Anchor Wei Ya fined 1.341 billion yuan for tax evasion and continues to regulate the healthy development of the live broadcast industry
Live broadcast is not a place outside the law
Our reporter Xue Peng
On December 20, the taxation department issued a notice that the head network anchor Huang Wei (screen name: Wei Ya) was fined a total of 1.341 billion yuan for tax evasion.
According to the investigation, Huang Wei evaded 643 million yuan in taxes by concealing personal income, fictitious business conversion and false declaration of the nature of income from 2019 to 2020, and underpaid other taxes by 60 million yuan, and imposed tax administration on Huang Wei in accordance with the law. Dealing with the penalty decision, recovering taxes, imposing late fees and fines, totaling 1.341 billion yuan.
In recent years, as live streaming has become the biggest growth point for e-commerce platforms, the income of network anchors has also risen, and the single-field cargo transaction volume of some top anchors has reached tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.
The punishment decision made by the taxation department embodies the authority and fairness of the tax law, and once again warned practitioners of webcasts that live webcasts and illegal places must consciously pay taxes in accordance with the law and assume social responsibilities that match their income and status.
What are the legal basis for penalizing anchors for tax evasion?
What impact will the strengthening of the taxation supervision of network anchors have on the platform economy?
Why are the recent cases handled by the taxation department of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in accordance with laws and regulations?
The reporter interviewed Yu Wenhao, deputy dean of the School of Law of Central University of Finance and Economics.
The tax department made a decision to punish 1.341 billion yuan in accordance with the law, reflecting the authority and fairness of the tax law
Reporter: Live streaming is a new business that has emerged in recent years. What is the legal basis for severely punishing top anchors for tax evasion?
Yu Wenhao: In recent years, the state has vigorously supported the development of new economic and new business forms. A large number of new business forms and new models have emerged, such as platform economy and live streaming, which are helping to prevent and control the epidemic, protect people's lives, hedge industry pressure, and promote economic recovery. It played an important role.
However, many good news can hardly conceal the reality of "extensive" development of the industry.
Some celebrities and Internet celebrities’ live-streaming “carriage rollovers” have caused heated public opinion, and issues such as tax evasion, mismatched goods, counterfeit and inferior products have been frequently exposed. The “extensive” development of the industry urgently needs correct guidance and regulation.
Before the anchor Huang Wei, the tax department effectively strengthened the tax supervision and regulation of the new economy and new business forms, gave full play to the role of tax big data, and investigated Zhu Chenhui (Weibo ID: Sydney Cherie) and Lin Shanshan (Weibo ID: 林珊珊_ Sunny) waited for many tax evasion cases and exposed major cases.
In this case, the relevant person in charge of the Hangzhou Taxation Bureau introduced that from 2019 to 2020, Huang Wei falsely declared tax evasion by concealing the commission income obtained from the live broadcast platform; through the establishment of Shanghai Weihe Enterprise Management Consulting Center, Shanghai Dusu Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership and many individual sole proprietorships and partnerships fictitious business, converting their personal commissions, pit fees and other labor remunerations obtained from live broadcast delivery into business income for false declaration of tax evasion; Engaged in other production and business activities to obtain income, failed to declare and pay taxes in accordance with the law.
In accordance with the "Individual Income Tax Law of the People's Republic of China", "The Tax Collection Management Law of the People's Republic of China" and other provisions, the taxation department confirmed that the tax evasion was 643 million yuan, and other taxes were underpaid by 60 million yuan.
Paying taxes in accordance with the law is the basic obligation of every citizen, and the live broadcast industry is not a place outside the law.
In addition to complying with the legal requirements of network security and other aspects, the live streaming of goods must also pay attention to the tax law, and not forget or even evade the obligation to pay taxes in accordance with the law.
The first paragraph of Article 63 of the "Tax Collection Administration Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulates that if taxpayers evade tax, the tax authorities shall recover the non-paid or underpaid taxes, late fees, and impose non-paid or underpaid taxes. A fine of more than 50% but not more than five times the amount.
The penalties of 1.341 billion yuan were imposed in accordance with the law. The main components are: the part that evades taxes on hidden income but voluntarily pays and reports after the inspection is filed, a 0.6 times fine; 4 times the fine; for the part of the fictitious business that converts the nature of the income and falsely declares tax evasion, 1 times the fine.
Such a punishment decision, on the one hand, insists on strict investigation and punishment in accordance with the law, resolutely safeguards the authority of the national tax law, and promotes social fairness and justice; on the other hand, it fully considers the circumstances in which the parties take the initiative to mitigate the harmful consequences of illegal activities, reflecting the combination of leniency and strictness by the taxation department, and promotes The new economy and new business formats are regulated in development and developed in regulation.
