China has ramped up audits involving online influencers and high-wage earners, reports the South China Morning Post. The move looks to recover billions in unpaid levies amid slumping land sales and value-added tax revenue decline.
As China’s digital infrastructure matures, top-tier influencers are leveraging massive audience engagement to generate premium earnings. Consequently, they have become a focal point of Beijing’s intensified tax scrutiny as regulators seek to broaden the national tax base amid fiscal pressures.
The taxation administration said that in the first 11 months of 2025 it had investigated 1,818 “high-income, high-net-worth individuals”–including online influencers and celebrities–recovering RMB 1.52 billion in unpaid taxes.