The major duties of the Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau are:

1. To implement the guidelines and policies, and enforce laws, rules and regulations related to finance and taxation; to study and draw up the drafts of relevant local rules and regulations on financial and tax affairs and formulate relevant policies in the light of the actual circumstances in this Municipality, and organize the implementation of relevant rules, regulations and policies.

2. According to the strategy of developing social economy in the nation and this Municipality, to study and formulate the strategy and mid- and long-term planning for development of finance and taxation in this Municipality; to improve gradually the comprehensive budgets administration system including governmental public budget, state-owned capital budgets, social security budgets and others budgets; to draw up the draft of annual financial budgets and final accounts; to report to the Municipal Congress on the execution situation of the financial budgets for the previous year and the draft of the financial budgets for the current year on behalf of the Municipal Government, and to report to the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on the draft of the final accounts; to administrate all financial revenue, financial funds and financial special accounts, and to make all financial comprehensive budgets, and organize the implementation of such budgets; to study, draw up and execute the policies on the distribution of financial revenue, and to formulate and apply the financial and taxation policies to adjust the economic operation, and to balance the comprehensive financial power of the government.

3. To formulate this Municipality’s taxation development planning and annual work plans according to this Municipality’s taxation economic sources, arrangements for budget revenue and the taxation planning assigned by the State Administration of Taxation, and to organize the implementation of such planning and plans; to forecast and analyze the taxation information, and to grasp the taxation trends; to strengthen the check-up on tax revenue, and to make publicity on the law of taxation, and to improve the enforcement environment of taxation.

4. To participate in drawing up the macro-economic policies in this Municipality, and formulating the policies, measures and reform plans for industries, investment in capital construction, labor and salaries, prices, economy and trade, specified credit guarantee, foreign exchange, technology, education, housing and social security; to formulate the financial management systems of social insurance funds and social security undertakings, and to be responsible for administrating the municipal-level special financial accounts of all social security funds and to strengthen the supervision on their use; to apply the economic leverage of finance, taxation and subsidization to actively support the implementation of all measures of reform, development and stability in this Municipality.

5. To implement the financial administrative system of tax distribution practised by the central government on this Municipality, and to standardize the relationship of financial distribution between the Municipal Government and the district or county people’s governments; to organize the implementation of the General Rules on Enterprise Finance and the financial and accounting system of different trades, and to regulate the relationship of financial distribution between governments and enterprises; to be responsible for administrating the distribution of lottery tickets, examining and approving the items of institutional charges, and to administrate unitarily the payments instruments for institutional charges, fines and confiscations, and governmental funds.

6. To administrate and supervise the expenditure borne by the Municipal finance on economic construction, education, science and culture, agriculture, administration and political-legal work, social security, etc; to administrate the non-trade foreign exchange earnings of state administrative organs, institutions and social organizations within the financial budgets, and to administrate international receipts and payments within the financial budgets; to be responsible for the financial supervision and administration of the loans extended to this Municipality by foreign governments, the World Bank and other international financial institutions and related projects; to study and implement the policies on governmental procurement, and to organize the implementation of the“Regulation on Administrative Organs’Finance”, the“Regulation on Institutions’Finance”and the financial system for capital construction .

7. To administrate and direct the accounting work; to organize the implementation of the Norm of Enterprise Accounting and the accounting system of different trades; to organize the examination, assessment and authentication of the professional qualification for accountants and the technical qualification for accounting profession, and the training of accountants; to guarantee the accountants to exercise the duties and powers in accordance with law, and to investigate and deal with cases of accountants violating financial disciplines; to organize the implementation of the system of appointing accountants, and to appoint, jointly with relevant departments, financial treasurers for those units using state-owned funds on a selective basis, and to administrate and direct the post-holding qualifications of financial treasurers; to direct and supervise the work of certified public accountants, accountant offices and the association of certified public accountants.

8. To be responsible for administrating the routine levy of taxes, and to handle tax registration of all kinds of tax payers; to be responsible for routine taxation check and deal with the breach of rules and regulations; to be responsible for administrating all kinds of fiscal stamps and certificates; to direct and supervise the work of taxation agencies and the association of tax collectors.

9. To be responsible for levying taxes on foreign-funded enterprises, foreign enterprises and foreigners; to implement the state policy on foreign-related taxation and to implement the taxation agreements reached between China and other countries.

10. To be responsible for the planning and development of modernized administration of finance and taxation.

11. To be responsible for the administrative law-enforcement inspection of taxation organs, the acceptance and handling of administrative reconsideration cases and the response to administrative actions.

12. To undertake other matters assigned by the Municipal Government.