Following the exposure of network anchor Huang Wei (Weiya) suspected of tax evasion, the construction of relevant systems was put on the agenda.
The state Internet Information Office, the State Administration of Taxation and the State Administration of Market Supervision recently issued the opinions on further standardizing the profit-making behavior of webcast and promoting the healthy development of the industry (hereinafter referred to as the opinions).
“opinions” requires to further standardize the profit-making behavior of webcast and promote the healthy development of the industry
webcast platform should better implement the responsibility of management subject
In recent years, webcast has played an important role in promoting flexible employment and serving economic development. However, at the same time, the profit-making behavior of webcast also has some problems, such as inadequate management responsibility of webcast platform, non-standard commercial marketing behavior, tax evasion and payment, which restricts the healthy development of the industry and damages social fairness and justice.
To this end, the opinion requires that the webcast platform should better implement the responsibility of the management subject, and should carry out authentication and registration of the webcast publisher based on identity document information and unified social credit code in strict accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations and the principle of “background real name and foreground voluntary”, and carry out dynamic inspection and verification to ensure the authenticity and credibility of the authentication information webcast platform shall report the personal identity, live account, network nickname, reward account, income type, profit status and other information of the webcast publisher with the profit-making behavior of webcast to the local provincial webcast department and the competent tax authority every six months
According to an expert from the tax department, relevant measures will help standardize the tax management of the live broadcasting industry.
“For a long time, the anchor’s live broadcasting revenue sources include the salary of the live broadcasting platform, user rewards, advertising revenue, e-commerce sales performance sharing and other forms. Different live broadcasting platforms have different regulations on various income and distribution proportion, and the taxable information is not made public. The above factors increase the difficulty of tax management and need the cooperation of the live broadcasting platform.” The tax expert said.
Dongxing Securities Corporation Limited(601198) believes that in the short term, the top anchor involved in tax issues is concentrated on Taobao, or further strengthen the trend that Taobao platform has been diverted by other platforms in recent two years; In the long run, with the dual functions of marketing and sales, the live broadcasting room has become an important sales channel for many Chinese and foreign brands, and the market scale of live broadcasting e-commerce will continue to expand.
According to iResearch consulting data, in 2020, the scale of China’s live e-commerce market exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, with an annual growth rate of 197.0%. The number of anchor employees in the industry soared by 1234000, and the scale of live e-commerce will exceed 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023.
shall not pass on the obligation of withholding and payment through the “association”
The Opinions also requires that webcast platforms and webcast service institutions should clearly distinguish and define the sources and nature of various income of webcast publishers, and perform the obligation of withholding and remitting individual income tax according to law, shall not establish a “guild” of webcast publishers, rely on a third-party enterprise, or sign an exemption agreement with webcast publishers that does not perform the obligation of withholding and remitting individual income tax, Pass on or evade the obligation of withholding and paying individual income tax shall not plan or help the webcast publisher to evade taxes.
What is a guild? The guild is the general name of various institutions that provide content planning and production, publicity and promotion, fan management, signing agency and other services for anchors.
“At present, some guilds attract anchors with the benefits of ‘tax avoidance’, and sharing is their main profit model.” The person in charge of a live broadcasting industry in China told reporters.
Some live broadcasting platforms also avoid risks through guilds. The platform usually does not sign a contract with the anchor directly, but signs a contract with the guild. If a network anchor violates the law because of live broadcasting, the responsible party is the anchor and the anchor’s guild. The link of accountability to the guild will stop and will not be investigated to the live broadcasting platform.
Industry insiders believe that the opinion proposes that individual income tax withholding and payment obligations should not be passed on or evaded through “associations”, which further compacts the management responsibility of the live broadcasting platform and contributes to efficient tax collection and management.
The Opinions also requires that tax related crimes such as tax evasion be investigated and dealt with in accordance with the law, and typical cases with serious circumstances, bad nature and strong social response be publicly exposed. Intermediaries and relevant personnel who plan for the webcast publisher in violation of laws and regulations and help implement tax evasion shall be severely dealt with and publicly exposed in accordance with the law.
leading enterprises with strong product power will take the initiative
The Opinions also requires that the marketing behavior of webcast be standardized and the market order be maintained.
The webcast platform and the webcast publisher shall not conduct false or misleading commercial publicity on the main body of commodity production and operation and the performance, function, quality, source, honor, qualification, sales status, transaction information, business data and user evaluation of commodities, deceive and mislead consumers or the relevant public, and shall not help other operators to carry out the above-mentioned acts.
The webcast platform and the webcast publisher shall not use the service agreement, transaction rules and technical means to impose unreasonable restrictions or impose unreasonable conditions on the transactions and transaction prices of other operators in the webcast room, or charge unreasonable fees from merchants.
Dongxing Securities Corporation Limited(601198) believes that with the further standardization of the profit-making behavior of webcast, the brand side may give more play to the role of anchor in marketing and publicity, and grasp the pricing power and sales channels in its own hands. In the future, brand webcast will play a greater role in sales.
Guotai Junan Securities Co.Ltd(601211) analysts believe that the live broadcasting industry will enter the stage of strict investigation and integration, and the competition for online traffic among enterprises is expected to enter a more moderate stage in the future. More enterprises may use their own live broadcasting team, and the investment in sales expenses will be reduced to a certain extent. At the same time, the competition among enterprises will gradually return to the level of product power. The head enterprises with mature marketing team and strong product strength will have more competitive advantages.
