Listed pharma tax top-up wave & Golden Tax Phase IV: 446M forces historical cleanup of hidden risks
After the market close on June 26, BeiGene (688235.SH) announced that a domestic wholly-owned subsidiary recently received a notice from the local tax authority. The company agreed to make certain adjustments to previously filed tax returns and will pay back taxes and late fees totaling approximately 446 million yuan, about 30% of its 2025 net profit.
According to BeiGene’s 2025 annual report, the company achieved operating revenue of 38.225 billion yuan, up 40.46% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.461 billion yuan, turning from a loss of 4.978 billion yuan; net profit excluding non-recurring items was 1.420 billion yuan, turning from a loss of 5.379 billion yuan.
BeiGene stated that it received notification from the local tax authority regarding certain tax matters, making adjustments to previously filed tax returns. The company had full communication with the tax authority on the technical determination of related tax matters and differences in tax-accounting treatment, and will complete the payment. This matter does not involve administrative penalties; based on accounting standards, the matter does not constitute a prior-period accounting error and does not require retrospective restatement of prior financial data.
The company expects the matter to be included in 2026 current profit or loss, with the specific impact subject to audited financial statements, and stated that it is not expected to have a material adverse impact on the company’s financial condition, going concern, or normal operations.
Multiple pharma companies disclose large tax top-ups this year
In addition to BeiGene, multiple pharma companies have also announced tax top-ups this year. On May 20, Aier Eye Hospital (300015.SZ) announced that after conducting a self-inspection of tax matters, it confirmed the need to pay back taxes of 348 million yuan and late fees of 176 million yuan, totaling 524 million yuan.
On January 1, China Medicine (600056.SH) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiaries Sanyang Pharmaceutical and Kangli Pharmaceutical received tax notices requiring a total of about 65.2178 million yuan in back taxes and late fees. Among them, Sanyang Pharmaceutical paid 21.4862 million yuan in taxes and 10.7429 million yuan in late fees; Kangli Pharmaceutical paid 21.2826 million yuan in taxes and 11.7061 million yuan in late fees.
In addition, JiaShiTang (002462.SZ), Blue Sail Medical (002382.SZ), and Chongqing Pharmaceutical (000950.SZ) also announced tax top-ups.
Behind the tax top-up wave: Golden Tax Phase IV enhanced supervision and historical compliance risks exposed
According to incomplete statistics from Wind, as of June 25, at least 80 listed companies had disclosed tax top-up or tax adjustment announcements this year, approaching the total of 89 for the full year 2025; the cumulative back taxes, late fees, and penalties exceeded 6 billion yuan.
Gui Xin, senior partner at Tahota Law Firm (Shanghai), told Blue Whale News that the recent tax top-ups by listed pharma companies like BeiGene and Aier Eye Hospital after annual reports are essentially a concentrated exposure of historical compliance issues under Golden Tax Phase IV’s stronger supervision. These include the application of tax incentives (e.g., high-tech status, R&D super deduction), differences between tax and accounting treatment, and related-party transactions in the pharma industry with high R&D investment and diverse business models.
He believes that tax top-ups typically occur after annual reports. Enterprises proactively conduct tax self-checks after final settlement and audits, which is a compliance choice to avoid inspection penalties, and also reflects the difference between audit focusing on financial truthfulness and tax focusing on tax law application. Most tax top-ups are due to policy caliber adjustments rather than financial fraud, representing a normal “de-mining” and self-correction in capital market tax compliance.
Gui further stated that the frequent occurrence of huge tax top-ups this year, far exceeding previous years, is mainly due to the full implementation of Golden Tax Phase IV, which enables multi-department data penetration, combined with stricter supervision of tax incentives and the implementation of the Value-Added Tax Law. This forces enterprises to conduct centralized cleanup of historical tax risks over the past five or even ten years. Listed companies may also proactively “de-mine” and announce after annual report audits and final settlements to avoid high fines and disclosure risks, causing historical stock issues to erupt centrally in 2026.
Is this tax top-up wave a one-off or a normal ongoing impact?
Regarding whether this wave of tax top-ups is only for this year or will become a normal impact, Gui believes that this round of huge tax top-ups is not limited to 2026. The logic can be divided into two layers: the large tax top-ups clustered in 2026 are mainly a one-time centralized cleanup of multi-year historical stock risks (typically checking back 3-5 years); as proactive self-checks advance, huge retroactive tax top-ups will gradually decrease in the next 1-2 years.
However, normalized tax adjustments will exist long-term. Golden Tax Phase IV’s “data-based tax governance” is a permanent infrastructure, and stricter supervision of tax incentives (high-tech annual review, real-time review of R&D super deduction) will become normal. In the future, enterprises may still face tax top-ups due to refined policy calibers and related-party transaction pricing adjustments during annual final settlements, but the amounts will return to regular levels, with no more centralized “sky-high old account” settlements. Tax compliance will shift from occasional events to a rigid daily operating cost for enterprises.
