Changing China Company Registration Number and How to Find It

Before the Unified Social Credit Code (or “社会统一信用代码”) was proposed, the registration number, tax number, and some other codes of enterprises were separated.

What these codes look like before

Registration Number

In the past, the registration number could be found from the business license of a company.

Example: the following picture is an old version of a business license.

Here, ” 注册号” means registration number, and the following digits are the targeted number.

Organization Code

The organization code is a unique and unchanged code for organizations that are legally registered in China. And you can find the code from the Organization Code Certificate, just like the following picture shows:

It is an organization code certificate. And here “代码” (circled in red) means organization code and the following is the number wanted. Since October 18, 2016, the organization code has been officially discarded

Tax Registration Number

It can prove that the enterprise has paid tax according to law to the tax authorities. The tax registration number could be found through a tax registration certificate.

Example:

Here “粤” means Guangdong Province; “国” means State Administration of Taxation; “税字” equals the tax registration number. And the following digits are the tax registration number.

Statistical Registration Number

Statistical registration certificate numbers are used for reporting statistical data and are issued by statistical departments.

Example:

The picture above is a statistical registration certificate and you can find the number from it.

Here “统计登记证号码” means statistical registration number. And the following digits are the number needed.

Social Insurance Registration Number

The social insurance registration number is used to pay employee social insurance. Because in China, a legally contracted employee should be insured in accordance with the law.

Example:

It is a social insurance registration certificate and you can find the social insurance registration number after the Chinese character” 社险浙字” which means social insurance number registered in Zhejiang Province.

In the past, the above five numbers were different and issued by different departments. A Chinese company was considered legal when it had all the five certificates and numbers.

In order to improve efficiency and facilitate governmental management, in 2016, the Chinese government proposed to integrate the five certificates into one and replaced them with one number, namely the Unified Social Credit Code (or “社会统一信用代码“), which means the Unified Social Credit Code is now the registration number and taxation number of Chinese companies.

How to Find the Unified Social Credit Code

You can find the Unified Social Credit Code in a new version of the Company’s business license.

Example:

Here “统一社会信用代码” means Unified Social Credit Code. And now this code can represent registration number, organization code, tax registration number, statistical registration number, and social insurance registration number. And if you want to know more about the code, please read the article–Unified Social Credit Code: An Introduction.

How to Search A Company’s Information with the Current Registration Number

The current registration number is the Unified Social Credit Code mentioned above, and you can search for a company’s information in the following steps.

1. You can click the link http://www.gsxt.gov.cn/index.html to enter the home page of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.

2. Input the Unified Social Credit Code and search for the company’s information.

3. Click the company’s name, then you can read the information about the company.

If you still have trouble using this system, this article–What is the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System in China? can be helpful.