2023-08-14 09:35:48
With several billion users, social networks are now the preferred channel for companies to communicate about their products. Faced with growing competition, the use of content creators is essential to carry out a marketing campaign.
In return, the activities of influencers on social networks generate income that can be substantial. Observers say there is some vagueness surrounding the tax treatment of these gains and governments will soon want to take a closer look.
“Influencers, or content creators, use social media platforms to share content – text, links, photos, videos – to attract followers. They are known to have a certain influence on their audience in order to create or encourage consumer habits and trends,” sums up a tax lawyer.
Even if we generally agree on the definition of the activity of content creators on social networks, the tax framework that governs their tax obligations is subject to interpretation, which complicates the task of professionals responsible for financial planning for these customers, experts said.
“It’s a new subject, which brings a new practice. There is little case law on the issue and that which does exist will evolve,” said the lawyer.
At the World level
In Tunisia and until today, no specific legal status or law applies to influencers. This absence of a specific legal framework leaves the field open to slippage.
Even at the global level the situation is no better. In France, it was not until last June that a law was adopted (n° 2023-451 of June 9, 2023) aimed at regulating commercial influence and combating abuses by influencers on social networks.
This law begins by defining the activity of the influencer: “The natural or legal persons who, for a fee, mobilize their notoriety with their audience to communicate to the public, by electronic means, content aimed at promoting, directly or indirectly, goods, services or any cause engage in commercial influence activity electronically”.
This new French law then lists a series of conditions to be respected, with requirements and prohibitions. The French legislator obliges any influencer whose activity of content creation is commercial to “inform it within the one-stop shop according to the category of service activities – information services – influencer and creator”. They must be “registered in the trade and companies register and in the national register of companies and their income declared in BIC in addition to affiliation to Urssaf – SSI”, according to the portal of the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty for influencers with a commercial activity.
Also, those whose “content creation activity is not intended to promote goods or services in return for an economic benefit or a benefit in kind are informed within the one-stop shop according to the category of service activities — information services — community manager, web ergonomist, professional blogger, web editor”.
Those whose activity falls into the “artistic creation” category, they are “informed within the one-stop shop according to the category “Service activities — Arts, culture and entertainment — Creative, artistic and entertainment activities — Videographer, vlogger, blogger “”. Considered as “independent”, they are “registered only in the national register of companies, their income declared in BNC or withholding tax by a third-party broadcaster and are affiliated, after validation, to the social security of artists authors”.
In Côte d’Ivoire, the Minister of the Digital Economy recalled, in March 2022, the importance of the regulation of social networks. “It would be dangerous to let the idea prosper that expressing yourself on social media can take the place of democratic deliberation, of civic engagement. We are obliged to engage very quickly in these new means of communication, with a view to bringing together all the means to protect the ICT environment, to succeed in securing information and personal data, “he said. , preferring to talk about supervision rather than talking about regulation.
Since this declaration, the government has adopted two bills on media and communication regulation. According to initial information, bloggers, activists and influencers will be subject to rules as strict as journalists on the ethical and deontological levels, if these two bills are adopted by deputies.
For some, this project threatens freedom of expression. “Why take this prescription by adding the words bloggers, influencers and webactivists? Isn’t this done to further censor or control everything that is said on these different platforms? We are fighting so that people can have more ways to denounce things by using everything that is social networks and the Internet today”, questioned the vice-president of the pan-African network of bloggers AfricTivistes.
Find a formula is a necessity
Regardless of the nature of the activity carried out in this context, content creators must set up a declared legal and fiscal structure. This can range from a simple “patente” or a sole proprietorship with limited liability to a limited liability company or even a public limited company. No authorization or specifications are required.
In respect of freedom of expression, the limits set by various Tunisian laws remain applicable. Including the provisions of Decree-Law No. 2022-54 of September 13, 2022, relating to the fight against offenses relating to information and communication systems. These include matters relating to defamation, denigration, the spread of false news, and others, in particular those relating to competition, prices (which remain free), technical specifications, products subject to marketing authorization on the market and with the mandatory information.
According to Amine Ben Gamra, chartered accountant, auditor and member of the Order of Chartered Accountants of Tunisia, “just as there is no particular legal status, the law does not provide for any specific tax regime for influencers. The tax regime applicable to the remuneration of the influencer, whether it is sums of money or products provided by the brand in exchange for his performance, depends on his legal status. His income is taxed in the category of salaries and wages, like any traditional salaried employment. They must be declared each year between April and June in this category. It is recalled that as part of the withholding tax, the employer brand is required to collect the tax due by the employee influencer and pay it to the tax authorities. The taxation of the income of the self-employed influencer depends on the legal structure he has chosen to manage his activity. In the majority of cases, its income is taxed in the category of non-commercial profits (BNC). They must be reported in the annual tax return. Income received by underage influencers is taxable and must be declared by their parents.
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