Once a top celebrity in China, Fan Bingbing suffered a severe blow to her reputation in 2018 due to tax evasion and was subsequently blacklisted, with no domestic roles even to this day. On the 8th, China’s State Taxation Administration announced that during the first 11 months before 2025, 1,818 "double high" individuals—including many celebrities and internet personalities—were investigated, recovering a total of 1.523 billion yuan (approximately RM880 million) in taxes and late fees. On average, each person had to pay back about 840,000 yuan (around RM490,000). The announcement sparked heated discussion among netizens.
Recently, Chinese authorities have been actively pursuing tax collections. The "double high" individuals refer to those with an annual income over 1 million yuan (around RM582,000) or investment assets over 10 million yuan (about RM5.826 million). Tax authorities stated that these cases originated from a variety of sources, including acting in films, participating in variety shows, income from short video platforms, and even investment returns.
The Chinese tax authorities also encourage taxpayers to proactively correct dishonest behavior. This year, a total of 1,168 major tax evasion and dishonest entities have taken "self-corrective measures, achieving credit repair" and have been removed early from the "blacklist," up 40% year-on-year.
The news has stirred up netizens, with comments such as: “1,818 people??? If this list is published, the entertainment industry is going to be completely reshuffled, 1.5 billion...”, “So outrageous, should be made public”, “No wonder it’s so hard to make money these days, all the wealth is in a few hands”, “Please provide the list, thank you”, “Support thorough investigation”, “Credit repair, the Chinese language is truly profound.” Reflecting back on Fan Bingbing’s incident in 2018, she was fined 880 million yuan (about RM510 million) for tax evasion. Although she avoided criminal charges after paying the fine, her career suffered greatly and her work has largely shifted overseas.
Source: China Times News Network