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Tax authorities from various cities and provinces have urged celebrities, including livestreamers, to pay up taxes as per relevant laws. The Shanghai Tax Service Administration posted a notice yesterday, exhorting public figures, including celebrities and livestreamers, to take the initiative to report and correct irregularities over tax payment before the end of the year.
The notice stressed that paying taxes according to the law was the duty of every citizen. Celebrities, influencers and other public figures should strictly abide by it. In September, after the State Administration of Taxation issued a notice, many celebrities contacted local tax authorities and paid their arrears.
Individuals, who refused to cooperate despite being reminded or warned, were exposed. The latest notice reiterates the authorities’ bid to further create a favorable and fair taxation environment. Public figures have been told to conduct self-inspection and pay the arrears. Those who take the initiative to report and correct their tax irregularities before the end of the year, will be given lenient sentences or exempted from penalties. Tax authorities in Beijing and Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces also released similar notices.
On Monday, China’s top livestreamer Huang Wei, better known as Viya, was fined 1.34 billion yuan (US$203 million) in penalties and overdue taxes.
Instead of paying taxes based on her personal commissions from livestreaming, she set up various business consulting entities as shell companies to evade taxes. Her livestreaming account on the shopping site Taobao was removed. Social media platform Weibo and video-sharing app Douyin also suspended her accounts.