HCMC taxman to launch tax probes into 20 celebrities The HCMC Department of Tax will open investigations into incomes of 20 celebrities in the entertainment sector in order to collect personal income tax for last year. The investigations include meetings with them. Le Thi Thu Huong, deputy director of the tax agency, told the Daily that the list of 20 celebrities had been approved. The list has been decided based on evaluations of tax offices on their estimated income and fame. “They are believed to get high earnings. We have yet to look into their final tax reports as tax file collection was just finished on March 31,” Huong said. In the coming time, the personal income tax department will invite local artists to discuss the issue. The agency will also contact the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which licenses artists to perform, and show organizers to collect artist income information last year. Based on the data, the agency will calculate tax rates and collect more taxes if the artists are found to file meager levels. Tax offices at grassroots levels will also work with other celebrities outside the list. However, Huong acknowledged that it was difficult to determine the exact incomes of local artists. It takes a lot of time to gather data and compare figures between the administering unit and show organizers. Some artists have negotiated with show organizing enterprises over remuneration rates in contracts, which are lower than the real figures. Therefore, the tax agency does not expect too much that the scheme would help increase tax collections, Huong added. Last year, the department discussed with over 20 celebrities about their income tax collections in 2012. As a consequence, five artists agreed to pay nearly VND1.4 billion more. Aside from celebrities, the agency has plans to probe other high-income earners such as doctors, insurance agents and lecturers. However, as a lot of people are working in the areas in HCMC, the agency will reach just a certain number of taxpayers. For instance, there are up to 116,000 insurance agents in the city. The tax agency had worked with just some of them to discuss tax collection, causing a positive impact with other agents voluntarily filing taxes, Huong said. The agency completed collecting final personal income tax reports on March 31. There were nearly 17,000 files submitted, up nearly 2,000 files against the previous year. Those include nearly 6,900 files of tax rebate and 7,400 others that taxpayers would have to pay more compared to initial calculations. SGT