China's market entities continued to demonstrate improving tax and social security payment credit performance in 2026, with the number of creditworthy businesses steadily increasing and more companies actively repairing their credit records, said the State Taxation Administration.

With 54.67 million market entities evaluated so far this year — up 4.9 million from 2025 — the results showed that 47.11 million businesses were classified as creditworthy, an increase of 8.6 percent year-on-year. Among them, about 7.88 million received the highest "A-level" credit rating, accounting for 14.4 percent of all evaluated entities.

"This year's evaluation data show that the overall tax and social security payment credit conditions of market entities have continued to improve at a steady pace," said Fan Yong, dean of the school of public finance and taxation at Central University of Finance and Economics.

"The progress demonstrates that the overall compliance awareness is strengthening, while the positive incentives and disciplinary effects of the credit evaluation system are becoming increasingly evident. This has helped optimize the business environment and supported the standardized and healthy development of the market economy," Fan said.

The STA figures also point to broad-based improvements in credit quality. Nearly 9.72 million market entities saw their credit ratings upgraded from a year earlier, up 44.1 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, businesses showed a stronger willingness to correct compliance issues and restore their credit standings.

According to the central tax authority, 18.15 million market entities voluntarily repaired their credit records so far this year, up 29.8 percent from the previous year. Among them, 3.88 million improved their credit ratings after completing corrective actions.

Another notable development was the growing participation of self-employed businesses in the credit evaluation system.

Following the implementation of the measures for the administration of tax and social security payment credit in July 2025, self-employed businesses and other eligible taxpayers were allowed to voluntarily apply for inclusion in the evaluation framework. This year, 37,000 self-employed businesses chose to participate, with A-level and B-level ratings accounting for 35.7 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

The result came as authorities continue to improve the country's tax and social security payment credit evaluation mechanism by expanding both the scope of participating entities and the range of evaluation indicators.

For the first time, nationally unified social insurance contributions and nontax revenue payments were incorporated into the system, helping build a more comprehensive credit evaluation framework.

A senior official with the STA said that further efforts will be made to strengthen the foundational role of tax and social security payment credit within China's broader social credit system and better guide market entities toward compliant operations and good-faith practices.