China

China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center: receives large-value and suspicious transaction reports from precious-metals institutions (PM AML Measures arts. 24-25) and financial institutions

Clears gold imports/exports against the PBoC permit (Customs Law art. 24: licences must be presented; restricted goods without them are not released); supervises processing trade, special customs supervision areas, bonded sites and the SGE International Board vaults

Website

http://www.customs.gov.cn

Grant and registration of exploration and mining rights; mining permits; reserve reports; ecological restoration

Tax policy on gold (jointly with SAT); with MNR and SAT sets the collection of mining-right transfer income (Caizong [2023] 10)

Gold market supervisor; issues gold import/export qualifications and the per-batch Gold and Gold Products Import/Export Permit; supervises the Shanghai Gold Exchange; AML/CFT supervisor of financial institutions and specific non-financial institutions; holds the national gold reserve

Website

http://www.pbc.gov.cn

Foreign-exchange administration (FX Regulations 2008: current-account receipts and payments need a genuine, lawful transaction basis, art. 12); applies to gold import/export payments (Import/Export Measures art. 23); publishes official reserve assets including gold

Website

https://www.safe.gov.cn

Collects resource tax, VAT, consumption tax and mining-right transfer income; administers VAT on exchange gold (SAT Announcement 2025 No. 23)

Website

https://www.chinatax.gov.cn

Exchange established in October 2002 by the PBoC with State Council approval and supervised by the PBoC (PBoC Yinfa [2011] 93: charter, trading rules and products need PBoC approval; accreditation of standard-bar refiners, admission of members and new vaults are filed with the PBoC, art. 5); central counterparty; membership, trading, clearing, delivery, designated vaults, accreditation of standard-bar refiners. SGEI (Shanghai Gold Exchange International, September 2014) is its wholly owned subsidiary in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone that runs the International Board

Website

https://www.sge.com.cn

Art. 64(3): dealers in precious metals and gemstones in spot trading above a prescribed amount are specific non-financial institutions; art. 6 their duties; CDD (art. 29, applied to them by art. 42); records at least 10 years (art. 34); large-value and suspicious transaction reports (art. 35); special preventive measures on listed persons (art. 40); penalties for specific non-financial institutions (art. 58). In force 1 Jan 2025 (art. 65).

Citation

中华人民共和国反洗钱法

Kind

Act

In force from

2025-01-01

Point 1: VAT exemption for gold producers' and dealers' sales of non-standard gold and gold ore (incl. associated gold), and import-stage VAT exemption for gold (incl. standard gold) and gold ore. Points 2, 4, 5 repealed from 1 Nov 2025 (2025 No. 11). Point 3 (no export rebate on gold; jewellery rebate on processing value only) is marked invalid on the SAT network copy; its jewellery clause was repealed by Guoshuifa [2005] 125 (itself repealed 1 Jul 2012). From 1 Jan 2026 the domestic part of point 1 no longer applies as such (MOF/SAT 2026 No. 10 art. 6) and is re-enacted as 2026 No. 10 二(二)24 until 31 Dec 2027; whether the import-stage exemption continues is not confirmed (cn.gap-import-vat-2026).

Citation

财税〔2002〕142号

Kind

Circular

Gold, silver and platinum jewellery and diamonds: 5% (rate table item 4.1); for gold and silver jewellery the tax is levied at retail, on sales excluding VAT, paid by the retailer (Caishui [1994] 95 points 1-4 and 7).

Citation

中华人民共和国消费税暂行条例; 财税字［1994］95号

Kind

Regulation

In force from

2009-01-01

Licensing of listed dual-use, military and nuclear items (arts. 2, 12); end-user controls and control list (arts. 15-18). Unwrought gold is not shown as a controlled item in the texts held.

Citation

中华人民共和国出口管制法

Kind

Act

In force from

2020-12-01

Exports of goods containing gold or platinum, and diamonds and diamond jewellery, are VAT-exempt without refund (art. 6(1)1(4)); annex 8 lists the codes, incl. unwrought gold 71081100, 71081200, 71081300 and monetary gold 71082000. Repeals Caishui [2012] 39 and [2014] 98 (art. 10).

