Surging News reporters Wu Yuxin, Tian Zhongfang, Shao Bingyan
The restart of celebrity concerts is the engine of the recovery of the concert market this year, in addition to words such as "grabbing tickets", "refunds" and "scalpers" frequently appear in the complaints of fans, "it is difficult to open invoices" is also one of the complaints. An invoice for a concert ticket can be issued a month or more after the show.
Recently, a number of consumers reported to the surging news reporter that they bought concert tickets on ticketing platforms such as Damai, Maoyan, and Fun Island, considering that the ticket price is more expensive, they hope that the platform can issue an invoice, and when they contact customer service, they found that the invoicing process is cumbersome and the waiting time is long, "The platform customer service said that the invoice is generally issued one month after the performance, but I waited for two months and did not receive it." ”
Who will issue the concert invoices, why do you have to wait so long, and if not, will the ticketing platform and the organizer be suspected of tax evasion?
Who will issue the invoice?
"The price of a ticket for a popular concert is not low, and the customer service replied that the ticket will be issued a month after the performance. In addition, on the ticketing platform, there is a handling fee for refunds, for example, Eason Chan's 2,580 yuan ticket, the refund fee is more than 500 yuan, so can this fee also be invoiced?" said a consumer.
The surging news reporter inquired about the Damai, Maoyan, and Fun Island APP, and basically the ticket purchase instructions for each project are listed with "invoice instructions", but the requirements are not uniform, some provide electronic invoices, and some collect consumers' express delivery fees in advance, and send paper invoices after the performance. On the project details page of Damai and Maoyan, consumers are mostly required to register their invoices before the performance starts, while Fun Island requires them to submit an invoice application within one month after the performance ends.
Damai and Maoyan customer service both told the surging news reporter that if the user urgently needs an invoice, the customer service will try to help register and urge and give feedback, but the invoicing speed cannot be guaranteed, and the invoice issuance time displayed on the page can only prevail. Judging from the communication between the reporter and the customer service, the rules of each project are not the same, and it needs to be looked at specifically, and there are almost no invoices issued before the performance.
Who will issue the invoice for the concert tickets? Is it a ticketing platform?
In this regard, Damai told the surging news reporter that the issuer of the invoice is the performance organizer, and after the performance, the platform will transfer the relevant information of the invoice to the corresponding organizer as soon as possible, but the specific processing cycle depends on the organizer, and the platform will generally return it to the user the next day through the way (email or courier) filled in by the user.
Maoyan responded to the surging news reporter that the invoice for the concert project is basically issued by the organizer, and the platform assists users in following up the progress of the project organizer's ticketing, and the platform has received relevant appeals and suggestions.
Can you issue an invoice for the refund fee incurred for concert tickets? Damai said: "Yes." ”
Maoyan customer service said: "For the refund fee, we can help you register normally depending on the situation, and the specific situation needs to be subject to the actual situation." ”
Why is invoicing so slow?
In the eyes of consumers, the invoice issued by the organizer is not enough to be the reason for the slow aging of the invoice, "we consume on the platform, naturally we can only find the platform customer service, if I go to the supermarket to buy a bottle of Coke, do I have to find the manufacturer that produces Coke to issue an invoice?" said a consumer.
According to the surging news reporter, under normal circumstances, concerts and other large-scale performances will have a sponsor, the organizer entrusts the ticket management to the ticketing company, and the ticket collection account in the ticketing system is often not the ticketing company, but the organizer's special account for ticket payment. Therefore, the invoice is usually issued not by the ticket company, but by the organizer. However, in the event of special circumstances such as the ticketing company itself being the organizer or being authorized by the organizer to issue the ticket as an agent, the ticketing party may also be the ticketing company.
"The practice of the performance industry is that the invoice will be issued only after the performance is over, because there is uncertainty such as cancellation of the performance, if the invoice is issued in advance, once the actual situation changes, it may involve issues such as invoice recovery and invalidation, which will bring more unnecessary trouble to consumers. Damai told The Paper.
Wu Guigen, deputy general manager of Superconducting Culture Media (Taizhou) Co., Ltd., which has hosted many large-scale offline music festivals, told The Paper that the slow performance invoice is mainly due to the time it takes to reconcile, "It is generally 21 days, and the peak season will be extended." ”
"There are many kinds of concert tickets, not only tickets for ordinary consumers, but also free tickets and group tickets. For example, the ticketing platform sends the ticket paper and printer to the organizer, and after the event, the organizer returns the equipment and the remaining ticket paper, and the amount and quantity of the ticket issued by the organizer must match, including the part that has been issued in hand and has not been verified, and both parties must check that it is correct and there is no dispute. Wu Guigen told The Paper that the ticket paper they purchased from the ticketing platform has a special (anti-counterfeiting), and the remaining blank ticket paper must be recycled, and if it is lost, it will face high compensation.
