Xiao Zhang, who trades Hong Kong stocks, was feeling pretty happy after making 200,000 in his account in 2026, when a friend stumped him with the question, “Until what year has the tax exemption for the Stock Connect program been extended?” Only then did he realize he’d never actually figured out whether he had to pay taxes on his Hong Kong stock trades.

Sister Lin, a clothing retailer from Shenzhen, drove high sales volume on Shopee Thailand last year with her “9.9 yuan with free shipping” promotion, but her profit per order was as low as a few mao. At the start of 2026, she found herself caught between two opposing forces: on one hand, Thailand had directly abolished the tax exemption for small-value purchases, causing taxes to skyrocket from 7% to 17.7%; on the other hand, the China–ASEAN zero-tariff agreement officially took effect, exempting cross-border goods priced at 98% from customs duties.

Afang, who runs a Meike Duo store in Latin America, was excited to list a batch of small appliances with plugs, but the listing got stuck in the review process, and she was asked to provide INMETRO certification. As a result, the goods are stuck in the warehouse and can’t be shipped out.

Xiao Chen, a self-employed e-commerce entrepreneur in Hangzhou, was in the habit of accepting payments through his personal WeChat account. For three years, he operated under the principle that “if I don’t issue an invoice, I don’t pay taxes.” In 2026, he received a tax notice: there was a discrepancy of several million between the transaction records reported by the platform and the income he had declared, and he was flagged for concealing income.

A Shenzhen-based seller named Aqiang, driven to the brink by Amazon’s cutthroat competition, heard that NOON in the Middle East offered “zero monthly fees and commissions starting at 51 TP3T” and was intrigued. But when he logged into his dashboard, he found himself faced with a dilemma: among the six markets—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman—which one should he launch first? And how should he set up VAT? What really had him torn were NOON’s two shipping models and the differences in VAT rates between the two countries—choose the wrong one…