Citation

财政部 税务总局公告2026年第11号

Kind

Circular

In force from

2026-01-01

PBoC as the competent authority for gold and silver (art. 4); unified purchase: mined and recovered gold to be sold to the PBoC (arts. 3, 5, 8-12); gold coins minted and issued only by the PBoC (art. 21); carrying gold into China unlimited but declared to Customs (art. 25), out of China against a PBoC certificate or the entry declaration (art. 26).

Citation

中华人民共和国金银管理条例

Kind

Regulation

In force from

1983-06-15

Permit system (Art. 3); scope (Art. 4); reserve gold by PBoC (Art. 5); SGE registration and first trade (Art. 6); qualification conditions (Arts. 8-9); application materials (Arts. 10-11); one permit per batch, 40 working days (Art. 17); reporting (Art. 19); exemptions (Art. 20); no other channel (Art. 21); AML (Art. 22); FX (Art. 23). The 2020 amendment (in force 16 Apr 2020) rewrote art. 10(1)(7) (banks: internal gold risk-control materials; proof of physical stock at the exchange for export applicants dropped) and art. 10(1)(8) (industry capacity certificate for mining exporters dropped; exchange registration certificate kept).

Citation

黄金及黄金制品进出口管理办法

Kind

Regulation

In force from

2015-04-01

PBoC supervises SGE (art. 2); charter, products and trading rules need PBoC approval (art. 4); accreditation of standard gold ingot and bar refiners, member admission and new vaults are filed with the PBoC (art. 5); one account one code (art. 6).

Citation

上海黄金交易所业务监督管理规则

Kind

Regulation

In force from

2011-04-11

Scope: dealers in precious-metal and gemstone spot trading; the duties apply to cash transactions of RMB 100,000 or more (art. 2); risk assessment at least every 3 years (art. 14); CDD on cash of RMB 100,000 single or daily cumulative, on suspicion, or on doubtful ID data (art. 15), incl. beneficial owners of legal persons (art. 16(2)); enhanced CDD for high-risk countries and PEPs (arts. 19-20); large-value cash report to CAMLMAC within 5 working days (art. 24); suspicious report regardless of amount (art. 25); records 10 years (art. 26); special preventive measures (art. 27); financial institutions doing precious-metal spot business follow the rules for financial institutions (art. 38). Precious metals include gold, silver, platinum and their coins, standard bars, products, intermediate products and refined raw material (art. 34).

Citation

贵金属和宝石从业机构反洗钱和反恐怖融资管理办法

Kind

Regulation

In force from

2025-08-01

Gold: raw ore or concentrate, 2%-6% ad valorem; provinces fix the rate within the range (Art. 2); ad valorem base (Art. 3); returns within 15 days of month/quarter end (Art. 12)

Citation

中华人民共和国资源税法

Kind

Act

In force from

2020-09-01

Invoices on exchange gold: special invoice labelled 会员单位投资性黄金 for members' investment-use withdrawals, input VAT deductible by the member (point 2); ordinary invoices labelled 会员单位非投资性黄金 or 客户标准黄金 (points 3-4); use declared on the delivery-out slip before withdrawal; members keep proof of use and a gold purchase and sales ledger (point 8).

Citation

国家税务总局公告2025年第23号

Kind

Circular

In force from

2025-11-01

Bar specifications and accredited-refiner rule (Art. 11); load-in documents (Art. 30); weight tolerance (Arts. 31, 45); load-out (Arts. 37, 43); IB vault withdrawals must report the destination to SGE and Customs (Art. 42); Annex 2: LBMA-accredited Good Delivery refiners may apply for IB load-in authorisation. Fee annex superseded by the January 2026 schedule.

