Key Highlights
- 1 while exempting childcare services from the same tax, a move authorities say is part of a broader effort to boost births as the country faces a sustained population decline, according to the BBC and the Associated Press.
- The tax overhaul, announced late last year, removes exemptions that had been in place since 1994, when China was still enforcing its decades-long one-child policy. Alongside the new tax on contraceptives such as condoms and birth control pills, the Chinese government is exempting childcare, marriage-related services and elderly care from value-added tax (VAT), the BBC reported.
- Beijing has been pressing young people to marry and have children as it grapples with an aging population and a sluggish economy.
- Official figures show China’s population has shrunk for three consecutive years, with about 9.54 million babies born in 2024.
- WHY GEN Z DOESN'T WANT TO HAVE KIDS A caregiver carries a baby in a woven basket in China, as the government rolls out new tax and social policies aimed at encouraging families to have more children amid a population decline.
