Saturday, July 11, 2009

Can I have a fapiao with that?

My China rotation is seeing the end of the tunnel as I'm set for an early August departure, so this month's posts are going to try to cover a lot of ground.  First, I'm going to start off with FA PIAO.  Fa Piao are state issued receipts that can be used for tax deduction, reimbursements, etc.  As in, if I bought something for a project and want to get reimbursed, I need to have a Fa Piao and not just a cash register reciept. This whole system was set up to make things official and for companies to pay taxes on what they sell.  However, sometimes small stores won't give you a fapiao so I can get a restaurant fapiao and use that instead. (A little weird, but they accept it!) Some of my foreign friends collect as many fapiao they can so they can get a tax deduction on their salary.

The funny thing about these government receipts is that, to encourage customers to ask for them, the fapiao comes with a "lottery scratch-off" portion. You can win (I've heard) up to 500 RMB ($73).  I haven't won anything yet, but if you do get something, then you can collect it from the actual store/restaurant right there.
Some places, like taxis, will give fapiao/receipt in one.  Other places, you must ask for the fapiao separately.  I've also heard of people buying fake fapiao, so if that's the case, what's the point?!

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