Kind

Rulebook

International members are registered abroad, in HK/Macao/Taiwan or in the Shanghai FTZ (SGEI art. 4); AML/KYC on clients (arts. 6-7); settlement through margin custodian bank accounts (arts. 20-21); IB vaults under Customs supervision (art. 28). Entry into IB vaults: invoice (incl. origin), packing list, bar list, non-wood packaging declaration (guidelines art. 9); import into China from IB vaults only by members or clients with gold import/export qualification, presenting the PBoC permit (copy 1, for customs) and obtaining the customs import declaration (arts. 10-12); re-export: invoice and SGE withdrawal papers (art. 19).

Citation

上海国际黄金交易中心业务管理办法; 上海黄金交易所国际板指定仓库出入库及出入境业务操作指引

Kind

Rulebook

Domestic: SGE member or member-controlled, 5 years established, 3 years refining, capital and net assets RMB 50m, 10 t/yr gold refined, quality deposit RMB 300,000, certificate valid 5 years, buy-back and toll-refining records 10 years (arts. 7, 13, 14, 33). Overseas: 5 years refining, 10 t/yr, RMB 50m; LBMA current Good Delivery suppliers skip the on-site review (sample test only) and the RMB 300,000 deposit; refiners found sourcing from conflict or high-risk areas lose accreditation (overseas arts. 3, 6, 19, 23).

Citation

上海黄金交易所认定精炼企业管理办法; 可提供标准金锭企业及其金锭品级资格注册认定准则（海外试行版）

Kind

Rulebook

In force from

2025-07-10

Gold, silver and platinum-group metals are on the rate list: transfer income = transaction price at grant + annual 2.3% of concentrate (选矿产品) sales revenue excluding VAT (arts. 8-9, list item 12); annual amount declared to the tax authority by the end of February of the next year (art. 24); late-payment surcharge 0.2% a day (art. 33); shared 4:6 central/local (art. 4).

Citation

矿业权出让收益征收办法

Kind

Regulation

In force from

2023-05-01

VAT on standard gold traded on SGE / SHFE: seller exempt; no physical delivery: exchange exempt; delivery out of the vault for investment use by a member: VAT levied and immediately refunded to the exchange, surcharges exempt, special invoice to the member; non-investment use or client purchase: exchange exempt, ordinary invoice, general-taxpayer buyer deducts input at 6%; off-exchange sales of standard gold pay VAT normally; one change of declared use within 6 months (points 1-8). In force 1 Nov 2025 to 31 Dec 2027 (point 13), continued after the VAT Law by MOF/SAT 2026 No. 10 (五(五)17). Repeals points 2, 4, 5 of Caishui [2002] 142 and Caishui [2008] 5.

Citation

财政部 税务总局公告2025年第11号 关于黄金有关税收政策的公告

Kind

Circular

In force from

2025-11-01

Standard rate 13% on sales and imports of goods (art. 10(1)); the statutory exemptions (art. 24) do not include gold; the State Council may set special preferences (art. 25); import VAT is collected by Customs.

Citation

中华人民共和国增值税法

Kind

Act

In force from

2026-01-01

Re-enacts from 1 Jan 2026 to 31 Dec 2027 the exemption for gold producers' and dealers' sales of non-standard gold and gold ore (二(二)24); continues 2025 No. 11 to 31 Dec 2027 (五(五)17); trade-in value of old gold jewellery deductible (四(十)); all other domestic-stage VAT preferences in documents issued before 31 Dec 2025 cease from 1 Jan 2026 (art. 6).

Citation

财政部 税务总局公告2026年第10号

Kind

Circular

In force from

2026-01-01

Countermeasure list (arts. 4-6); organisations and persons in China must implement countermeasures (art. 11) and must not implement or assist foreign discriminatory measures against Chinese citizens or organisations (art. 12).

Citation

中华人民共和国反外国制裁法

Kind

Act

In force from

2021-06-10

Goods must be declared truthfully with import/export licences; restricted goods without licences are not released (art. 24); special customs supervision areas (art. 34); smuggling (art. 82).