Zhejiang high-quality development and construction of a demonstration zone for common prosperity, better use of legal taxation tools to regulate excessively high income and ban illegal income
Reporter: Like the previous investigations of Zhu Chenhui and Lin Shanshan’s tax evasion cases, this case was also discovered and handled by the taxation department of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. How do you see the similarities in these cases?
What are the bad effects of tax evasion?
Yu Wenhao: Taxation is taken from the people and used for the people. The public infrastructure provided by the state and the improvement of people’s livelihood and welfare require a large amount of capital investment. Tax evasion directly reduces the state’s fiscal revenue and reduces the state’s investment sources in public utilities. Eventually, we will "steal" the social and public services that we should have enjoyed.
From the perspective of platform economy, tax evaders increase the tax burden of honest taxpayers in a disguised form, making honest taxpayers at a disadvantage in market competition compared to tax evaders. Bad money driving out good money may affect the whole Market development.
The live broadcast industry is not a "tax blind spot."
From the cases of Zhu Chenhui and Lin Shanshan to the case of Huang Wei, the anchors for tax evasion have been severely punished one after another, which embodies the principle of equality before the law. No matter how famous and popular it is, once tax evasion is difficult to evade sanctions.
As the top anchor, you should take the lead in abiding by the law and enjoy the system dividends brought about by the new format, and you must show the quality of the rule of law that matches it.
Only by consciously paying taxes in accordance with the law can the flow in the track of the rule of law make sense, and the new format of standardized development has a future.
It is worth noting that combing through the notifications of the tax authorities, we can find that these cases were found by the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Department of Zhejiang Province through taxation big data analysis and evaluation, and they were filed for inspection and handled in accordance with laws and regulations.
First of all, Zhejiang's live broadcast economy is at the forefront of the country, and it is a "golden card" of Zhejiang, and Hangzhou is also a pioneer in Zhejiang.
Statistics show that from January to October this year, Zhejiang’s live broadcast e-commerce transaction volume was 609.21 billion yuan, accounting for 28.4% of the country’s total transaction volume, ranking first in the country in terms of scale.
Hangzhou's data is also very eye-catching. From January to October, the transaction volume of Hangzhou live e-commerce reached 502.48 billion yuan, accounting for 82.5% of the province's total live e-commerce transactions, ranking first in the province.
In October this year alone, the number of broadcast anchors in Zhejiang Province was about 199,000. From the distribution of cities and regions, the number of broadcast anchors in Hangzhou was 69,000.
With such a huge economic scale and the number of anchors, if supervision and guidance are not strengthened, tax evasion and other acts of "barbaric growth" will not only damage the interests of the country, but also have a great negative impact on society.
Secondly, the use of big data and modern information technology to innovate tax management methods is a common practice in tax collection and management reforms in various countries in the world.
The live broadcast economy has its own characteristics. The scale of taxpayers has grown rapidly, and cross-border, cross-regional, and cross-industry operations have become increasingly widespread. Taxpayers' production and operation have changed from physical to virtual and electronic, and the information asymmetry between the two parties has become more prominent.
The acquisition of tax-related data is an effective way to solve the problem of information asymmetry.
Finally, Zhejiang is currently building a demonstration zone for common prosperity with high-quality development, paving the way for the country to move towards common prosperity.
Taxation, as the most important and most standardized form of national income distribution, is an important tool for regulating income distribution. Common prosperity must protect legal income in accordance with the law, and at the same time make better use of legal tax tools to regulate excessively high income and ban illegal income.
The live broadcast industry is developing rapidly and has great social influence. It is more necessary for the head anchor to take the lead in abiding by the law, and all parties need to work together to maintain the web live broadcast space trusted by the people
Reporter: As the top player in the field of webcasting, Wei Ya was severely punished for tax evasion. What does it mean to the anchors and the industry?
Yu Wenhao: As a well-known head network anchor, Wei Ya has many fans and has a certain social influence.
Regrettably, she failed to demonstrate due diligence in fulfilling her citizen's duty to pay taxes in accordance with the law.
The punishment for tax evasion this time is a serious rule of law class. It warns every webcaster that a good delivery person should first be a qualified and compliant taxpayer, and also warn webcasting practitioners. The legal red line cannot be touched. The state has launched a number of preferential policies to support the development of new business formats, but these preferential tax policies are not a loophole that can be exploited at will.
The development of any industry is inseparable from the regulation and guidance of the regulatory authorities.
For the live broadcast industry, the top anchors are severely punished for tax evasion. The warning platform further recognizes its own supervisory obligations, earnestly fulfills the obligation of personal income tax withholding and payment in accordance with the law, supervises and assists the platform anchors to handle tax declarations in accordance with laws and regulations, and actively cooperates Taxation authorities implement taxation management in accordance with the law and contribute to the healthy development of the live broadcast industry.
Strengthening tax collection and management of the live broadcast industry is the proper meaning of standardizing tax order and maintaining a fair and competitive market environment, and it is also an inevitable measure to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the live broadcast industry.
