Companies use leaked private information to fake employment and avoid tax

Police in East China’s Jiangsu Province are investigating a case involving the private information of over 2,000 students being leaked and used by companies across the province to evade tax.

More than 2,600 students in Jingjiang-based Changzhou University Huaide College recently found they were already “employed” by companies, with their information illegally used.

Jing Xiaobing, deputy-dean of the college, said that the private information of those students has been used mainly by two insurance companies. Most of the students graduated in 2014 and 2015. The victims account for one third of the total number of students, said the report.

Xiao Wang, a 2018 graduate from the college, found in early September that he has been “employed” by an insurance company he never worked for with a monthly income of 3,500 yuan ($510), according to China National Radio (CNR).

Local police in Jingjiang received reports from students starting September 7 and are investigating the case.

Bu Hua, a tax expert at the School of Management of China University of Mining and Technology, said the companies evaded tax by fabricating expenditures in employees’ salary to reduce their profits when paying tax.

However, Bu said that the students involved will not be influenced in their credit records and their further employment if the employment record is being eliminated.

A manager, surnamed Zhao, at a Jiangsu-based insurance company admitted students’ information was being used to evade tax to a CNR reporter impersonating a student.

Zhao said the company has already turned itself in to the local administration of taxation and would help eliminate the record of employment and compensate the students.

The company has the information of about 1,700 students, which was given by a source from the college, said Zhao, declining to identify the person.

Colleges trust many institution with information related to medical records, bus tickets or bank cards, so the information of students is likely to leak, according to Jing.