The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and TaxChina Intelligent Technology (TaxChina) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 3 August. Combining PolyU’s outstanding research strengths in fields such as AI, federated learning and data science with TaxChina’s extensive experience and rich application scenarios in the fiscal and taxation services industry, the two parties will establish the “Joint Research Centre for AI Taxation” (the Research Centre). The Research Centre will advance innovative applications of AI in the fiscal and taxation fields and promote intelligent development of the tax services industry.
The signing ceremony was held on the PolyU campus. Witnessed by Prof. Jin-Guang TENG, PolyU President and Mr XU Zhaohong, Founder and Chairman, TaxChina, Prof. Christopher CHAO, PolyU Senior Vice President (Research and Innovation), and Mr LYU Pin, Chief Executive Officer, TaxChina (Beijing) AI Technology, signed the MoU on behalf of the two parties.
Following this, the two parties held a plaque unveiling ceremony for the “Joint Research Centre for AI Taxation”. The ceremony was officiated jointly by Prof. Jin-Guang TENG; Professor Christopher CHAO; Prof. YANG Qiang, Director of the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Chair Professor of Artificial Intelligence; Mr XU Zhaohong; Ms MA Xiaoman, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, TaxChina; Mr LYU Pin; and Mr MA Ning, General Manager of Ecosystem Partnership Development Department, TaxChina, among others. The ceremony marked the official establishment of a dedicated AI taxation research and development platform between a higher education institution in the Asia-Pacific region and a leading tax services enterprise, opening a new chapter in industry-academia-research integration and intelligent transformation for the global tax services industry.
The Research Centre will focus on three core directions: first, building a collaborative framework that “combines vertical large models with industry-specific professional models” to enhance intelligent decision-making capabilities in taxation scenarios; second, leveraging PolyU research strengths in federated learning to advance the application of privacy protection and collaborative training technologies while ensuring that “data never leaves the premises”; and third, deepening collaborative innovation across industry, academia and research to build a sustainable innovation ecosystem for AI-assisted taxation.
Prof. Jin-Guang Teng said, “This collaboration deeply integrates TaxChina’s vast volume of high-quality data and its insightful industry practices with PolyU’s world-leading research strengths in AI and federated learning. We truly believe that this powerful partnership will lead the innovative development of intelligent taxation and fiscal technology, transforming the industry and delivering broader benefits to society. I hope that the Joint Research Centre will become a model for collaborative innovation across industry, academia and research, contributing to the high-quality development of the Nation’s digital economy, industrial transformation and upgrading, and the cultivation of high-calibre talent.”
Mr Xu Zhaohong said, “With the arrival of the era of ‘digital tax administration’, corporate tax compliance has shifted from reactive response to proactive prevention, and the market displays strong demand for intelligent tax solutions that can adapt to global tax regimes. We strongly believe that this partnership with PolyU will narrow the gap between technology and application scenarios, developing the Research Centre into an internationally leading hub for AI taxation innovation, and cultivating interdisciplinary talent who possess expertise in both AI and taxation, thereby contributing to innovation in global tax governance.”
As the intelligent economy accelerates, the global economic and trade landscape and governance systems are being reshaped, and the intelligentisation of taxation has become a significant trend in the industry’s development. AI is not merely a tool for enhancing efficiency; it is gradually becoming a key factor that drives the modernisation of tax governance, reduces cross-border compliance costs and enhances enterprise decision-making capabilities. At present, tax authorities around the world have widely applied AI in areas such as risk identification, intelligent auditing and data governance, while enterprise demand for intelligent compliance, automated tax calculation, and policy analysis and assessment is also growing rapidly.
PolyU and TaxChina will empower professional tax services with cutting-edge AI technologies, driving the tax industry’s advancement from “digitalisation” to “intelligentisation”, and providing innovative solutions for global tax governance, corporate compliance and the upgrading of tax services. The Research Centre will establish a closed-loop research and development model in which “needs come from industry and results return to industry”, facilitating effective alignment between academic research and industrial application, and promoting the practical implementation of research outcomes.
PolyU has a solid disciplinary foundation in the development of AI, as well as in frontier research and research translation. The University has established the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and, last year, founded the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence. It has achieved internationally leading research outcomes in key areas such as natural language processing, large model algorithms and data governance, and possesses an extensive international academic network and rich experience in interdisciplinary research collaboration. In April this year, PolyU further established the Research Institute for Federated Learning, dedicated to tackling frontier challenges such as data privacy, cybersecurity and collaborative intelligence, and to advancing the development of secure and trustworthy AI technologies.
Looking ahead, PolyU and TaxChina will leverage the Research Centre to advance ongoing deep integration of AI with the fiscal and taxation profession, cultivate interdisciplinary innovation talent, promote the translation of high-level research outcomes and contribute to the intelligent development of the fiscal and taxation industry and to innovation in global tax governance.