Citation

中华人民共和国海关法

Kind

Act

Operators are registered market entities (art. 11); state trading for listed goods (art. 13); free trade in goods unless restricted (art. 16); import/export bans, quotas and licences (arts. 18-21); list of foreign persons barred from trade with China, with customs and FX consequences (arts. 40, 76-77).

Citation

中华人民共和国对外贸易法

Kind

Act

In force from

2026-03-01

No restriction on current international payments (art. 5); receipts may be repatriated or held abroad under SAFE conditions (art. 9); current-account receipts and payments need a genuine, lawful transaction basis checked by banks (art. 12); receipts may be kept or sold (art. 13); payments against valid documents (art. 14); penalties for evasion (art. 39).

Citation

中华人民共和国外汇管理条例

Kind

Regulation

In force from

2008-08-05

Transition: existing rights and certificates unchanged; competitive grant is the rule

Kind

Circular

Replaced by the comprehensive 2024 revision from 1 Jul 2025; existing rights and certificates continue ('权利不变动，证书不更换')

Kind

Act

Repealed on

2025-07-01

State ownership (Art. 4); paid acquisition of mineral rights (Art. 16); competitive grant (Art. 17); grant contract (Art. 20); transfer income (Art. 21); registration and certificate (Art. 22); holder's right to the extracted products (Art. 23); terms (Art. 24); permits before extraction (Art. 33); resource tax (Art. 6); penalties for mining without a right (Art. 64). Implemented by the 2026 Regulations (cn.law-mrl-regs-2026).

Citation

中华人民共和国矿产资源法 (2024修订), 8 chapters, 80 articles

Kind

Act

In force from

2025-07-01

Competitive grant, agreement grant only in listed cases (art. 8); grant announcement at least 30 working days (art. 12); transfer income and occupancy fees (art. 14); terms (art. 15); exploration/mining permit decided within 15 working days (art. 29); reserve reports to the original grant department (art. 43) and periodic reserve and utilisation reports (art. 44); closure reports (art. 45); import and export follow foreign-trade and export-control law (art. 75); permits issued before 1 Jul 2025 remain valid (art. 78); repeals the 1994 Implementing Rules and the old registration and transfer measures (art. 79).

Citation

中华人民共和国矿产资源法实施条例

Kind

Regulation

In force from

2026-06-15

Member classes (Art. 3); special members: registered capital and net assets of at least RMB 100m and three years of profits (Art. 6); ordinary members: at least RMB 150m and one year on SGE (Art. 7); membership fee RMB 2.8m (Art. 14); proprietary and agency seats, agency seats for institutional or individual clients (Art. 29); agency business needs net assets of RMB 200m (Art. 41); KYC incl. beneficial owners (Art. 42); source of client funds and metal (Art. 46); AML (Art. 55); records at least 15 years (Art. 59); major-event reports within 20 working days (Art. 64)

Kind

Rulebook

Only bars from SGE-accredited refiners or recognised international accreditation may be deposited (Art. 4); load-in (Art. 12); load-out (Art. 18)

Kind

Rulebook

PBoC approval; thereafter per-batch permits

Held by

Bank holding PBoC gold import/export qualification (SGE financial member or market maker)

Issued by

People's Bank of China (head office)

Held by

Mining-right holder (industrial gold miner)

Issued by

People's Bank of China

Held by

SGE institutional client (e.g. jewellery manufacturer) trading through a member

Issued by

Application to a PBoC branch at prefecture level or above; decided by the PBoC Shanghai Head Office, branches, operations office, provincial-capital central sub-branches or the Shenzhen central sub-branch (art. 7)

Accredited-refiner certificate; right to mark bars with the SGE logo; registered brand (art. 12); listing on the SGE refiner lists

Held by

SGE-accredited refiner (standard gold ingot / bar refiner)

Issued by

Shanghai Gold Exchange

Valid for

Domestic certificate 5 years, renewal review 3 months before expiry (art. 14)

