THE country has decided to initiate a campaign to regulate tax payment in the film and TV industry and promote its healthy development, according to a notice from the State Administration of Taxation (SAT).

The notice demands all levels of taxation authorities inform the film and TV firms and relevant personnel with exorbitant casting fees to conduct self-examinations of their tax payments since 2016 starting Oct. 10.

The affected businesses include production companies, talent agencies, performing companies and celebrities’ studios.

Those who make remedial payments to taxation authorities before Dec. 31 will be exempt from administrative punishment and penalties, the notice said. The taxation authorities will then move in at the beginning of 2019, and those who still refuse to take action will be severely punished.

The notice vowed to establish and improve the taxation system in the film and TV sector.

The campaign also targets violations and dereliction of duty of taxation officials.

The industrywide tax probe came after the famous actress Fan Bingbing and companies she represents were ordered to pay taxes and penalties totaling around 884 million yuan (US$128 million) last Wednesday after it was found that she had evaded taxes of more than 140 million yuan.

Fan was first accused of evading tax by the Chinese TV host and producer Cui Yongyuan.

The SAT’s regulation on rewarding whistleblowers of tax invasion states that whistleblowers could receive up to 100,000 yuan if the recovered tax reaches 100 million yuan or more.

Also, the tax office of Wuxi, East China’s Jiangsu Province was urged to make profound reflections and take practical measures to rectify itself, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday, citing the Jiangsu Provincial Tax Service of the SAT.

Five tax officials were punished Monday for mismanagement. Ding Yuan, director of the SAT’s Wuxi office, were given an administrative warning.

Li Qing, the office’s chief accountant, and Zhong Xiaoxin, deputy director of the Binhu District office, were given administrative warnings and removed from their posts.  (SD-Agencies)