14. INCOME TAXES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

14. INCOME TAXES

The Company utilizes the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes in accordance with FASB ASC 740-10. If it is more likely than not that some portion or all of a deferred tax asset will not be realized, a valuation allowance is recognized.

(a) United States (“US”)

Gulf Resources, Inc. may be subject to the United States of America Tax laws at a tax rate of 21%. No provision for the US federal income taxes has been made as the Company had no US taxable income for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, and management believes that its earnings are permanently invested in the PRC.

(b) British Virgin Islands (“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 years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

(c) Hong Kong

HKJI, a subsidiary of Upper Class Group Limited, was incorporated in Hong Kong and 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 income tax has been made as it has no taxable income for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.  The applicable statutory tax rates for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 are 16.5%. There is no dividend withholding tax in Hong Kong.

(d) PRC

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

The operating subsidiaries SCHC, SYCI and DCHC are wholly foreign-owned enterprises (“FIE”) incorporated in the PRC and are subject to PRC Local Income Tax Law. The PRC tax losses may be carried forward to be utilized against future taxable profit for ten years for High-tech enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises of science and technology and for five years for other companies. Tax losses of the operating subsidiaries of the Company may be carried forward for five years.

On February 22, 2008, the Ministry of Finance (“MOF”) and the State Administration of Taxation (“SAT”) jointly issued CaiShui [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 December 31, 2020 and 2019, the accumulated distributable earnings under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP”) of PRC that are subject to WHT are $126,643,733 and $124,616,722, 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 December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the Company has not recorded any WHT on the cumulative amount of distributable retained earnings of its foreign invested enterprises that are subject to WHT in China. As of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the unrecognized WHT are $5,288,346 and $5,254,560, respectively.

The Company’s income tax returns are subject to the various tax authorities’ examination. The federal, state and local authorities of the United States may examine the Company’s income tax returns filed in the United States for three years from the date of filing. The Company’s US income tax returns since 2017 are currently subject to examination.

Inland Revenue Department of Hong Kong (“IRD”) may examine the Company’s income tax returns filed in Hong Kong for seven years from date of filing. For the years 2012 through 2018, HKJI did not report any taxable income. It did not file any income tax returns during these years except for 2014 and 2018. For companies which do not have taxable income, IRD typically issues notification to companies requiring them to file income tax returns once in every four years. The tax returns for 2014 and 2018 are currently subject to examination.

The components of the provision for income tax benefit (expense) from continuing operations are:

	Years Ended December 31,
	2020			2019
Current taxes – PRC	$	—		$	—
Deferred taxes – PRC entities		1,108,471			5,546,825
Deferred taxes –US entity		607,643			319,005
Change in valuation allowance		(607,643	)		(8,672,817	)
	$	1,108,471		$	(2,806,987	)

The effective income tax benefit (expense) rate differs from the PRC statutory income tax rate of 25% from continuing operations in the PRC as follows:

	Years Ended December 31,
Reconciliations	2020			2019
Statutory income tax rate		25	%		25	%
Non-taxable (non-deductible) items		(5	%)		1	%
Change in valuation allowance		(8	%)		(38	%)
Effective income tax benefit (expense) rate		12	%		(12	%)

As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company had a US Federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $4,900,000 and $2,100,000 which are allowed for an indefinite carryforward period but limited to 80% of each subsequent year's net income. The timing and manner in which the Company can utilize operating loss carryforwards in any year may be limited by provisions of the Internal Revenue Code regarding changes in ownership of corporations. Such limitation may have an impact on the ultimate realization of its carry forwards and future tax deductions. In addition, 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, a 100% deferred tax asset valuation allowance was recorded for these net operating losses.

Significant components of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities at December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 are as follows:

	December 31,			December 31,
	2020			2019
Deferred tax liabilities	$	—		$	—
Deferred tax assets:
Allowance for obsolete and slow-moving inventories	$	—		$	—
Impairment on property, plant and equipment		2,907,548			2,974,542
Impairment on prepaid land lease		883,884			826,673
Exploration costs		1,908,087			1,784,583
Compensation costs of unexercised stock options		74,883			171,672
PRC tax losses		21,643,028			18,737,005
US federal net operating loss		1,045,503			432,000
Total deferred tax assets		28,462,933			24,926,475
Valuation allowance		(9,872,706	)		(8,985,833	)
Net deferred tax asset	$	18,590,227		$	15,940,642

The increase in valuation allowance for the year ended December 31, 2020 is $886,873.

The increase in valuation allowance for the year ended December 31, 2019 is $8,672,817.

The increase in valuation allowance in the year ended December 31, 2019 is mainly attributable to valuation allowance recorded for the deferred tax assets related to a portion of the PRC tax losses that more likely than not will expire before it could be utilized and the exploration costs which more likely than not will not be realized.

There were no unrecognized tax benefits and accrual for uncertain tax positions as of December 31, 2020 and 2019.

There were no amounts accrued for penalties and interest for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

There were no change in unrecognized tax benefits during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.