On Monday, tax authorities from Zhejiang Province ordered Huang Wei, better known as Viya, to pay penalties and overdue taxes totaling 1.34 billion yuan (US$206 million).
Her livestreaming account on shopping site Taobao was banned on Monday night. Social media platform Weibo and video-sharing app Douyin also suspended her accounts.
Instead of paying taxes based on her personal commissions from livestreaming, she set up various business consulting entities as shell companies to evade taxes.
Huang is a top Taobao livestreamer focusing on apparel, food and beverage products, as well as daily groceries.
On the first day of the pre-sale kickoff for this year's Singles Day on October 20, Huang raked in 8.5 billion yuan in transactions on her livestreaming session on Taobao.
The tax evasion was linked to the period between 2019 and 2020. Huang offered to pay 500 million yuan after an investigation was opened against her.
Huang would not be subject to criminal charges if she would follow the administrative orders and pay the overdue tax on time, according to an official notice by the tax authorities.
