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X-Men star Fan Bingbing slapped with $130 million fine for tax fraud
Chinese actor Fan Bingbing, popular for her role in X-Men: Days of Future Past, paid a heavy penalty to avoid criminal prosecution for tax-evasion.
China has slapped a fine of 884 million yuan (around $129 million) on Fan Bingbing, the country’s leading actress, for tax evasion, official news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday, months after she disappeared following allegations she was underpaying taxes.
The report in Xinhua said an investigation by tax authorities found Fan had split her contract to evade taxes of 7.3 million yuan ($1.1 million) over payments for her role in ‘Air Strike’, a film due to be released this year.
Fan and companies she represented also evaded 248 million yuan ($36.11 million) in additional taxes, Xinhua said, but gave no details regarding this figure.
“The tax bureau in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu delivered its judgment to Fan on Sunday, levying fines of more than 596 million yuan ($86.78 million) for tax evasion and assessing overdue taxes of more than 288 million yuan ($41.93 million)”, Xinhua said.
Fan, 37, disappeared from public life and stopped shooting for movies in June after the tax evasion allegations first surfaced.
Read | X-Men star Fan Bingbing goes missing in China after falling foul of authorities
According to a report by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Fan was released two weeks ago from “residential surveillance” at a “holiday resort” in Jiangsu used to investigate officials.
Fan, who has appeared in Hollywood productions X-Men and Iron besides several high-profile Chinese films, has been transferred to Beijing, the report added.
On Wednesday, Fan wrote a signed article on her Twitter-like Weibo account, which has 62 million followers, confessing to evading taxes and apologising for doing so.
“In recent days, I have experienced unprecedented pain, suffering, and deep and profound self-reflection. I am deeply ashamed of what I have done. I am here to make a sincere apology,” Fan wrote on her Weibo account.
“After the investigation by tax authority, I fully accept the series of penalty decisions made in accordance with the law. I will follow tax department’s final penalty decision, and do everything possible to overcome all the difficulties to finance, back tax, and pay the fine,” she added.
Experts said the government ordering Fan, China’s most recognisable movie star internationally, to pay up overdue taxes seems to be part of a larger crackdown on the massive entertainment industry on the mainland and Hong Kong and was a sharp message to the rest.
“The government’s message is clearly that falsifying salaries to skimp on paying taxes will not be tolerated. Fan Bingbing has been accused of reporting only 20% of her income to the tax authorities, and it’s widely believed that this is a nearly universal practice among Chinese stars and highly paid talent,” said Robert Cain, president of co-production company Pacific Bridge Pictures, which works both with Chinese and US entertainment producers.
“For the authorities to single out such a high-profile star sends a dark, chilling message to everyone who participates in the industry, especially those who engage in or support the fraudulent practices of which Ms Fan has been accused,” Cain said.
Cain added that at this point it’s difficult to say whether Fan’s career in the movie industry is over or not.
“It’s hard to say at this point whether Fan Bingbing’s career is over. If she shows contrition, pays heavy penalties, and willingly does her part in serving as a public example, she might be forgiven by the government, eventually,” he said.
“The message is meant to be clear. No one is safe! If Fan Bingbing, a great representative of China’s entertainment industry on the international stage, can be brought down so easily, and quickly lose all her endorsements, the rest of you better keep a low profile and self-censor yourself when it comes to activities in the public arena,” Stanley Rosen, a University of Southern California political science expert who focusses on China and its film industry, told HT last month.
“The Party has long been wary of the power and influence of celebrities, and their prominence on social media,” Rosen said.
Apology and fine will both likely be accepted but the damage to her rich career might have already been done.
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