Cui Yongyuan said last night that the four-day 60 million yin-yang contract he exposed did not refer to Fan Bingbing, but someone else, and apologized.(AFP)
Cui Yongyuan, the former host of CCTV, broke the news about Fan Bingbing and other stars evading taxes. According to the analysis, the government quickly intervened in the investigation, which may be to crack down on the widespread tax evasion of high-income groups.Fan Bingbing's studio said that it has never signed a Yin-Yang contract, and will fully cooperate with relevant departments to verify according to law.
Cui Yongyuan, a former well-known host of China Central Television, recently angered Fan Bingbing and other entertainment stars on the Internet, attracting public opinion and official attention to celebrities' tax evasion.Some people in Beijing analyzed that judging from the official's quick intervention in the investigation of celebrity tax evasion, the official may use this incident to crack down on tax evasion among high-income groups.
Affected by Cui Yongyuan's revelation, the media sector collectively fell sharply yesterday, and its market value plummeted by tens of billions (RMB, the same below) at the opening.Tangde Film and Television and Huayi Brothers, which are closely related to Fan Bingbing, are even closer to the limit.
Cui Yongyuan revealed on Weibo last week that the well-known actor Fan Bingbing had signed a large and small yin and yang contract with related film crews, covering up his real income and suspected of tax evasion.Fan Bingbing's studio then issued a statement, saying that it had never signed a Yin-Yang contract, and would fully cooperate with relevant departments to verify it in accordance with the law.
Cui Yongyuan also changed his tone when interviewed by the media last night, saying that the four-day 60 million yin-yang contract he exposed did not refer to Fan Bingbing, but someone else.He also apologized to Fan Bingbing and others who were implicated.
Cui Yongyuan: The tax involved is 10 times more than the exposed amount
But Cui Yongyuan also said that the phenomenon of tax evasion in the film and television industry is much more serious than everyone thinks, and the amount involved is far more than 10 times the amount currently exposed.He also has a drawer of yin and yang contracts, and any party involved has to go in, and all the big names are involved!
After Cui Yongyuan exposed the yin-yang contract incident, Beijing Daily, China Central Television, People's Daily Online, Xinhua Net and other official media followed up one after another, saying that they would resolutely punish the illegal acts of celebrity tax evasion.
China's State Administration of Taxation issued a notice the afternoon before yesterday, saying that it had instructed the tax authorities in Jiangsu and other places to investigate and verify according to law.The State Administration of Taxation will further strengthen risk prevention and control analysis and increase collection and management efforts on the basis of the assessment and investigation of the legal tax payment of some high-income and high-risk film and television practitioners that have been deployed.
The star studio transfers the remuneration to the star financial investment project
According to the analysis of people familiar with the matter, yin-yang contracts are not uncommon in the entertainment industry, and they are one of the common methods used by film and television companies and celebrities to conspire to evade taxes.Take Cui Yongyuan’s exposed yin-yang contract as an example. The 10 million yang contract is after-tax income, and the tax burden has been passed on to Party A’s company; the yin-yang contract can even allow celebrities to evade huge amounts of tax.According to a rough calculation of the tax law, the parties may be suspected of tax evasion of more than 20 million yuan.
Other methods of tax evasion include stars participating in film and television drama performances through studios under their names, and asking the producers to transfer the remuneration to the studios, and then the studios transfer them to companies under the star’s name or shareholdings in the name of financial management and investment.This series of operations can minimize the tax payable.
Many people in the legal field believe that if Cui Yongyuan's revelation is true, the parties concerned may inevitably be imprisoned.
In June 2002, Liu Xiaoqing, a well-known Chinese movie star and former member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was arrested for evading huge amounts of taxes and spent more than a year in prison.The Liu Xiaoqing incident once raised the initiative of Chinese film and television stars to pay taxes.
Analysts pointed out that, on the whole, Chinese citizens, including celebrities and other high-income groups, still generally lack tax awareness.Under the general trend of reducing import tariffs and corporate tax burdens in China, the proportion of personal taxation in national fiscal revenue will continue to grow.Cui Yongyuan's exposure of the unspoken rules of tax evasion in the entertainment industry just provided a good opportunity for the government to punish high-income people for tax evasion. It not only helps to regulate the chaotic phenomena such as sky-high salary in the entertainment industry, but also helps to improve the tax awareness of the whole society.
