China Imposes Fines Of IDR 146 Billion And IDR 61 Billion To Two Presenters Who Do Not Pay Taxes

Illustration - Xiaoran, a Chinese social media celebrity who has 130,000 followers on Sina Weibo. (ANTARA/Special)

JAKARTA - Two internet celebrities in China have been fined up to millions of yuan or hundreds of billions for allegedly evading tax payments.

The tax authorities in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Monday, November 22, announced the names of two internet celebrities who served as presenters, namely Zhu Chenhui and Lin Shanshan, as perpetrators of tax violations.

Both were absent from their obligation to pay income tax during the 2019-2020 period, the Hangzhou tax authority was quoted by the GICExpat news website as saying, Tuesday, November 23, citing Antara.

Zhu was ordered to pay a fine of 65.5 million yuan, or around IDR 146.4 billion, while Lin was fined 27.6 million yuan, equivalent to IDR 61.6 billion.

The tax authority said the two women would then be endorsed to raise awareness about paying taxes among arts and entertainment workers.

In recent months, China's tax authorities have intensively investigated the entertainment industry players in the social media world.

According to the local tax authority, this was done to ensure fair and healthy competition in the arts and entertainment world in the country of 1.4 billion people.

Several years earlier, the famous Chinese actress Fan Bingbing was caught up in a tax scandal that had disappeared from the surface for several months.