Chinese actress Zheng Shuang fined USD 46 mln for tax evasion

Chinese actress Zheng Shuang has been fined 299 million yuan (USD 46 million) for tax evasion.

Shuang, who served as a brand ambassador of Italian luxury fashion brand Prada, was ordered to pay 299 million yuan(USD 46 million in fines, taxes and penalties for tax evasion on Friday, and was also banned from participating in all shows by the National Radio and Television Administration, according to Global Times.

Zheng had failed to declare 191 million yuan of personal income, evaded tax of nearly 45.27 million yuan and accumulated tax arrears of 26.52 million yuan from 2019 to 2020, Kyodo News reported citing Xinhua News Agency.

Prior to Zheng, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing was fined about 883 million yuan for tax evasion and other offences in 2018.

The leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping has been stepping up surveillance on the nation's movie and TV industries, as tax evasion and fraudulent accounting have been rampant in the field, Kyodo News reported.

Recently, China has also toughened its regulation on the country's tech companies by passing sweeping new rules about the collection and use of personal data.

China has been cracking down on its tech giants. Chinese President XI Jinping recently delivered a big blow to Wall Street investors when he crushed Didi after US investors pumped billions of dollars in it.

The Chinese companies ordered the removal of the Didi App from the app store citing data privacy concerns and its stock dipped 30 per cent of its original value just sometimes after many US investors landed billions into it.

And this situation is getting worse, huge Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent are paying fines against various allegations. The Chinese government is still de-stalling many companies that have raised money from the US market.

( With inputs from ANI )