China has fined another live-streaming persona for tax evasion, increasing a probe that’s ensnared a number of the nation’s hottest influencers and disrupted e-commerce at Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Ping Rong, a Guangzhou-based live-streamer, was fined 62mil yuan (RM41.01mil) for evading taxes in 2019 and 2020, the State Taxation Administration stated in an announcement. The influencer commanded a following of about 24 million followers on the video platform Kuaishou Technology. As of Tuesday afternoon, Ping didn’t present up on in-app searches.
The crackdown on China’s booming live-streaming sector marks an escalation in President Xi Jinping’s marketing campaign towards unlawful sources of revenue, a part of a “common prosperity” drive that goals to slim the wealth hole. Celebrities have been focused by tax authorities, because the drive to redistribute revenue dovetails with a broader clampdown on the leisure trade for selling “improper” idol tradition. A Kuaishou spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.
“We will strengthen analysing big data in tax collection and improve tax regulations targeting live-streamers,” stated the native taxation bureau of Guangzhou, a metropolis within the nation’s south.
Live-streaming has in previous years develop into key to attractive and retaining consumers on on-line platforms from Alibaba’s Taobao to Kuaishou.
The newest penalty got here after the watchdog fined high live-streamer Viya a document US$210mil (RM878.91mil) in December, accusing her of concealing private revenue and making false declarations. A month prior, authorities fined two live-streamers in Hangzhou practically US$15mil (RM62.77mil) in complete for illegally reserving employment revenue as enterprise revenue. All three have suspended their work and haven’t re-appeared in live-streaming studios since.
Tax authorities requested celebrities to voluntarily report wrongdoing in change for lighter punishment in September, after asserting a brand new spherical of tax checks. More than 1,000 live-streamers and staff in different fledgling industries have voluntarily paid again taxes since. – Bloomberg
