMB 21.4862 million in taxes and RMB 10.7429 million in late fees, while Kangli Pharmaceutical had to pay RMB 21.2826 million in taxes and RMB 11.7061 million in late fees.
In addition, Jiashitang (002462.SZ), Bluestar Medical (002382.SZ) and Zhonyao Holdings (000950.SZ) also issued back-tax announcements.
Golden Tax Phase IV's data-driven tax administration is clearing historical risks in a concentrated wave
According to incomplete Wind data, as of June 25 at least 80 listed companies had disclosed announcements related to back taxes or tax adjustments this year, approaching the full-year total of 89 in 2025, with more than RMB 6 billion involved in back taxes, late fees and fines.
Gu Xin, senior partner at Taihe Tai (Shanghai) Law Firm, told Blue Whale News that the recent back-tax payments by BeiGene, Aier Eye Hospital and other pharma-listed companies after their annual reports are, in essence, the concentrated exposure of historical compliance issues in the pharma sector under the strong regulation of Golden Tax Phase IV. These issues stem from high R&D spending, diverse business models, tax incentive eligibility, tax-accounting differences and related-party transactions. Back-tax payments often occur after annual reports because companies, after completing final settlement and audits, proactively conduct tax self-inspections to avoid inspection penalties; this also reflects the natural difference between audits, which focus on financial truthfulness, and taxation, which focuses on tax-law applicability. Back-tax payments usually reflect policy interpretation adjustments rather than financial fraud.
Gu further argued that the reason huge back-tax payments have appeared so frequently this year, and in amounts far exceeding previous years, is that Golden Tax Phase IV has been fully implemented, enabling cross-departmental data penetration, while stricter oversight of tax incentives and the implementation of the Value-Added Tax Law are forcing companies to clean up historical tax risks from the past five or even ten years. Meanwhile, listed companies, to avoid heavy fines and disclosure risks, choose to proactively "defuse bombs" after annual audits and final settlements, creating what looks like a sudden wave of back-tax payments after a concentrated cleanup of huge old accounts.
Do huge back-tax payments happen only in one year? They may gradually normalize
On the question of whether this round of back-tax payments only affects this year or will become a normal pattern, Gu said the huge amounts are not limited to 2026. There are two layers to it: the large payments clustered in 2026 are mainly one-off cleanups of years of accumulated historical issues, usually looking back three to five years. As proactive self-inspections advance, this kind of huge retroactive back-tax payment should gradually decline over the next one to two years. However, normalized tax adjustments will remain for the long term. Golden Tax Phase IV's data-driven tax administration is permanent infrastructure, and stricter oversight of tax incentives is becoming the norm. In the future, annual final settlement may still trigger back taxes due to finer policy interpretation and related-party pricing adjustments, but the amounts will return to normal levels rather than producing concentrated cleanups of gigantic old bills. Tax compliance will shift from occasional "bomb defusal" to a fixed, routine cost of doing business.
