Beijing's Local Taxation Bureau has announced that China's first online tax payment system, enabling businesses and individuals to pay taxes via the Internet, has been launched on a test run.

The new system links taxation bureaus, fiscal departments and banks together, consisting of subsystems of electronic declaration, electronic payment and electronic management.

Wang Jiping, director of the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau reported that "Taxpayers can submit tax forms and documents via the Internet and thus spare themselves the trouble of going to taxation offices personally. This also saves staff workers at taxation counters from repetitive work and raises efficiency."

Taxation institutions that have first introduced the online taxpayment system include the Haidian Branch, Chong Wen Branch, West Railway Station Branch and Foreigners' Service Branch of the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau, as well as the Beijing branches of China Merchants Bank.