Edit | Wei Jia

"I heard that the head anchor is being strictly investigated."

A few days ago, the news that "Zhengzhou is collecting more than 6 million taxes from online celebrities" came out, and public opinion was in an uproar. A merchant who had cooperated with the anchor revealed the news to pineapple finance.

According to the Zhengzhou Evening News, a few days ago, the Jinshui District Taxation Bureau of Zhengzhou City used big data to automatically extract data from the information system, strengthened the tax collection and management of employees in the entertainment field, and recovered 6,624,400 yuan from the tax of an online celebrity and turned it over to the state treasury. Of the 6,624,400 yuan, 6,346,600 yuan was paid in back taxes and 277,800 yuan was paid in late fees. At present, the taxpayer has settled the tax in 15.

After State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China asked local tax authorities to strengthen the tax inspection of online celebrities, celebrities and others, this was the first case of online celebrities paying taxes publicly. The word "Internet celebrity" naturally attracts people's attention. Coupled with the huge tax revenue, the topic quickly climbed into the hot search in Weibo.

Ordinary people are curious, who is this online celebrity who has been levied more than 6 million taxes? Internet celebrities can earn so much money, how does this group pay taxes? What are the common ways of tax avoidance and evasion?

As for the anchor group, a network celebrity in Zhengzhou was investigated for tax, while others were moved by the wind. They discussed whether the "Zhengzhou tax investigation incident" is a case of online celebrities paying taxes, or a prelude to the "tax storm" of online anchors. What impact will it have on the anchor groups of online celebrities?

Pineapple Finance tries to answer these questions through communication with many people in the industry.

"I paid more than 6 million, just to pay taxes. How much money I earned! " "I can't earn 6.62 million in my life, and this is just a tax among online celebrities."

Under the hot topic of "Zhengzhou collects more than 6 million taxes from online celebrities", netizens are most curious about how much money online celebrities can earn, and they have calculated their income according to taxes.

In fact, according to the income type, network celebrity anchors can be divided into two categories: anchors with goods to earn pit fees and commission income, show anchors with reward income, and content anchors with soft advertisements. However, no matter how the anchor makes money, if the tax is paid according to personal salary and labor remuneration, the marginal tax rate of up to 45% will be applied to the part with income exceeding 960,000 yuan.

Combined with the report of Zhengzhou Daily, "In the routine monitoring of the data of tax arrears remitted through the platform of' natural person electronic tax bureau', the second unit of tax management of the bureau inquired in the system that Wenhua Road Tax Branch had a large number of tax arrears settled in 2020." It is not difficult to judge that the tax of 6.62 million for the network celebrity anchor corresponds to at least10 million personal annual income.

Many people in the industry judge that this high probability is that the anchor of a platform is relative to the head. Anlo Zhao, the head of a FMCG brand, told Pineapple Finance that it was not the "anchor with goods" as speculated by the market, but more likely that an online celebrity was the anchor of the program.

Zhao Qi used the income and region of the anchor to speculate that "ordinary anchors with goods can't earn that much money, and high-income anchors with goods are basically concentrated in Hangzhou and Shanghai. This online celebrity is in Zhengzhou, and there is no cargo anchor of this magnitude in Zhengzhou. If it is a show anchor, it is not surprising that the income reaches this order of magnitude. "

How to pay taxes is determined by the cooperative relationship between the anchor and the platform. Li Sheng, a lawyer of Beijing Zhipu Law Firm, said that if the anchor works on the platform in an independent capacity and has a labor relationship with the platform, the platform should withhold and remit the labor remuneration at this time. If the anchor signs a labor agreement and broadcasts live as an employee, the tax shall be withheld according to the income from labor remuneration.

But high-income anchors basically do tax planning.

The anchors and stars of online celebrities are all high-income groups, earning millions, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, so it is easy to apply the highest tax rate of 45%, that is, the income of 100 yuan means paying taxes in 45 yuan. Li Sheng said that high-income anchors will obviously avoid paying taxes under the employment relationship, and choose another cooperative relationship with the platform-setting up studios in the form of sole proprietorship, partnership and individual industrial and commercial households.

Under this operation, personal income tax is paid according to business income, and only the highest tax rate of 35% is applied, which is 10 percentage point less. Coupled with the approved collection of studios in some places, the tax rate is extremely low according to the gross income, and the actual tax burden will be lower. However, he stressed that from the perspective of tax law, personal income should be taxed according to personal income, and company income should be taxed according to company income. It is not allowed to deliberately change income subjects and evade tax obligations.

