The wheels of 2021 are rolling by, and the tax authorities are still rectifying entertainment, equity investment and more silent fields. The era of tax evasion by high-income groups through “approved collection” is over.
“Actors and stars, including the live anchor, actually exploited the loophole of national tax before. They should not be small taxpayers, nor should they be approved for collection. Therefore, it is not the state that has changed the policy, but to correct the mistakes of the past.” On January 11, Wang Pengju, vice president and Secretary General of China Film and Television Association and steering member of Youth Work Committee, said at a salon on film and television finance and tax management.
This “corrective” measure runs through the whole year of 2021 and continues. The report of the State Council on the rectification of problems found in the implementation of the central budget and other financial revenue and expenditure audit in 2020 issued by the audit office on December 21, 2021 and its annexes show that in 2021, the State Administration of Taxation filed a case to investigate automobile sales, Shenzhen Agricultural Products Group Co.Ltd(000061) procurement The problem of tax evasion occurred in the fields of individual income tax payment of high-income groups, and 756 million yuan of tax was recovered.
At the same time, for the problem of tax evasion by high-income personnel applying the approved collection method, the State Administration of Taxation has selected 15 provinces with more approved collection to carry out pilot projects in two batches, and adjusted the sole proprietorship and partnership enterprises that meet certain conditions to audit collection. A total of nearly 80000 Enterprises have been adjusted and standardized, which will be promoted to the whole country in due time.
approved collection of abused
“Abuse is the main problem for live anchors such as Weiya.” Wang Yanghu, senior partner of Zhonghui Shengsheng (Beijing) tax agent firm, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
Verification Collection refers to a collection method in which the tax authorities shall adopt reasonable methods to verify the tax payable of taxpayers according to law when it is difficult to check the accounts due to imperfect accounting books, incomplete materials, or other reasons.
The corresponding is the audit collection, which is applicable to taxpayers with relatively sound accounting systems of account books, vouchers and financial accounting, who can truthfully calculate, reflect the production and operation results and correctly calculate the tax payable.
It can be seen that the tax evasion mode of many network anchors investigated in 2021 is mainly divided into two stages:
First, through the establishment of several sole proprietorship enterprises, the labor income obtained from relevant enterprises is converted into the operating income of sole proprietorship enterprises. According to the individual income tax law, the income from wages and salaries and labor remuneration belong to comprehensive income, and the excess progressive tax rate of 3% – 45% is applicable, while the excess progressive tax rate of 5% – 35% is applicable to the operating income obtained by individuals, There is a tax rate difference between conversions;
Second, because the accounting books of sole proprietorship enterprises are often imperfect and the data are incomplete, it is difficult to check the accounts. In most cases, taxes are levied according to the approved tax, and the approved income rate depends on the specific regulations issued by the local government. In order to attract investment and develop the local economy, some local governments often set the approved income rate very low. With such an operation, the actual tax burden of taxpayers can even be reduced to less than 10%.
“The approved collection was first formulated by the state based on two principles, the principle of tax efficiency and the principle of tax fairness.” Bo Lijia, a financial management consulting expert, explained at the above salon that because some stall vendors have no way to collect costs and income, and the magnitude is very small, the state gives a way to improve tax efficiency, gives certain tax requirements in a certain business location, business scope and business period, and pays according to the fixed collection standards of different industries.
Bo Lijia pointed out that this form was abused later. Especially among high-income people, he set up a studio to avoid tax and split his income into multiple studios, changing the nature of income.
In the past, when taxpayers had a labor relationship with company a, they belonged to comprehensive income. After setting up a personal studio, they became operating income to seek the lowest tax rate.
Nowadays, with the development of tax big data and the improvement of data transparency, tax supervision has changed from “mainly relying on experience inspection or external report discovery” to “relying on accurate classification supervision of tax big data”. For such events that violate the principle of tax fairness, since there is no audit and account establishment during the operation of each manual workshop, the regulatory authorities make up tax according to labor income.
In fact, not only the film and television entertainment industry has been rectified, but also the field of equity investment.
On December 30, 2021, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation issued the announcement on the collection and management of individual income tax on income from equity investment and operation (hereinafter referred to as the announcement), which said that from January 1, 2022, individual proprietorship enterprises and partnerships (hereinafter referred to as sole proprietorship partnerships) holding equity investments, stocks, partnership property shares and other equity investments, The individual income tax shall be calculated and levied in the way of audit and collection; The financial and tax departments at all levels shall do a good job in service and guidance, actively guide the sole proprietorship partnership to establish and improve the account books, improve the accounting and financial management system, and truthfully declare and pay taxes.
