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13. INCOME TAXES
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
13. INCOME TAXES

The Company utilizes the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes in accordance with FASB ASC 740-10.

 

(a)           United States

 

Gulf Resources, Inc. is subject to the United States of America Tax law at tax rate of 34%. No provision for the US federal income taxes has been made as the Company had no US taxable income for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, and management believes that its earnings are permanently invested in the PRC.

 

(b)           BVI

 

Upper Class Group Limited, a subsidiary of Gulf Resources, Inc., was incorporated in the BVI and, under the current laws of the BVI, it is not subject to tax on income or capital gain in the BVI. Upper Class Group Limited did not generate assessable profit for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2013 and 2012.

 

(c)           Hong Kong

 

Hong Kong Jiaxing Industrial Limited, a subsidiary of Upper Class Group Limited, was incorporated in Hong Kong and is subject to Hong Kong profits tax. The Company is subject to Hong Kong taxation on its activities conducted in Hong Kong and income arising in or derived from Hong Kong.  No provision for profits tax has been made as the Company has no assessable income for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2013 and 2012.  The applicable statutory tax rates for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 are 16.5%.

 

(d)           PRC

 

Enterprise income tax (“EIT”) for SCHC and SYCI in the PRC is charged at 25% of the assessable profits.

 

The operating subsidiaries SCHC and SYCI are wholly foreign-owned enterprises (“FIE”) incorporated in the PRC and are subject to PRC Foreign Enterprise Income Tax Law.

 

On February 22, 2008, the Ministry of Finance (“MOF”) and the State Administration of Taxation (“SAT”) jointly issued Cai Shui [2008] Circular 1 (“Circular 1”). According to Article 4 of Circular 1, distributions of accumulated profits earned by a FIE prior to January 1, 2008 to foreign investor(s) in 2008 will be exempted from withholding tax (“WHT”) while distribution of the profit earned by an FIE after January 1, 2008 to its foreign investor(s) shall be subject to WHT at 5% effective tax rate.

 

As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, the accumulated distributable earnings under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP”) of PRC are $199,727,137 and $197,042,047, respectively. Since the Company intends to reinvest its earnings to further expand its businesses in mainland China, its foreign invested enterprises do not intend to declare dividends to their immediate foreign holding companies in the foreseeable future. Accordingly, as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, the Company has not recorded any WHT on the cumulative amount of distributable retained earnings of its foreign invested enterprises in China. As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, the unrecognized WHT are $8,899,880 and $8,768,486, respectively.

 

The components of the provision for income taxes from continuing operations are:

 

    Three-Month Period Ended March 31,
      2013       2012  
Current taxes – PRC   $ 742,320     $ 1,256,266  
Deferred taxes – PRC     -       78,204  
    $ 742,320     $ 1,334,470  

 

 

The effective income tax expenses differ from the PRC statutory income tax rate of 25% from continuing operations in the PRC as follows:

 

          Three-Month Period Ended March 31,  
Reconciliations               2013     2012  
Statutory income tax rate                     25 %     25 %  
US federal net operating loss                     3 %     4 %  
Effective tax rate                     28 %     29 %  
                                           

 

Significant components of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities at March 31, 2013 and December 30, 2012 are as follows:

 

    March 31,     December 31,  
  2013     2012  
Deferred tax liabilities   $ -     $ -  
                 
Deferred tax assets:                
Allowance for obsolete and slow-moving inventories   $ 6,992     $ 6,973  
Impairment on property, plant and equipment     466,005       464,778  
Exploration costs     1,786,625       1,781,921  
Compensation costs of unexercised stock options     1,811,044       1,809,378  
US federal net operating loss     8,907,654       8,809,935  
Total deferred tax assets     12,978,320       12,872,985  
Valuation allowance     (10,718,698 )     (10,619,313 )
Net deferred tax asset   $ 2,259,622     $ 2,253,672  
                 
Current deferred tax asset   $ 6,992     $ 6,973  
Long-term deferred tax asset   $ 2,252,630     $ 2,246,699  

 

The increase in valuation allowance for each of the three-month periods ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 is $99,385 and $223,930, respectively.

 

There were no unrecognized tax benefits and accrual for uncertain tax positions as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012.