According to Zang, Ph.D. in Finance and lecturer of Hebei Finance College, the way for high-income anchor groups to evade taxes is to change the nature of income, turn employment income into business income, and turn labor contracts into forms of labor cooperation. Therefore, it is the routine operation of high-income groups such as anchor to set up a sole proprietorship enterprise in combination with local policies, set up a company in a tax depression park and avoid taxes reasonably. "In order to attract investment, some industrial parks and local governments do return part or all of their personal income tax to taxpayers."

During the fermentation of the "Zhengzhou Internet Celebrity" incident, a "tax avoidance scheme" was circulated on the Internet, saying that if online celebrities adopt the "tax avoidance scheme", their tax payment ratio may be lower and their actual income will be higher accordingly.

Indeed, because of the particularity of the industry, there are some "hidden rules" for tax avoidance or even tax evasion. We analyze it from three types: game anchor, show anchor and cargo anchor.

Zhao Qi has been deeply involved in the operation of the game live broadcast platform. He revealed that there are at least three ways for game anchors on the platform to evade taxes.

The first way is "Yin-Yang contract". On the surface, the platform signed a relatively low-paying contract with the anchor, but the bulk of the salary was settled in cash.

The second way is to let the anchor find his own company, and the platform cooperates with this company to deliver benefits in the name of business dealings.

The third way is to let the anchor register individual industrial and commercial households (natural persons or families who are legally registered and engaged in industrial and commercial activities), and the platform settles with the anchor in the name of purchasing services or other projects, and the anchor tax rate is low; Or, let the anchor find the invoice himself, and the platform will reimburse the anchor as an employee.

"The game anchor of our platform earns hundreds of thousands a month. When the platform pays the anchor, it uses this operation to help the anchor avoid tax. " Anlo Zhao recalled that this operation was particularly common on 20 16, when the live broadcast of the game was in progress. At that time, the capital was crazy, and the game live broadcast platform had to pay a large price to grab people in order to grab the scarce game anchor.

On Anlo Zhao's platform, the game anchor only gets 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a month, and this income can't be kept at all. The platform basically pays hundreds of thousands of monthly salary to the head anchor. "But these anchors are unwilling to pay taxes and think that they should not pay this tax." Finally, the result of the game between the anchor and the platform is to help them avoid taxes in the above way. "This later evolved into an unwritten rule in the game live broadcast circle."

In the live broadcast mode, the anchor's main income comes from reward, and the reward transaction is platform-based and the tax avoidance space is small.

Anlo Zhao analysis, on the one hand, show anchors are not as scarce as game anchors, on the other hand, the show is a more mature business model, and the platform usually does not give the head anchor a high salary, but generally gives support in terms of traffic.

There are exceptions to everything. At the same time, he also mentioned that in the program anchor camp, when the anchor's bargaining power is strong enough, he will also take the road of game anchor. The platform will not take the initiative to help, and may acquiesce in some tax evasion.

Many people in the industry agree that in the anchor circle, the tax avoidance space of the anchor with goods is the smallest.

The methods of "yin-yang contract" and "cash settlement" are not applicable to carrying cargo anchors. Anlo Zhao mentioned that mobile payment can be traced back, both parties are real names, and cash is anonymous, which involves the issue of trust in practice.

Because the freight forwarding industry is concentrated in Hangzhou and Shanghai, but most manufacturers are not here, and the rise of freight forwarding is not long, resulting in insufficient trust between upstream and downstream, so there is no way to conduct cash transactions.

However, it is feasible to register stores in the name of individual industrial and commercial households, and some platforms are also encouraged. "If registered in the company, the VAT rate is 13%. Registered as a self-employed, you can enjoy the approved personal business income tax policy, and the tax rate can be reduced by 10 point. Now a large number of shops in Tik Tok are registered in the name of self-employed. " Anlo Zhao said that self-employed individuals can compensate this part of the cost to the anchor without paying so much tax, which is the way for the platform to help both merchants and anchors make money.

On the whole, the transactions of e-commerce anchors all take place in e-commerce and live broadcast platforms, and the data is open and relatively transparent, so it is not easy to evade taxes.

