In a country where famous actors and singers receive huge salaries like Korea, tax evasion investigations always shake public opinion.
Many Korean stars have been involved in scandals due to tax investigations. Song Hye Kyo was fined 3.5 billion won after a 2012 tax investigation, Kwon Sang Woo was charged about 1 billion won in 2020, Park Hee Soon had to pay an additional 800 million won... This information all caused a stir in public opinion.
Osen newspaper reported that Kwon Sang Woo attracted attention when he bought 5 expensive supercars thanks to the management company's costs. After being investigated for tax, he sold this supercar fleet.
Actress Honey Lee was even charged up to 6 billion won (about 100 billion VND) in taxes, including income tax. This is the highest fine ever recorded in the Korean entertainment industry.
According to Seoul Daily, Korean A-list stars must speak up quickly to extinguish the tax controversy. Because, "if they are caught up in tax evasion allegations, a celebrity's life or their pure image will end."
The National Tax Administration of Korea said it is stepping up supervision of groups of artists who set up one-man companies and collaborated with other companies to evade taxes.
The tax-related scandal can also cause Korean artists to struggle, even losing their careers.
Song Hye Kyo herself was also criticized, having to bow her head to publicly apologize after being asked by the Gangnam Seoul Tax Department to pay a fine of 3.5 billion won in 2014. In many years after that, she was still affected by this noise.
Meanwhile, in the Chinese entertainment industry, many stars and celebrities have caused a stir with tax evasion cases of hundreds of millions of yuan.
Many famous Chinese people have been heavily fined for tax evasion in recent years, such as actor Pham Bang Bang, who had to pay 883 million yuan ($138 million) in 2018, or actress Trinh Sang, who was fined 299 million yuan ($46 million) this year.
In 2018, Pham Bang Bang evaded taxes and was charged with 883 million yuan (128 million USD). Pham Bang Bang's tax evasion method is said to be a trick that many entertainment stars apply, which is to use "adultery" contracts.
Contracts that the public see - that is, "salary" contracts - have a smaller amount of money and are contracts that will be used to declare taxes. In fact, the amount of money that the actor receives many times higher will appear in a confidential " confidential" contract and will not be taxed.
According to Sina Economic Magazine, Tong To Nhi also evaded taxes by setting up private companies to reduce the remuneration, then taking advantage of legal loopholes, converting business revenue to personal revenue.
In 2022, Sohu reported that the China Radio and Television Federation will issue a sample contract to recruit actors for TV dramas and web dramas. The new regulations further tighten the control of star salaries.
Artists are not allowed to receive salaries in cash, they must have a written contract. Rewards are not allowed to be paid in kind such as real estate, paintings, antiques, etc. to avoid taking advantage of increasing income compared to the amount of receipts. In addition, artists must closely distinguish between personal income, company income or representative office income.
