Seafood buyers purchase fresh goods from fishermen but cannot obtain a single input VAT invoice? Kailing Technology's agricultural product reverse invoicing solution enables compliant invoicing upon receipt at the dock

Before dawn, fishing boats dock, and fresh fish and live shrimp are unloaded basket by basket from the cabins. Buyers inspect the goods, negotiate prices, weigh them, and pay cash, with the whole process taking no more than twenty minutes. The fishermen take the money and turn back to the boats to prepare for the next trip out to sea, while the buyers load the goods onto trucks headed for wholesale markets or processing plants.

This is a scene that plays out every day in China's coastal and inland aquatic product production areas. Transactions are high-frequency, amounts are dispersed, and the on-site pace is extremely fast, with everything prioritizing "freshness first."

But finance's problems only surface after the transaction ends:Where do the input VAT invoices for this batch of goods come from?

Fishermen are individuals and have no invoicing capability, nor would they queue at the tax bureau to issue invoices for individuals for a basket of fish worth a few hundred yuan. Purchasers collect dozens or even hundreds of transactions a day, none with invoices. At month-end settlement, the input VAT gap is huge, VAT deduction is out of the question, and corporate income tax cost deduction also lacks supporting evidence.

I. The "Three Difficulties" Dilemma of Aquatic Product Purchasing

The invoice problem in seafood procurement is more challenging than for other agricultural products because this industry has three inherent characteristics:

Extremely time-sensitive. The window from landing to spoilage for fresh aquatic products is extremely short, and transactions must be completed quickly at the dock. Any process that adds steps or slows the pace will be instinctively resisted by the business side. Asking fishermen to spend ten minutes operating a phone to issue invoices at the dock? Unrealistic—they have to catch the next tide.

Transaction counterparties are extremely dispersed. A medium-sized aquatic product purchaser may work with hundreds of fishing boats and several hundred fishermen, and personnel mobility is high. This boat comes today, and another may replace it tomorrow. Establishing stable supplier files is itself a challenge.

High proportion of cash transactions. Wharf transactions have long been mainly cash-based, and some regions even retain the habit of "credit + monthly settlement." The flow of funds is opaque and difficult to match with invoice information.

The combination of these three characteristics has led to a long-term extremely low invoice compliance rate in the aquatic product purchasing industry. Many enterprises either rely on "white slips" to tough it out, or obtain invoices through non-compliant channels—both paths are now blocked in the face of China Golden Tax Phase IV.

II. Policy basis: agricultural product purchase invoices + tax exemption policy

Aquatic products belong to the agricultural product categories explicitly listed in the "Notes on the Scope of Taxation of Agricultural Products" (Cai Shui Zi [1995] No. 52), including all aquatic product categories such as marine fish, marine shrimp, marine crabs, marine shellfish, freshwater fish, freshwater shrimp, and freshwater crabs.

According to Article 15 of the Interim Regulations on Value-Added Tax and its implementation rules, agricultural producers selling self-produced agricultural products are exempt from VAT. This means:

Fishermen selling aquatic products they have caught themselves are exempt from VAT and do not require withholding and remittance

Acquiring enterprises can issue agricultural product purchase invoices (reverse invoicing) as input VAT deduction vouchers

The deduction rate is 9%; if the purchased aquatic products are used to produce deep-processed products subject to a 13% tax rate (such as canned fish or shrimp products), an additional deduction up to 10% applies

The policy channel is fully open. But the difficulty in implementation lies in:How to run compliance processes smoothly in fast-paced, high-frequency transaction scenarios like those at docks without affecting business efficiency?

III. Kailing Technology's Solution: Embed Invoicing into the Goods Receipt Action Itself

Kailing Technology's agricultural product reverse invoicing solution has been specially adapted for aquatic product procurement scenarios, with the core design principle being—Invoice upon goods receipt, invoicing without added time.

Fisherman registration: completed once, and it can be done before the boat docks

When fishermen cooperate for the first time, they complete registration through the WeChat mini program provided by the purchaser:

Face scan real-name authentication (10 seconds)

Automatic capture of the front and back of ID cards

Bind receiving bank card

Sign electronic version of the <Agricultural Product Acquisition Agreement>

Upload self-production and self-sales certificates (fishing license/aquaculture certificate/water and mudflat aquaculture use certificate, etc.)

The system automatically verifies: confirming that the fisherman is not a corporate legal representative, supervisor, senior executive, or sole proprietor, and confirming that the annual cumulative invoicing amount does not exceed 5 million.

