Artist's income cash flow
Accordingly, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department will review the declaration and payment of taxes of high-income individuals in 4 areas, including: Health - Health, Education - Training, Sports - Culture - Tourism and Legal - Real estate brokerage.
In the field of culture and art, the tax authority will review the income and tax declaration and finalization of actors and professional performers.
For a long time, the income of artists has always been considered complicated and difficult to control, when the income flow comes from many places, paid by many different units.
The income of actors and performers (including singers) comes not only from professional activities, but also from advertising contracts, brand representation, event attendance, livestreaming, image exploitation, copyright fees and business activities, personal channels on digital platforms.
Because revenue comes from many different fields, with different collection levels, many Vietnamese artists have been involved in countless controversies about how to declare and pay personal income tax.
Talking to Lao Dong reporters about the topic of personal income tax for artists, Lawyer Hoang Ha (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) said, "Reviewing taxes for actors and professional performers is very necessary. First of all, because the income of this group often originates from many sources and many paying units.
Some amounts have been deducted at source, but the amount of temporarily deducted tax may not fully reflect the tax obligation to be finalized according to total income in the year.
Personal income tax law requires the declaration, deduction, payment and finalization to be based on the nature as well as the overall taxable income.
According to lawyer Hoang Ha, strictly managing the cultural and artistic field is a way to ensure fairness between salaried workers, who are deducted tax fairly fully, and those with high incomes but dispersed through many contracts or cash flows.
Singers and "unbelievable" cat-xe levels
In the performing arts world, the jobs of singers (especially famous singers) often enjoy high cat-xe. Accordingly, the cat-xe level is also paid depending on the scale and level of investment of the producer for the performance or concert.
According to Lao Dong reporters' investigation, at the time the shows "Anh trai say hi", "Anh trai vuot ngan chong gai" season 1 ended, along with the popularity of the singers emerging from these 2 shows, their cat-xe prices also "inched up".
A show organizer revealed that the highest level can be up to 700 million VND/show, the average level is about 300-400 million VND/show.
In addition, famous singers, ranked as "A-list stars" in the performing arts world, can demand cat-xe prices of up to 1-1.2 billion VND/show.
Famous singers are also sought after by brands, advertisements, and events, willing to pay "sky-high" prices to get their presence.
With "huge" income sources, controlling cash flow has been raised, is it a difficult problem?
Lawyer Hoang Ha said, "The income of singers is indeed more difficult to control than ordinary salaries, but it does not mean that it cannot be managed. A singer can perform for many units, in many localities, receiving fees directly, through management companies or intermediaries. In addition to performing, they also have income from advertising, copyright, digital platforms and image exploitation. If the payments are not contracted, documented or made in cash, the risk of missing out on tax obligations is quite clear.
However, lawyer Hoang Ha analyzed that it is not advisable to base on information that a singer receives a cat-xe of several hundred million or billions of VND to implicitly consider the entire amount of money as personal income.
The contract value may include band, dance troupe, management, costume, technical, travel expenses or be paid to the representative business.
The tax authority needs to correctly identify the recipient, the nature of the money and the actual income of the artist.
The program organizing unit and the payer must declare and deduct according to their obligations. Contracts, invoices, payment accounts and data from platforms need to be connected for cross-checking.
The current Law on Personal Income Tax and the Law on Tax Administration have created a basis for data-based management, but the application must be transparent and ensure the accountability of taxpayers.
As payment data becomes increasingly digitalized, information comparison will help limit budget revenue loss and raise self-awareness of compliance.
