A taxation official (left) explains tax regulations to a merchant in Huaian, Jiangsu province. ZHAO QIRUI/FOR CHINA DAILY
China's market entities continued to demonstrate improving tax and social security payment credit performance in 2026, with the number of creditworthy businesses steadily increasing and more companies actively repairing their credit records, said the State Taxation Administration.
With 54.67 million market entities evaluated so far this year — up 4.9 million from 2025 — the results showed that 47.11 million businesses were classified as creditworthy, an increase of 8.6 percent year-on-year. Among them, about 7.88 million received the highest "A-level" credit rating, accounting for 14.4 percent of all evaluated entities.
"This year's evaluation data show that the overall tax and social security payment credit conditions of market entities have continued to improve at a steady pace," said Fan Yong, dean of the school of public finance and taxation at Central University of Finance and Economics.
"The progress demonstrates that the overall compliance awareness is strengthening, while the positive incentives and disciplinary effects of the credit evaluation system are becoming increasingly evident. This has helped optimize the business environment and supported the standardized and healthy development of the market economy," Fan said.
