Taxation Authorities Issue Notices to Celebrities and Livestreamers to Report Tax Problems by 2021

Recently, China’s “livestreaming queen” Huang Wei, better known as Viya, was severely punished for tax evasion. On Wednesday, the Tax Service of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang under the State Taxation Administration, successively issued notices urging stars, artists and livestreamers to conduct self-examination in line with tax laws and relevant requirements, and to take the initiative to report and correct tax-related problems to the tax authorities by the end of 2021.

Tax authorities will give lighter, mitigated or exempted tax punishment in line with requirements if issues are raised in time. The notice went on to state, “For those who refuse self-examination and self-correction or who don’t conduct a self-examination and correction thoroughly, the tax authorities will address them seriously according to laws and regulations.”

According to the notice, after the General Office of the State Taxation Administration issued relevant notices in September this year, many stars and livestreamers took the initiative to contact tax authorities for their self-examination and paid taxes owed.

For cases suspected of serious tax evasion and refusing rectification after notice, tax authorities carried out tax inspection according to law, and chose to publicize some key cases with serious circumstances for public awareness.

SEE ALSO: Chinese Livestreaming Queen Viya Fined $210.3 Million for Tax Evasion

The circular emphasizes that paying taxes according to law is the duty of every citizen. Stars, livestreamers and other public figures should strictly abide by the taxation law.

The Zhejiang Provincial Tax Service announced on December 20th that famed Chinese livestreamer Viya was found to have been evading taxes, and was charged late payment fees and fined a total of 1.341 billion yuan for tax evasion and underpayment. Subsequently, Viya accounts on major network platforms were blocked.