Chinese cryptocurrency mining firm Bitmain has been fined approximately $3.7 million for failing to pay personal income taxes in accordance with China’s tax collection laws, according to reports from Qichacha, China’s data registry of private and public companies.
Beijing-based cryptocurrency mining company Bitmain, one of the world’s largest, has been fined around 25 million Chinese yuan (about $3.7 million) by the Beijing Municipal Office of the State Administration of Taxation for failing to pay personal income taxes in accordance with China’s laws on the administration of tax collection.
The penalty was imposed on April 4, 2023, according to China’s data registry of private and public companies, Qichacha, after Bitmain allegedly failed to pay personal income tax for its employees, including salaries, bonuses, labor dividends, allowances, and more.
This news comes after tax inspectors delivered notice of certain tax violations to Bitmain in August 2022, but the company’s Beijing unit has so far failed to pay the personal income tax totaling 16.6 million yuan ($2.4 million).
Bitmain, founded in 2013, has gained fame for manufacturing cryptocurrency mining-specific hardware and solutions. However, the company was forced to halt its operations in China in October 2021 in response to a blanket ban on cryptocurrency imposed by the Chinese government in September 2021.
Despite regulatory uncertainty and a major bear crypto market in 2022, Bitmain’s business has continued to see success. In December 2022, the company’s latest Antminer device reportedly sold out in less than a minute despite tanking mining profitability.
Bitmain’s founder Jihan Wu, who left the company in 2021, set up a $250 million fund in September 2022 to support the mining industry affected by the prolonged cryptocurrency winter. Wu also founded Bitdeer, a new cryptocurrency mining firm and a spin-off of Bitmain. It is unclear how Bitmain has been running its operations since the Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency.