Housing Stipend

Full-time foreign staff are offered a 3000 CNY housing stipend. Employees hired on the first of the month are eligible for benefits as of the date of hire. Eligibility begins the first of the month following the completion of probation. In order to be eligible for this stipend, an employee must:

1. Have passed his/her probation period
2. Provide a copy of his/her housing contract to the Foreign HR Manager
3. Email Foreign HR (as of December 2018 this is joseph@shanglearning.com) to inform him that the previous steps have been completed, and that Joseph should add the 3000 CNY stipend to your monthly pay.

How to get a housing fapiao (发票) as a foreigner in China

Be forewarned: this process will be far easier if you are comfortable speaking Chinese. If you don't have decent Chinese language skills, I strongly recommend having a Chinese-speaking friend help you navigate this process. Once you get all the paperwork and you know where the local tax office is, then the process is pretty simple. It is similar to opening a bank account: bring a bunch of documents, sit and wait while someone types things into a computer and gives you papers so sign, and 10 to 40 minutes later you've got it taken care of.

First, you should be aware that getting the fapiao from the tax office costs 5%. So if your rent is 1000 CNY per month, and you want a one month fapiao, you will pay 50 CNY. If your rent is 3000 and you want a one year fapiao, you will pay 1800 CNY (3000 per month * 12 months * 5%). You can get fapiao monthly, biannually, or annually. Officially, this is the landlord's income tax. She/he is earning income by renting out property, and that income is taxable.

Generally speaking, landlords don't want to pay this income tax. They don't see any benefit in it for them, so they will tell you that you should pay it since you are the one that wants the fapiao. You can report the landlord to the tax authorities if you want, but I recommend only doing this after you have moved to a new apartment. To avoid this hassle, whenever you sign a housing contract in China, require that the landlord providing a fapiao is included in the contract. I didn't think about this, and my landlord insisted that I pay her income tax in order to get this fapiao. This means that instead of getting 100% of my company's housing reimbursement, I instead got 95% of it. I wasn’t thrilled at this, but I still came out ahead.

Concerning physically getting the fapiao, officially you don't actually need to be there. My landlord was so bumbling and disorganized that I knew "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." I arranged to meet my landlord at the tax office and I told her exactly what documents she needed to bring. I brought all the other documents.

You should figure out where the local tax office is and what the hours are. Here is the address and office hours of the one for where I lived, in Dongcheng District (东城区):

地点：东城区地方税务局第一事务所

地址：安定门外安德路地兴居7号

办公时间：周一至周五09:00-12:00；13:30-17:30

If you live in Beijing's Dongcheng district and you can navigate a Chinese website, you can check where yours is on this website: http://dongcheng.tax861.gov.cn/zjsws/zjsws_jj.asp?mc=. Otherwise, search online (or ask a friend) to find your local real estate tax office (地方税务局).

Documents that the tax office will need in order to provide you with a fapiao

1. Officially you shouldn't need your passport for this process, but bring it anyway just in case
2. Housing contract (original and photocopy)
3. Property certificate (房本或证明) (original and photocopy)
4. The ID (身份证) of the owner of the property (this must match the info on the property certificate) (original and photocopy)
   1. If the landlord is someone other than the owner of the property (such as a housing agent, or a family member), then you will need the ID (original and photocopy) of both the owner and of the landlord, as well as a document to prove that the landlord has the legal authority to act on behalf of the owner (委托书)
5. The form to apply for a fapiao (which you fill out at the tax office)
6. A Chinese debit card that you can use to pay the 5% income tax
7. If you are getting this fapiao so that you can get reimbursement from your company, you will also need the company's legal name and the tax number. You can ask someone at your company for the title (发票抬头) and the tax number identification number (纳税人识别号). Clarify to the people at the tax office that you need this for your company

The whole process only took me about 35 minutes: 15 minutes of waiting for my landlord to show up, 10 minutes of waiting for our number to be called, and another 10 minutes of filling out paper work and passing documents back and forth with the person who worked at the task office.

Health Insurance

Please see the health insurance page.

Book Policy

1. How it works:
   1. Select a book you believe will help with your personal/professional growth
   2. Connect with any manager in the Education department at Shang Learning and ask them to approve the book
   3. Read and finish the book within one month
   4. Write a one-page summary and list key takeaways
   5. Schedule a meal with the manager to discuss what you learned and how you or Shang Learning might apply it
   6. Send your summary to your manager, and the manager will add it to the wiki.
   7. Submit your book related expenses to be reimbursed (the cost of purchasing the book and the cost of the meal) up to a maximum of 150 RMB for the book and 150 RMB for the meal.
2. Useful resources:
   1. The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List: The 99 Best Business Books: https://personalmba.com/best-business-books/
   2. https://www.gazelles.com/suggestedbooks.html
   3. Recommendations and Resources from Scaling Up (VPN required): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tqYX4nC1z5msqr1XyXWYbwQNmJ68VVoCF2WSQugZPIg/edit#gid=519987541