1. Start with the operating route, not the platform name

The words “Tmall store” or “JD store” are not enough to determine the accounting treatment. A foreign brand may sell through a China subsidiary, a local distributor, an authorized operator, or an overseas entity using a cross-border channel. Accounting must follow the seller of record, contracts, inventory ownership, invoice flow, and cash flow.

Tmall Global describes flagship-store and direct-import models for overseas brands, while JD Worldwide's current merchant rules require an eligible overseas entity and describe direct-mail or free-trade-zone delivery. JD Worldwide also publishes a requirement for a mainland joint-liability domestic agent. Exact onboarding conditions vary by platform, category, trademark, location, and business model, so the current official acceptance page always controls.

2. A platform settlement statement is not a profit and loss statement

Tmall, JD, Alipay, payment providers, advertising systems, logistics providers, and ERP tools each show a different part of the transaction. None of them alone provides a complete accounting result.

A defensible monthly close should build the following bridge:

Orders and revenue recognition

Gross merchandise value is an operating metric, not automatically accounting revenue. The finance team must identify cancelled orders, unfulfilled orders, partial refunds, return-in-transit items, replacement shipments, seller-funded discounts, platform-funded subsidies, and orders that cross the month-end cut-off.

Platform commissions and commercial deductions

Technical service fees, commissions, paid traffic, affiliate commissions, warehouse charges, delivery fees, software subscriptions, campaign deposits, penalties, and rebates should not be grouped into one “platform fee” account. Separate classification makes gross margin, customer acquisition cost, fulfillment cost, and controllable overhead visible.

Coupons, discounts, and subsidies

The funding party matters. A seller-funded discount may reduce the consideration received for a sale. A platform-funded incentive may have a different accounting and tax treatment. Shared promotions require campaign-level evidence. The platform statement, contract, invoice, and promotion rules should agree with the recorded treatment.

Bank receipts

Cash transferred by the platform is normally net of several items and may include prior-period adjustments. Recording the net bank deposit as revenue can understate sales and hide expenses. Recording gross order value as revenue without returns and tax adjustments can overstate sales. A three-way match among order data, settlement data, and bank data is the minimum control.

3. Tax treatment depends on the seller and the route

Domestic store operated by a Chinese entity

Under China's VAT Law, effective from January 1, 2026, the standard VAT rate for most goods is 13%. For a general VAT taxpayer using the general calculation method, VAT is generally based on output VAT less eligible input VAT. The 13% rate is not a 13% tax on accounting profit, and it should not be added mechanically to corporate income tax.

China's standard enterprise income tax rate is 25%, but it applies to taxable income after permitted costs, expenses, losses, and tax adjustments rather than gross platform sales. Preferential policies or special treatments may apply when their conditions are met. Surcharges, stamp tax, withholding, payroll, customs, and transfer-pricing matters may also be relevant.

Cross-border store operated by an overseas entity

Eligible cross-border e-commerce retail imports within the policy limits currently receive a temporarily zero customs-duty rate, while import VAT and consumption tax are collected at 70% of the statutory amount. The consumer import-tax mechanism is different from the overseas seller's enterprise-level income tax position.

A foreign company's China corporate income tax exposure cannot be answered from the store name alone. It may depend on whether the company has an establishment or place in China, the activities of local personnel and agents, contract conclusion, profit attribution, China-source rules, and the applicable tax treaty. This analysis becomes especially important when a group uses a Chinese subsidiary, domestic agent, TP, warehouse, or related-party service provider.

Platform reporting raises the cost of inconsistent records

China's platform-related tax reporting rules require platform enterprises to report seller identity and income information. Tax authorities may request further order, transaction, bank, logistics, and other data in specified risk-management or inspection situations. This makes a consistent trail from platform data to books and tax returns more important than a manually prepared monthly total.

4. Inventory and cost of goods sold determine whether the profit is real

Foreign brands often invest heavily in China inventory before their finance process is mature. The result is a profit report that looks precise but uses an estimated cost rate or ignores goods in transit, bonded stock, warehouse discrepancies, damaged items, samples, replacements, and returns awaiting inspection.

