Tighten tax collection on celebrities who livestream to sell products

The tax industry has compiled a list of celebrities with large revenues from livestreaming and e-commerce affiliate marketing to classify risks and conduct inspections this year.

At the regular press conference on the afternoon of January 7, Mr. Mai Son, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation ( Ministry of Finance ) said that according to regulations, organizations and individuals, regardless of whether they are famous or not, must self-declare and pay taxes if they have income from business.

"They must be responsible for the State budget obligations," Mr. Son said.

Tax authority leaders said they monitor, supervise, and increase tax management measures for some cases of celebrities and influencers (KOLs, KOCs) participating in livestream sales and affiliate marketing. Among these, the tax industry "filters" the list of celebrities who generate large revenue from livestream sales, to classify them for risk and inspection.

Along with this group, the number of individuals doing business on e-commerce platforms under review is about 76,428 people. The tax authority has handled violations of 30,029 individuals, collected and imposed fines. 1,223 billion VND .

Recently, the tax sector has focused on reviewing Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - two localities with strong development in services, entertainment and many famous people doing business on digital platforms and e-commerce. Accordingly, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department has set up a team to exploit the list of individuals who are famous, create sales content, livestream on social platforms to be subject to tax inspection this year. In the first review, the tax authority identified 35 artists and famous people doing business on digital platforms and e-commerce platforms who are required to declare and pay taxes.

In addition, many famous people selling goods and doing business online voluntarily register and pay taxes. For example, in Ho Chi Minh City, a beauty queen paid 4.7 billion VND in taxes.

In Hanoi, tax authorities determined the total revenue from e-commerce activities of a group of celebrities to be about 900 billion VND last year. The amount of tax they paid about 13 billion VND.

Currently, the country has nearly 725,000 organizations and individuals doing business on e-commerce platforms, with a total transaction value of more than VND 75,000 billion, according to data from 439 platforms provided to tax authorities. Tax revenue from this sector has continuously increased over the past three years. Specifically, revenue in 2024 will be about VND 116,000 billion, a significant increase compared to the VND 83,000 - 97,000 billion recorded in the previous two years.

The tax authority also built an electronic portal for individuals to declare and pay taxes. They also connected and shared data from ministries and online sales platforms to have a sufficient database of taxpayers. "The tax authority can extract taxpayer data from Sendo, Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop platforms to review declarations, compare, and handle violations," said Mr. Son.

Last year, the size of Vietnam's retail e-commerce market was estimated to exceed 25 billion USD, an increase of 20% compared to 2023.

In addition to individuals doing business on e-commerce, tax authorities also tightened management of collection from foreign suppliers. Currently, there are 123 foreign suppliers registering for tax through the electronic information portal.

Accumulated from March 2022 - the time the electronic information portal for foreign suppliers was put into operation, foreign enterprises have paid about 20,000 billion VND. Of which, the Meta group (Facebook), Google, Microsoft, TikTok, Netflix, Apple... hold about 90% of the market share of cross-border e-commerce service revenue in Vietnam.

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