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▲Yuan Bingyan was fined almost 3 million yuan (S$571,000) by tax authorities in Chongqing. PHOTO: YUAN BINGYAN/WEIBONEW YORK - Following the hefty fines levied against a well-known actress and an internet influencer for tax evasion, tax officials have vowed to increase oversight of the entertainment sector.According to a statement on the State Taxation Administration's website, Yuan Bingyan, a film and television actress who graduated from the esteemed Shanghai Theatre Academy, was fined nearly 3 million yuan (S$571,000) by tax authorities in Chongqing, where her company Chongqing Liyan Culture Media Co is registered.The 31-year-old received fines for tax evasion as well as other offences like unpaid taxes.Separate court orders required Chongqing Liyan Culture Media Co to pay a 1.32 million yuan fine for unpaid taxes and other penalties. According to a statement from the administration, all fines have been paid.Chongqing Liyan Culture Media Co was penalised 978,000 yuan by the local tax authorities last year for violating tax laws.Local tax authorities reminded Yuan, who owned a controlling position in the company, of their worries and pushed her to correct the situation since they suspected tax fraud. Yuan did not, however, completely disclose her transgressions, which prompted authorities to open an official investigation.The investigation found that Yuan misrepresented her personal spending as corporate spending and failed to disclose a portion of her salary. According to the statement, the practises resulted in lower personal and corporate tax rates.The tax department promised to "continue to strengthen tax supervision in the field of culture and entertainment, strictly investigate and punish tax-related offences in accordance with the law, continually enhance the tax law compliance of employees and enterprises in the field, and establish a fair tax (system)."The taxes office announced in a separate announcement that "gossip" live-streamer Wu Chuan was required to refund a total of 13.6 million yuan.Wu evaded taxes and fought an investigation; his broadcasts on the short-video platform Douyu had up to 600,000 viewers.He dodged 8.27 million yuan in personal income tax between 2018 and 2021 using strategies like hiding profits or falsifying the nature of some of his revenue, according to the report. He is better known on the platform by the moniker "Soul Knife God"The statement claims that Wu's home territory of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region tax authorities initially contacted the host and urged him to correct his errors. Wu, though, resisted, which led to a thorough examination.According to tax officials, they will keep up their heightened oversight of live-stream hosts, vigorously look into and prosecute any tax-related crimes, and support the growth and standardisation of the sector.The two are members of a growing group of well-off entertainers who have recently been hit with hefty fines for evading income taxes in China as part of the country's effort to promote prosperity for all.A well-known actress with 63 million followers on the microblogging site Sina Weibo, Fan Bingbing, was fined a whopping 800 million yuan in a high-profile case in 2018 for evading up to 255 million yuan in personal and business taxes. Fan apologised in front of everyone after the fine was announced and promised to pay it no matter what.People.cn, a news website under the supervision of the People's Daily newspaper, released a statement on Saturday cautioning persons in the entertainment industry to rigorously adhere to the tax law and never harbour thoughts of tax cheating.Celebrities should take the effort to uphold social responsibility and take the lead in abiding by the law, it stated. Unfortunately, others consistently avoid paying taxes and breaking the law, and they eventually pay the price for it, the statement read.Source : THE STRAITS TIMES
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