The government's attitude towards the development of emerging businesses is tolerant and prudent, but it will never condone tax evasion.
Since the beginning of this year, measures to standardize the taxation order for new formats such as live broadcast have continued to emerge, promoting the healthy development of the live broadcast industry and platform economy.
On March 24 this year, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Collection and Administration", proposing to comprehensively promote the digital upgrade and intelligent transformation of tax collection and management, and basically realize the tax information of legal persons by 2022. The “one-person” intelligent collection of tax and fee information for households and natural persons will give full play to the role of big tax data in cracking down on tax-related crimes in accordance with the law.
In September of this year, the General Office of the State Administration of Taxation issued a notice stating that individual studios and companies established by webcasters should be guided to establish an accounting system in accordance with laws and regulations, and to use the method of auditing and collecting taxes to declare taxes.
It is necessary to carry out tax risk analysis on a regular basis, combined with the personal income tax settlement and payment processing in 2020, provide one-on-one risk warnings and supervise rectifications for Internet anchors with tax-related risks, and be able to proactively report and promptly correct tax-related issues before the end of 2021 If there are problems, they can be given a lighter, mitigated, or exempted from punishment in accordance with the law; if they refuse to cooperate with the tax authority’s investigation and verification and supervision of rectification, they shall be ordered to limit the corrections in accordance with the law, and the industry authorities and industry associations shall be asked to assist in the supervision and correction; if the circumstances are serious, It is necessary to strictly investigate and deal with according to law.
In the process of regulating the taxation order of the webcast industry, the taxation department has always adhered to the attitude of both leniency and strictness, opening a window for webcasters to "self-redemption".
It is understood that since the State Administration of Taxation issued the notice, thousands of people have taken the initiative to self-check and pay taxes.
Increase the intensity of joint disciplinary action, form a work pattern of joint management, and promote the sound development of the industry at a deeper and higher level
Reporter: my country's platform economy is developing rapidly, new business forms and new models are constantly emerging, and the leading role of economic growth is constantly increasing.
How to strengthen joint management and promote the sound development of the live broadcast economy at a deeper and higher level?
Yu Wenhao: As the next trillion-level market that is generally optimistic, whether live streaming delivery is a real "outflow" or "a gust of wind" depends on its innovative power and more on its development direction.
The report "Live E-commerce Toward a Trillion Billion Market" released by KPMG and Alibaba Research Institute shows that the overall scale of live e-commerce will reach 1.05 trillion yuan in 2020, and this scale will expand to 2 trillion yuan in 2021.
It is necessary to objectively view and correctly grasp the development trend of the live broadcast economy, highlight the goal orientation, problem orientation and effect orientation, and standardize and guide the healthy and orderly development of the live broadcast economy.
First of all, we must study how to optimize tax collection and management services to achieve reasonable and fair tax burdens, equal emphasis on promotion and regulation, support and guidance, enhance the people's sense of acquisition, and enhance the vitality and motivation of the sustainable development of new business forms and models; further increase taxation Law enforcement capabilities for collection and management, innovate collection and management techniques and methods that adapt to the platform economy and new business models and models, and strive to achieve full collection of receivables; further standardize tax collection and management behaviors, and timely adopt tax laws and regulations to respond to new problems in economic and social development, and promote platforms Economic self-compliance and active compliance will improve taxpayers’ compliance with tax laws and create a good tax atmosphere.
The formation of a work pattern of concerted efforts and co-management is an inevitable requirement for the healthy and sustainable development of the live broadcast economy.
From the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security added a new job as an Internet marketer and brought it into unified management to encourage them to better serve consumers, to the Ministry of Commerce revising and perfecting the industry standards of the "Regulations for the Management and Service of Live E-commerce Platforms" and speeding up the advancement in accordance with the procedures ; From continuing to guide e-commerce market entities to strictly implement the "E-commerce Law of the People's Republic of China", "Web Live Marketing Management Measures (Trial)" and other laws, regulations and regulatory document requirements, to effectively fulfill the subject's responsibilities, to promote the use of areas in Zhejiang and other places Blockchain technology supervises live broadcast e-commerce and helps solve the integrity problem of e-commerce transactions. The situation of co-management is promoting the development of live broadcast economy to bid farewell to "barbaric growth."
The trend of consumption upgrade in my country is in the ascendant. The consumption structure has changed from subsistence and well-off to affluent and enjoyment. Consumers no longer only pay attention to price when shopping. Good quality of goods and excellent service experience are important driving forces for people's consumption. Live broadcast and delivery of goods, etc. The prospects for the new consumption model are bright and promising.
All parties involved in the live delivery of goods should realize that only relying on honest management and excellent quality can sustainable and rapid development.
More and more such efforts are brought together to form a work pattern of co-management, and the development prospects of the live broadcast economy can truly be expected.