Wang Ran, the founder of pineAPPle, a live shopping app, mentioned that anchors with goods in their heads have the ability to talk about the supply chain and are not so dependent on the platform. However, most small and medium-sized anchors rely on the platform, and the selection and trading are carried out on the platform, so the possibility of tax evasion is relatively small. However, some small anchors will hang links to some non-platform products for sale. "These products are unknown, so it's hard to say."

Is Zhengzhou tax investigation a case of online celebrities paying taxes, or a prelude to the storm of online celebrities paying taxes?

On September 18, State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China issued the Notice on Comprehensive Management of Entertainment Field. In the near future, according to the settlement of personal income tax in 2020, star artists and network anchors with tax-related risks will be given one-on-one risk tips to urge rectification.

On September 28th, State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China said that the tax authorities had found that two anchors with goods were suspected of illegally converting their personal income into business income, making false declarations and underpaying personal income tax, which involved a large amount of tax, and had filed a case for investigation.

The fast live e-commerce industry and the high-income head anchor will inevitably become the key targets of tax investigation. According to the research report of iResearch, in 2020, the scale of the live e-commerce market in China will exceed10.2 trillion yuan, with an annual growth rate of 197.0%. It is estimated that the compound annual growth rate will be 58.3% in the next three years, and the scale of live e-commerce will exceed 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023. By the end of 2020, the number of industry anchors has reached 1.23 million. According to the above-mentioned insiders, at present, there are at least thousands of anchors with an annual income of over one million and an income of over 10 million or even over 100 million on various platforms.

More than one person in the industry told Pineapple Finance that it is easier to estimate the income level of the anchor with goods, especially the head with goods, and provided a calculation method. The income of the anchor with goods mainly includes two parts: pit fee and commission.

Calculate the pit fee first. Take Viya as an example, there are about 300 days in 365 days a year, and there are 40-50 pits in one night. According to the average pit fee of 654.38+10,000 for 30 pits, the pit fee of Weiya is 3 million for one day and 90 million for 300 days.

Calculate the commission part again. Anlo Zhao revealed that different categories have different commissions, generally between 10%-35%. In the field of consumption, the commission for general drinks is the highest, while that for 3C appliances is the lowest. The more transparent the price, the lower the commission ratio. Commission is also related to brand size. Big brands usually give 5%- 10% commission, while small brands are willing to give higher commission. In 2020, the total sales of Viya Live Studio will be 3 1 100 million yuan, and its commission income will be about 620 million yuan according to the average commission of 20%. "Anchors of the order of magnitude like Via and Li Jiaqi rarely refund in GMV. After the live broadcast, the refund has nothing to do with the anchor and does not affect their commission income." Anlo Zhao added.

Qujiang, the person in charge of an e-commerce platform, made a financial analysis of pineapple. Viya's personal income should be around 65.438 billion yuan. Of course, the money does not include the advertising revenue of Viya's Weibo and WeChat, and the money that Qian Xun earned from other stars and talents.

On the other hand, Qujiang believes that the companies behind VIA, Li Jiaqi and other super anchors, whether US ONE or Qian Xun, have been capitalized, and the cost of tax evasion is too high, which will not ruin the future with high probability.

"Hidden dangers are likely to happen to some middle-aged anchors in the industry and small anchors operated by mom-and-pop stores. Whether their finances are compliant needs to be questioned. " Qujiang said that under the premise that State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China said that "those who can actively report and promptly correct tax-related problems before the end of 20021can be given a lighter, mitigated or exempted punishment according to law", there may be a scene of large-scale tax payment for program anchors in 20 16.

With the strengthening of the reform of tax collection and management system and the upgrading of technical collection and management means of tax departments, the tax supervision of anchor groups will also be upgraded, and the loopholes that anchors can exploit will become smaller and smaller or even disappear. Zang Wenjian also mentioned to Pineapple Finance that the anchor is more convenient for tax authorities to collect because of the particularity of its online transactions; When the head anchor group becomes the key target of tax investigation, it will also curb the wind of "brushing performance" and "bragging and paying taxes", and will also curb the atmosphere of exaggerating GMV to a certain extent.

Wang Ran said that the development of the anchor industry, just like the development of the Internet industry in that year, the live broadcast will be from the initial personal site specification to the enterprise official website. Checking taxes will make the entire anchor ecology tend to develop healthily.

* The title map is from Pexels. At the request of the interviewee, Anlo Zhao and Qujiang are pseudonyms.