In the opinions on further deepening the reform of tax collection and management issued by the central office and the State Council Office in March 2021, it was clearly proposed to strengthen risk prevention, control and supervision for industries, regions and people with frequent problems of tax evasion. Subsequently, the Inspection Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation issued a document saying that for industries and fields such as the production and processing of agricultural and sideline products, the purchase and utilization of waste materials, the purchase and sale of bulk commodities (such as coal, steel, electrolytic copper and gold), profit-making education institutions, medical beauty, live broadcasting platforms, intermediaries, equity transfer of high-income people, we will focus on investigating and dealing with false invoices, concealment of income False listing of costs, malicious tax planning by using “tax depression” and related party transactions, and tax evasion by using a new business model.
Xinghan law firm pointed out in an article that there is a huge tax burden difference between approved collection and audit collection, which leads to some taxpayers willing to illegally fabricate business and realize the transfer of wage income and labor income to business income.
It is expected that with the adjustment of the collection and management ideas of the State Administration of Taxation, the “approved collection” will gradually fade out of the historical stage. In the future, the simple and rough use of the approved collection mode for the so-called “tax planning” will face greater risks and challenges.
correct opening method of “tax planning”
Wang Yizhi, founder and CEO of Zhongguan technology and founding partner of Fanying, believes that this round of tax supervision aims to adjust the national tax system and make the proportion of direct tax relatively balanced. At the same time, the secondary distribution is mainly distributed at the tax level, which also tests the professionalism of high-income groups in fiscal and tax management.
How can we manage our fiscal and tax issues in compliance and do a good job in tax planning?
In the context of comprehensive management of tax order in the film and television industry, Wang Yizhi believes that practitioners in the film and television industry should first make good use of digital tools. In recent years, the electronic development of government affairs has developed rapidly, and there are many financial management tools on the tax platform that can be used by themselves. In addition, practitioners should avoid registering multiple legal entities when their business scale is small, resulting in scattered revenue and expenditure, In the face of preferential policies of local and financial institutions, it is impossible to build valuable data for credit support.
“Investment focuses on the future of the enterprise, and bank loans mainly judge the future of the enterprise by referring to the data of the enterprise in previous years.
”Sun Jun, assistant president of Bank Of Beijing Co.Ltd(601169) national cultural and Creative Experimental Zone sub branch, also introduced at the salon that in the verification of enterprise tax information, Bank Of Beijing Co.Ltd(601169) united with Beijing Taxation Bureau to take enterprise tax information as a system condition and adopt a combination of Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) for examination and approval.
If you want to go to a personal studio for tax planning, Bo Lijia believes that practitioners set up commercial subjects such as studios, and then operate their commercial subject enterprises in compliance. They complete their obligations according to the contract signed with the partner according to the essence of the business, issue invoices and record them in the account, collect the expenses in the cost, and collect the net profit obtained from reasonable account establishment after audit and collection, Pay relevant taxes according to regulations and bear tax obligations. The amount after tax is the legal and compliant income.
Xinghan law firm also pointed out that if the entity established (the entity may be in the form of limited company, partnership, sole proprietorship, etc.), the substantive business is loaded, the cost accounting is clear, the legal form is rigorous, and supported by real business data and other supporting materials, even if the actual use is the tax preference (including financial return) policy of the place of establishment, Are unlikely to be identified as fictitious business and change the nature of income.
“Reasonable tax planning is based on real transaction relations and reasonable business logic. It is a transaction scheme that can disclose complete and true information to the tax authorities and explore the rationality of tax treatment.” Xinghan law firm mentioned that, however, reasonable tax planning does not mean that tax risks can be completely eliminated, because tax authorities may have different understandings and opinions from taxpayers on the same transaction facts and tax policies; However, reasonable tax planning should completely eliminate the identification of tax evasion.
On the issue of tax treatment after the change from approved collection to audit collection, the State Administration of Taxation issued an announcement saying, “If an enterprise can provide an asset purchase invoice, the amount specified in the invoice shall be taken as the tax basis; if it cannot provide an asset purchase invoice, it may rely on the asset purchase contract (agreement) The amount recorded in the capital payment certificate and accounting materials shall be used as the tax basis. After the assets put into use during the period of verification and taxation are changed to audit and taxation, the depreciation and amortization amount shall continue to be accrued for the remaining years and deducted before tax in accordance with the depreciation and amortization life stipulated in the tax law after deducting the service life of the assets. “