Li Xin, tax director of Grant Thornton, also told The Paper that the ticket payment for large-scale performance activities usually comes from a large number of individual consumers, which will produce a huge amount of information and data that needs to be accounted for and compared, especially the personal information of the ticket payment is likely to be inconsistent with the registered invoicing information and other special circumstances, which will also increase the difficulty for the organizer's invoicing personnel to check the invoice information.
Why do some agents sell tickets that are more time-sensitive and can be issued in just a few days? Wu explained: "In the secondary market, such as the Ferris wheel platform, tickets are sold with a fixed denomination, and their reconciliation is very simple. Our cooperation with the first-level platform, you can understand that the ticketing platform gives the organizer how many blank pieces of paper, the organizer will sell it, and we will reconcile it after the sale. Except, of course, e-tickets, which are just how we work with ticketing platforms for paper tickets. ”
"If the invoice is issued for the consumer before the performance, and the performance changes and the refund is made later, is the invoice going to be red? When facing tens of thousands of people, every small detail will become a big problem because of the base. Wu Guigen said.
It is reported that consumers purchase, pay, and submit invoicing applications through the system built by the ticketing company, so they can only contact the ticketing company directly to follow up the relevant progress. In order to alleviate consumer complaints, ticketing companies generally follow up the progress of the relevant invoicing process in a timely manner, but they cannot replace the organizer's invoicing in nature.
Is it compliant to wait for several months to issue invoices? Is it suspected of tax evasion if not issuing invoices?
"This is because the proceeds from the sale of show tickets need to go through procedures such as auditing and settlement to ensure that all payments have been received and confirmed, and waiting time may be necessary. According to the relevant temporary tax registration and other regulations, it may be necessary to complete the procedures such as fund settlement and temporary tax registration cancellation as soon as possible after the event, so consumers should also pay attention to the need to contact the invoice issuance in time according to the ticket purchase instructions to ensure that their legitimate rights and interests are not affected.
Zhao Zhanzhan, a lawyer at Beijing JAVY Law Firm, also told The Paper that it is the legal obligation of the operator to issue an invoice to the consumer, but the law does not stipulate the specific time for issuing the invoice, "Concert tickets are different from other commodities, and it is reasonable to wait for a month. ”
It is worth noting that many consumers do not have the awareness of invoicing concert tickets, if they do not issue invoices, will it involve the platform or the organizer to evade taxes?
In this regard, Li Xin explained to the surging news reporter that from the perspective of tax professionalism, tax evasion and tax evasion are two different illegal acts, and their nature is essentially different. As a compliant organizer and ticketing company, they should adopt a legal and compliant approach to business operations, and conduct accurate fund accounting, accounting processing, and tax declaration and payment in accordance with the law. According to the relevant tax laws, taxpayers engaged in business activities calculate and pay taxes based on taxable income, so they should fulfill their tax obligations in accordance with the law, regardless of whether the income is in the form of bills. With the rapid advancement of the fourth phase of the mainland golden tax, the modern tax collection and management system has become more powerful. Therefore, in a more precise and intelligent new regulatory environment, the space for illegal acts such as tax evasion has been greatly reduced.
"According to our past experience, from the perspective of the special cooperative relationship between the organizer and the ticketing company, which is both interdependent and mutually restrictive, many large-scale performance activities involve a huge amount of ticket revenue, and the two parties usually hire a third-party professional organization from the perspective of prudence and fairness to conduct a special IT audit for the ticketing system built for the event to ensure that the revenue is authentic, accurate and complete. Li Xin said.
A relevant partner of the Big Four accounting firms told The Paper: "On the whole, there are no tax problems in it. ”
It is understood that Article 22 of the "Measures of the People's Republic of China for the Administration of Invoices" stipulates that invoices shall be issued in accordance with the prescribed time limit, sequence and columns, and all copies shall be issued truthfully at one time, and paper invoices shall be stamped with special invoice seals. Article 26 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Measures of the People's Republic of China for the Administration of Invoices stipulates that units and individuals who fill in invoices must issue invoices when the business income is confirmed in the occurrence of business operations, and invoices are not allowed to be issued without business operations.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Qin Hong Text Editor: Lu Xiaochuan Title Image Source: Shangguan Title Map
Source: Author: The Paper