A Risk Worth Taking: How Social Media is the Key to Success

A young woman by the name of Fan Bingbing, has been China’s biggest movie star for years. Her fame and success was largely due to her social media presence and celebrity status on Weibo, a popular Chinese site. However, little did she know that this would be the downfall of her career as well. In July 2018, it was discovered that Fan had been misreporting how much money she made from several major film projects in order to avoid paying taxes on them. The scandal quickly spread across the internet with people calling out where they suspected she may have hidden some of this money overseas or bought property under other names. This led to many investigations into her tax evasion schemes which ultimately ended up erasing all traces of herself from the internet. She was a major celebrity in China, but her sudden disappearance from the spotlight has some people wondering why she did this and how it could have happened in the first place?

The Chinese government has always been very stringent about its citizens paying taxes because they do not want tax evasion to become a systemic problem like it is in developed countries where there are loopholes in the tax system that enable people to avoid paying taxes. In China, if you are found guilty of tax evasion it is punishable by law and can include a warning or jail time.

However, most common tax evaders in China only get away with small fines compared to how much they were able to evade.

For example, according to a report released by China’s Ministry of Public Security, tax evasion cases increased from 9718 in 2014 to 1.5 million in 2017, but the average fine was only around $1,712.Theoretically, if you have enough money and connections it is easy for you to get away with avoiding taxes even though there are a lot of people trying to stop you.

As a result, it is much harder for government officials to punish the rich and powerful because they have a good network of wealthy individuals who know how to avoid taxes as well as well-established connections that can mislead or prevent investigations from going through. In Fan Bingbing’s case, she used her celebrity status to gain access to the elites and elites have been known for being able to evade taxes.

X-Men actress Fan Bingbing was fined $129MUSD in August 2018 for tax evasion after she failed to pay £35.3 million $56million in owed taxes between 2013-2015, but her disappearance from China’s social media has created a question of whether or not her punishment is enough considering all the money she stole from China.

Many people believe that Fan was targeted by Chinese authorities for being a well-known celebrity and using her connections to gain access into the elites to evade taxes. According to China Research, “Fan’s case shows that the Chinese is trying to widen the tax net for those who have made significant profits from local and international media, as well as those wealthy individuals whose largesse does not seem to be enough.” However, others speculate that Fan likely paid a fine for her crimes.

X-Men actress was fined $129MUSD in August 2018 for tax evasion after she failed to pay £35.3 million $56million in owed taxes between 2013-2015, but her disappearance from China’s social media has created a question of whether or not her punishment is enough considering all the money she stole from China.

Many people believe that Fan was targeted by Chinese authorities for being a well-known celebrity and using her connections to gain access into the elites to evade taxes. According to China Research, “Fan’s case shows that the Chinese is trying to widen the tax net for those who have made significant profits from local and international media, as well as those wealthy individuals whose largesse does not seem to be enough.” However, others speculate that Fan likely paid a fine for her crimes.

X-Men actress was fined $129MUSD in August 2018 for tax evasion after she failed to pay £35.3 million $56million in owed taxes between 2013-2015, but her disappearance from China’s social media has created a question of whether or not her punishment is enough considering all the money she stole from China.

Many people believe that Fan was targeted by Chinese authorities for being a well-known celebrity and using her connections to gain access into the elites to evade taxes. According to China Research, “Fan’s case shows that the Chinese is trying to widen the tax net for those who have made significant profits from local and international media, as well as those wealthy individuals whose largesse does not seem to be enough.” However, others speculate that Fan likely paid a fine for her crimes.

X-Men actress was fined $129MUSD in August 2018 for tax evasion after she failed to pay £35.3 million $56million in owed taxes between 2013-2015, but her disappearance from China’s social media has created a question of whether or not her punishment is enough considering all the money she stole from China.