China e-Tax
The national tax administration's app for filing, paying tax, invoices and social insurance
First principle
Filing and paying are chores no one can skip, and the quicker the better. The tax app turns a trip to the tax office into a few taps, so crowds arrive together before every deadline.
The needs it meets
- ErrandsCore
- Things that must be done, taxes, ID, bills: the quicker the better.
Why it wins
- It is the State Taxation Administration's single national mobile app: filing, paying, certificates and invoices on a phone, with no queue at a tax office.
- Individuals can pay social and medical insurance with it too, and from October places such as Luzhou opened payments for 2027 residents' medical insurance, with this app as one of the channels.
- Use peaks around deadlines: October's filing deadline, pushed back for the National Day holiday, fell on the 26th, right around this week.
- It rates under 2 stars on the App Store and still ranks high: a task that must be done gets done, however poor the experience.
What keeps it ahead
- Mandated
- The only way to do this thing.
How it makes money
Free
Free: it is the tax authority's public service, and the money paid through it is tax and insurance, not a fee for the app.
What a small team can take from it
Apps like this climb on deadlines, not product, and no small team can copy that. What it can learn is to read the calendar: the filing deadline in the middle of each month and the medical insurance window that opens in autumn send crowds looking for the same help in the same week, so reminders and guides can be ready in advance.
This week
- China: top free apps, number 6
updated 29 October 2026
- Developer
- State Administration of Taxation
- Category
- App · Finance
- Stores
- App Store
- First in a list
- 29 October 2026
Sources
- 国家税务总局办公厅关于明确2026年度申报纳税期限的通知（税总办征科函〔2025〕64号） 10 December 2025
- 【图解】灵活就业人员如何进行社保、医保缴费？ 22 January 2025
- 2027年度泸州城乡居民基本医保开始缴费 每人每年400元 16 October 2026
This is our analysis and judgement, drafted by an AI agent from the store pages and public sources and read by a person before it went up. Every figure has a source; where there is none, we give no figure. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].