Tax Audit · Full chronicle and history

Many private entrepreneurs in Shanghai are facing pressure to pay massive back taxes, with some billionaires having to borrow hundreds of millions of yuan in cash just to barely meet their tax obligations.

On October 22, the Huairou District Tax Bureau of Beijing issued an announcement, serving 21 individuals with Notices of Tax Matters, requiring them to self-inspect the establishment of and participation in offshore trusts, submit materials within 15 days, and declare and pay individual income tax in accordance with the law.

According to a Bloomberg report on September 28 citing sources familiar with the matter, Chinese tax authorities have formed task forces consisting of local officials, tax inspection experts, and regulators to track the taxation of wealthy individuals, with some task forces specifically targeting a single billionaire.

Multiple private business owners reported that after deregistering their companies they still received notices to pay back individual income tax and to have their undistributed profits verified; some were required to restore their tax registration, and one company's application for deregistration was rejected by the system on the grounds that its declared revenue did not match. The related topic trended on the hot search.

The National Audit Office of China released an audit work report revealing that between 2023 and 2025, the Bank of China used employee capital contributions to "make up numbers" and packaged private equity funds as public funds, evading a cumulative 2.367 billion yuan in taxes.

The Auditor General publicly disclosed issues such as tax avoidance by the Bank of China, local financial circular churning, and fire safety violations to the National People's Congress.

On June 14, 2026, multiple Counter-Strike 2 players reported receiving notices from local tax authorities requiring them to pay additional taxes on hundreds of thousands of yuan in transactions and earnings from third-party skin trading platforms.

China recently ordered a strict investigation into corporate tax back payments and fines of all kinds, extending the audit lookback period from five years to twenty years, with all revoked and deregistered companies also being re-examined.

China has recently required stricter reviews of the overseas historical investment records of companies and residents, extending the look-back period from five years to 20 years.

The tax authorities demanded that Wangjing SOHO pay approximately 1.733 billion yuan in back land appreciation tax, plus a late payment surcharge of 0.05% per day; by the end of 2025, the principal, interest and late fees had rolled up to 2.566 billion yuan.