Held by

SGE comprehensive member (producer, processor, jeweller or trader)

Issued by

Self-established; supervised by PBoC

Held by

Mining-right holder (industrial gold miner)

Issued by

Environmental protection authority

Held by

SGE institutional client (e.g. jewellery manufacturer) trading through a member

Issued by

Commerce authority

International member status; FT (free trade) account in offshore RMB

Held by

SGE international member or international client (SGEI, Shanghai FTZ)

Issued by

SGE / SGEI; FT account at a margin custodian bank

Mining permit

Held by

Mining-right holder (industrial gold miner)

Issued by

Natural resources authority

Grant contract; mining-right certificate

Held by

Mining-right holder (industrial gold miner)

Issued by

Natural resources authority (grant department)

Valid for

Up to 30 years, renewable while reserves remain (Art. 24)

Membership and trading seat

Held by

SGE comprehensive member (producer, processor, jeweller or trader)

Issued by

Shanghai Gold Exchange

Gold jewellery at retail

Rate

5%

Base

Retail sales value excluding VAT

Paid by

Retailer

Goods containing gold or platinum listed in annex 8, incl. HS 71081100, 71081200, 71081300 and 71082000; diamonds and diamond jewellery

Rate

VAT-exempt (no export refund; input VAT not refunded)

Rate

No rebate on gold; for gold jewellery only the processing value added is rebated

Imported gold (incl. standard gold) and gold ore

Rate

Exempt

Standard gold not sold through SGE or SHFE

Rate

13% (standard VAT rate on goods)

ref.ms-ore, ref.ms-concentrate

Rate

2%-6% ad valorem, rate set by each province (e.g. Shandong 4.5% ore / 4.2% concentrate; Henan and Yunnan 6% / 4.5%; Hubei 6%; Zhejiang and Ningxia 3% / 2%, as of 2020)

Base

Sales value of raw ore or concentrate

Paid by

Mining-right holder

Collected by

Local tax bureau (SAT)

Rate

No physical delivery: exempt; physical delivery: the tax authority issued a special invoice at the actual price and VAT was levied and immediately refunded, with urban construction tax and education surcharges exempt (for sales through the exchange with its settlement voucher)

Member withdrawals for direct sale or processing into 99.5%+ bars, ingots or legal gold coins

Rate

VAT levied and immediately refunded to the exchange (即征即退), urban construction tax and education surcharges exempt; the exchange issues the member a special invoice (label 会员单位投资性黄金) whose VAT the member deducts; the member's onward sales carry ordinary invoices only

Standard gold (AU99.99/99.95/99.9/99.5; 50 g, 100 g, 1 kg, 3 kg, 12.5 kg) traded on the exchange

Rate

Exempt: the seller's sale to the exchange, and the exchange's sale while no physical delivery takes place; the buyer receives a settlement invoice (结算发票)

Jewellery, industrial and other non-investment uses; all client withdrawals

Rate

Exempt at the exchange (ordinary invoice); general-taxpayer buyer deducts input VAT at 6%; onward sales taxed normally with special invoices

Rate

Transaction price at grant, plus 2.3% a year of concentrate sales revenue (excl. VAT)

Base

Annual sales revenue of gold concentrate (选矿产品)

Paid by

Mining-right holder

Collected by

Tax authority (payment notice for the grant price; annual self-declaration)

Sales of gold other than standard gold, and gold ore (incl. associated gold), by gold producers and dealers

Rate

Exempt

Sales of gold other than standard gold (AU9999, AU9995, AU999, AU995 in 50 g, 100 g, 1 kg, 3 kg, 12.5 kg) and of gold ore (incl. associated gold) by gold producers and dealers

Rate

Exempt

Kind

Anti-money laundering

Threshold

Cash of RMB 100,000 single or daily cumulative (Measures arts. 2, 15, 24)

Valid from

2025-01-01

Kind

Bar standard

Kind

Other

Kind

Currency control

Kind

Import restriction

Threshold

Every batch

Valid from

2015-04-01

Kind

Cross-border declaration

Kind

Other

Kind

State monopoly

Kind

Other

Kind

Sanctions

Kind

Other

Valid from

2025-07-01

China imported large volumes in 2026; origin split (Switzerland, Hong Kong, others) not obtained.

