We specialize in providing one-stop financial and tax compliance services for cross-border e-commerce businesses, foreign trade companies, and entrepreneurs expanding overseas, helping them address everything from corporate structure setup to daily bookkeeping and tax filing, […]

We specialize in providing one-stop financial and tax compliance services for cross-border e-commerce businesses, foreign trade companies, and entrepreneurs expanding overseas, helping them address everything from corporate structure setup to daily bookkeeping and tax filing, […]

“The store’s been shut down—they’re not going to come after me now, are they?”

This is a thought that many online store owners keep to themselves.

Ren Wei, the actual operator of a cosmetics online store in Liaocheng, feels the same way.

In July 2024, he closed his business. No one could be found at the registered address, and the phone number was disconnected. It was as if he had vanished without a trace.

But he was dug up anyway.

The tax authorities obtained his bank transaction records—from two accounts, totaling more than 30,000 transactions—all of which were payments from e-commerce platforms.

The platform sales figures, the amounts deposited into the account, and the number of shipments made by the store—when these three sets of data were cross-checked, they all matched perfectly.

Ultimately, Ren Wei was ordered to pay back taxes, late payment penalties, and fines totaling 9,712,900 yuan.

In 2018, a video of her performing a gesture dance in a parking lot earned her 12 million new followers overnight, making her one of Douyin’s first-generation internet celebrities.

With 6 million followers, consistently high viewership in their live streams, products priced at hundreds of yuan each, and sales of hundreds of units per item—a live-streaming host like this should, in theory, be raking in a fortune.

However, the tax authorities’ findings regarding her tax filings were shocking: for the two online stores run by Wen Wan (real name Xu Jingwan), all tax and fee filings had been reported as zero since their establishment.

An online store with zero reported revenue, paired with a livestreaming channel boasting 6 million followers—this “hidden accounting” scheme was ultimately torn to shreds by tax big data.

In December 2025, the Third Audit Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau of the State Taxation Administration took action against Wen Wan in accordance with the law: it ordered her to pay back taxes and fees, imposed late payment penalties, and levied a fine, for a total of 6,319,600 yuan.

From overnight fame to overnight infamy—what exactly did she do? And how did the tax authorities uncover it? Today’s article breaks down this story in detail.

Xiao Wang, a live-streaming e-commerce host in Hangzhou, was still worrying about July’s GMV just yesterday. When he woke up today, his phone was flooded with news: On July 10, the State Taxation Administration announced that tax authorities in Shandong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, and other regions had simultaneously exposed seven cases of tax evasion involving internet celebrities and online stores. Four live-streamers were ordered to pay back taxes, late payment penalties, and fines totaling more than 13.3 million yuan.