Beijing maternity leave and paternity leave policy change
The Beijing Municipal Regulations on Population and Family Planning regulation have made changes to the maternity leave and paternity leave days effective January 1, 2022: A couple can have three children.
- In addition to the basic maternity leave (The basic maternity leave is granted by the State Council as stipulated in the Special Provisions on Labor Protection for Female Employees (State Council Decree No. 619), which is 98 days for normal birth), local Beijing Municipal government has granted an additional 60 days to bring the total maternity leave to 158 days.
- Paternity leave is increased from 3 days to 15 days
- The regulations also provide room for further improvement of the preferential treatment policy for women’s birth support, stipulating that the woman can apply for adding another 1 to 3 months of leave with the consent of her employer.
- In addition, the Regulation grants paid childcare leave to first time parents. Couples who give birth in accordance with laws and regulations are each entitled to five days’ childcare leave per year until their child reaches the age of three.
- Employees who take the above leaves should have the same salary treatments.
Shanghai has the same policy and regulations except that the paternity leave in Shanghai is 10 days. Here is a table prepared to compare the first-tier cities maternity/paternity and childcare leave policies:
| Cities | Basic maternity granted by the central government | Extra maternity granted by local government | Paternity leave | Childcare leave before children reaches to 3 years old |
| Beijing | 98 days | 60 days | 15 days | 5 days every year for father and mother respectively |
| Shanghai | 98 days | 60 days | 10 days | 5 days every year for father and mother respectively |
| Shenzhen | 98 days | 80 days | 15 days | 10 days every year for father and mother respectively |
| Guangzhou | 98 days | 80 days | 15 days | 10 days every year for father and mother respectively |
The extra maternity leave/paternity leave as well as the childcare leave is to incentivize birth giving. Moreover, the additiona maternity leave is only granted to those who gave birth to children in accordance with the family planning policy and related regulations.
An overlooked deductible-tax item in annual IIT filings-health insurance product
- The premiums paid for qualified commercial health insurance products is allowed to claim up to CNY2400 per annum as IIT deductions.
- Policy reference: The Ministry of Finance (MoF), the State Administration of Taxation (SAT), and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) in the People’s Republic of China jointly issued Cai Shui [2017] No. 39 (Notice No. 39).1 Notice No. 39 builds on the pilot program which allows for the preferential tax treatment of qualified commercial health insurance products in pilot cities come true from 1 July 2017
- This deductible item is always being neglected as a valid tax relief on both employer and employee sides when managing their annual IIT reporting.
- Five batches of insurance companies identified by the China Banking and Insurances Regulatory committee are permitted to sell qualified commercial insurance. Any qualified insurance product will be entitled to a special tax code for IIT deduction purposes. The products categories can be found from 政务信息_中国银保监会 (cbirc.gov.cn)