Figures: 764 t in H1 2026 (+138% y/y); 152 t net in June; 118 t net in July 2026

PBoC gold holdings rose every month from Nov 2024 to Aug 2026 (22 months); August 2026 purchase about 20 t, the largest since Oct 2023.

Figures: 73.45 Moz (Jan 2025), 74.15 Moz (Dec 2025), 76.73 Moz (Aug 2026, about 2,387 t; about 9% of reserves); gold valued US$350.1bn of US$3,854.9bn total reserves at end-Aug 2026

Domestic output fell in H1 2026 during mine-safety campaigns; consumption shifted from jewellery to bars and coins after the tax change.

Figures: H1 2026: domestic-ore gold 152.908 t (-14.62%), imported-ore gold 77.080 t, total 229.988 t; consumption 511.412 t (jewellery 132.133 t -33.88%; bars and coins 339.336 t +28.42%; industrial 39.943 t)

SGE activity and wholesale withdrawals.

Figures: SGE H1 2026 volume 16,100 t single-side (-4.37%), turnover RMB 16.57 trn (+36.75%); SGE withdrawals 62 t in Aug 2026 (-27% y/y); Chinese gold ETFs 293 t

[conflict] The Gold and Gold Products Import/Export Measures (art. 11(5), cn.src-impexp-govcn, unchanged by the 2020 amendment) require applicants for a gold-products permit to submit the stamped Foreign Trade Operator Filing Form (对外贸易经营者备案表). The Foreign Trade Law as revised in 2025 (in force 1 Mar 2026, cn.src-foreign-trade-law-2025) defines foreign-trade operators by business registration (art. 11) and contains no operator filing. The model keeps the requirement as written in the Measures and tags cn.cr-foreign-trade-filing; whether the PBoC still asks for the form is not confirmed.

[conflict] The Regulations on the Control of Gold and Silver (1983, revised 2011, cn.src-gold-silver-regs) still say that all mined, recovered and imported-ore gold must be sold to the PBoC (arts. 3, 5, 8-11) and that purchasing needs PBoC permission (art. 8). Later instruments assume an open market: gold is traded on the SGE by members and clients (PBoC Yinfa [2011] 93; SGE rules), qualified entities import and export under the 2015 Measures, and MOF/SAT 2026 No. 10 exempts gold producers' and dealers' sales of non-standard gold and ore. The model follows the SGE market framework as the current law in practice. The State Council decisions that removed the PBoC purchase and distribution approvals are not held (cn.gap-gold-market-reform), so which articles of the 1983 Regulations still bind is not confirmed.

[conflict] SGE's fee schedule updated January 2026 (cn.src-sge-fees-2026) lists International Board storage rates (IB gold trading-vault stock 0.6 / 0.18 / 1.8 yuan per kg per day; safekeeping 0.18) and load-in/out fees of 2 yuan/kg, while the SGE International Board page (cn.src-sge-intl-board) says storage, load-in/out, moving and other service fees for international members and clients are currently waived, subject to the latest SGE announcement. The model states both; the waiver announcement itself is not held.

Before the 2024 AML Law, FATF found dealers in precious metals outside SGE's 253 members and their institutional customers essentially unsupervised; R.22 and R.23 stayed Non-Compliant through the 2022 follow-up. The 2024 Law and the PBoC sector Measures (in force 1 Aug 2025) are recent, and the 2025 national sector assessment says small institutions' AML foundations still need strengthening.

The 2025 sector risk assessment names smuggling proceeds, telecom fraud, illegal fund-raising and corruption as predicate crimes, and gold used as an 'underground transaction medium' and swapped with virtual assets, outside the permit and SGE channel.