File creation can be completed before fishermen go to sea, during rest, or even when there is signal on the boat.Does not occupy dock transaction time.

Wharf receiving: complete business data collection in 30 seconds

Fishing boats dock, unload, and are weighed—operations at this step must be extremely simple. The purchaser's on-site staff complete it via mobile:

Select fisherman (already on file, just select from the dropdown)

Enter category and weight (supports direct connection to electronic scales for automatic capture)

Take photos of goods (one-click photo, automatically linked)

Confirm unit price (common category prices can be preset and brought in with one click)

The entire operation is completed within 30 seconds. The system automatically generates a purchase order, and the amount is calculated automatically.

Automatic invoicing: triggered upon receipt confirmation

After the purchase order is generated, the system automatically executes in the backend:

Verify the fisherman's annual limit of 5 million

Call the electronic tax bureau interface to issue fully digitalized e-invoices tagged "agricultural product purchase" via reverse invoicing

Invoice amount = weighed weight × agreed unit price, fully consistent with the purchase order

Automatic archiving of PDF/OFD/XML source files

Agricultural product procurement invoices are tax-exempt and require no withholding or remittance of any taxes. Fishermen do not bear the tax burden, and enterprises directly obtain a 9% input VAT deduction.

From goods receipt confirmation to invoice issuance completion, the system processing time is measured in seconds. By the time the purchaser loads the goods onto the truck, the invoice is already quietly sitting in the system.

Payment closed loop: saying goodbye to cash

The system supports two payment methods:

Instant payment: After purchase order confirmation, bank-enterprise direct transfer is automatically triggered, and payment arrives in the fisherman's bank card in seconds. Fishermen can receive the arrival SMS at the dock, offering a better experience than cash (no counting money, no fear of counterfeit bills, no fear of loss).

Bulk settlement: For long-term cooperating fishermen, support weekly/monthly consolidated settlement, with the system automatically generating settlement statements and batch payment after approval.

Whichever method is used, bank receipts are automatically returned and linked to the corresponding purchase order and invoice, fully closing the loop between fund flow, business flow, and tax flow.

Five-flow archiving: every transaction can withstand scrutiny

Every aquatic product purchase transaction automatically forms a complete five-flow evidence package in the system:

Five materials are automatically linked to the same transaction, supporting multi-dimensional retrieval by fisherman, date, category, amount, etc. During a tax audit, the complete evidence chain can be exported with one click, with no manual searching.

IV. Adaptation to special scenarios

Seafood procurement has some special circumstances that differ from other agricultural products, and Kailing Technology's solution covers them all:

Mixed-category procurement. A single boat may carry multiple categories such as fish, shrimp, and crab at different prices. The system supports multi-line detail entry within a single purchase order, with each category priced independently and invoiced in aggregate.

Returns/short weight. After the goods are delivered to the processing plant, if the quality is found to be substandard and part of them need to be returned, the system supports initiating a partial red-letter reversal against the original purchase order and automatically issuing a negative invoice.

Collection and resale scenarios. Some docks have situations where "the boat captain collects payment on behalf of individual fishermen," and the system supports distinguishing the actual seller's identity to ensure the invoicing target matches the actual transacting party.

Seasonal fluctuations. Transaction volumes differ greatly before and after the fishing moratorium, and the system scales elastically, handling thousands of transactions per day during peak season without lag.

The core competitiveness of the seafood procurement industry is speed - whoever can deliver fresh goods from the dock to the market faster wins. Invoice compliance should not become a stumbling block that slows down this speed.

The value of the Kailing Technology solution lies in: making compliance a byproduct of transactions, not an extra burden. The act of receiving goods is unchanged, the payment rhythm is unchanged, the fishermen's experience is unchanged—the only change is that after each transaction, the system gains a compliant input VAT invoice and a complete evidence chain:https://www.kailingteck.com/h-col-127.html 。

As a comprehensive business-finance-tax digitalization solution service provider, Kailing Technology provides business-finance-tax management digital transformation products and operational services for various government agencies, institutions, and large, medium, and small enterprises. The product line includes:

Solutions for businesses including sales contract management system, procurement contract management system, fully digitalized Leqi interface project, output automatic invoicing system, reverse invoicing system, invoice issuance for individuals system, employee expense control and reimbursement system, input VAT invoice management system, supply chain collaborative reconciliation system, image OCR recognition system, automatic financial bookkeeping system, and electronic accounting archives system, comprehensively driving the digitalization process across various fields.

If you have any business-finance-tax digital transformation needs, welcome to contact us. Beijing Kailing Technology will serve you wholeheartedly.

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