A monthly inventory close should reconcile:

• opening quantity and value by warehouse and SKU;
• purchases, imports, transfers, and landed-cost allocation;
• fulfilled sales rather than paid orders alone;
• returns by status: in transit, received, resalable, damaged, or written off;
• samples, gifts, influencer seeding, replacements, and internal use;
• ERP quantity, warehouse quantity, platform quantity, and general-ledger value;
• foreign-exchange effects and intercompany pricing where applicable.

For a brand selling through both local and cross-border channels, inventory pools should be separated. Domestic customs-cleared stock, bonded stock, overseas stock, and goods in transit do not have the same legal status or cost trail.

5. What a monthly Tmall and JD accounting package should include

6. Simulated case: why GMV and bank cash both misstate performance

Consider a foreign consumer brand operating one local Tmall store and one local JD store through its Chinese subsidiary. The figures below are a simplified simulation, not a client result. They exclude input VAT and detailed tax adjustments so the operating logic remains visible.

If the platform deducted the RMB 45,000 commission and RMB 125,000 advertising charge before payout, the related cash transfer could be only RMB 880,000. That does not make revenue RMB 880,000. At the other extreme, using RMB 1,200,000 gross orders as revenue ignores returns, promotions, and VAT. The monthly bridge explains both differences.

The RMB 82,204 operating result is also not automatically taxable income. Corporate income tax requires a separate calculation based on deductible evidence, tax adjustments, and applicable policies.

7. In-house accountant, outsourced service, or hybrid team?

For many foreign brands, the hybrid model works well: an internal China operations lead controls commercial decisions and source data, while an outsourced finance team manages reconciliation, bookkeeping, tax support, inventory schedules, and bilingual reporting.

8. How Caigeek supports foreign brands selling on Tmall and JD

Caigeek is a finance outsourcing and business analysis service brand focused on e-commerce companies. Its role is to turn fragmented platform data into a repeatable monthly close and management view, while keeping the accounting tied to source documents and the correct legal entity.

1. Map the structure. Identify the seller of record, stores, contracts, warehouses, bank and payment accounts, invoicing parties, customs route, service providers, and related-party flows.
2. Build the data pack. Collect exports from Tmall, JD, Alipay, payment providers, ERP, WMS, banks, invoice systems, and logistics providers.
3. Reconcile order to cash. Match paid, fulfilled, refunded, settled, and bank-received amounts, then explain unmatched and cross-period items.
4. Close inventory and costs. Reconcile SKU movement and allocate landed cost, platform fees, advertising, logistics, and operating expenses under a documented method.
5. Prepare accounting and tax support. Produce ledgers, schedules, filing support, and exception lists aligned with the operating model.
6. Deliver a bilingual monthly pack. Show profit by platform or store, margin drivers, cash movement, inventory exposure, tax issues, and management actions in a format usable by both China teams and overseas headquarters.

Caigeek's public website lists compliance accounting from RMB 2,000 per month, management analysis from RMB 3,000 per month, and an external finance department from RMB 5,000 per month. A realistic proposal should still be based on entity count, platform and store count, monthly order volume, SKUs, warehouses, currencies, tax complexity, and reporting deadlines.

9. Seven questions to ask an accounting service provider

1. Can you show the exact order-to-settlement-to-bank reconciliation process?
2. Do you separate domestic Tmall or JD accounting from Tmall Global or JD Worldwide accounting?
3. Can you reconcile SKU inventory across ERP, warehouse, platform, and general ledger?
4. Will the monthly report show profit by platform, store, SKU, or category?
5. How do you classify refunds, coupons, platform subsidies, commissions, advertising, and TP fees?
6. Can you support both Chinese statutory requirements and an English management pack for headquarters?
7. Who owns each deadline, exception, filing, and document request?

A provider that only asks for bank statements and invoices is offering basic bookkeeping, not complete Tmall or JD store accounting. The system should explain how a consumer order becomes revenue, tax, inventory movement, platform settlement, cash, and management profit.