Worrying about small shipments
Every day, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu (47 years old, An Phong ward, Hai Phong) wakes up at 3am to cook broth, wash vegetables, slice meat, and prepare for a small noodle shop right in front of her house. The restaurant only has a few sets of plastic tables and chairs, serving regular customers around the village. Every day, she sells about 3035 bowls, for 20,000 VND per bowl, with a revenue of only about 600700,000 VND/day.
"It was more than 200 million for the whole year, but the profit was not much" - Ms. Thu sighed.
According to her, each bowl of vermicelli with milk is less than 2,000 VND. A pot of broth must use dozens of ingredients: Meat, bones, vegetables, vermicelli, spices... plus electricity, water, gas, dishwashing, cleaning, each day costs nearly 400,000 VND. Working all day only makes a profit of a hundred, a hundred and a half. On rainy days or when there are no customers, it is considered a loss of capital. Here, many businesses in An Phong ward (Hai Phong) have revenue exceeding 200 million VND/year but the real profit is just enough to live on. As prices increase, income does not increase, we have to struggle to cope every day" - she said.
Not only Ms. Thu, many small businesses in An Phong are also facing similar concerns. Mr. Do Dinh Toan (55 years old) - the owner of a small grocery store in a residential area - said that the store's revenue is about 250 million VND/year, the highest being for holidays and Tet, but the cost of importing goods accounts for 80%.
"For every import of a million VND, the profit is 100150 thousand VND. If the tax is calculated based on revenue, it is considered as capital. We are small businesses, have little profit but still have to take care of our children's education and our old mothers' medicine. I just hope the State will consider making it so that small traders can feel secure in doing business" - he said.
Not far away, Ms. Ngoc Mai sells breakfast in front of the primary school gate and wakes up at 4am every day to prepare bread, pate, sausages... Each cake costs 1020 thousand VND, every morning she sells 7080 servings, earning about 1 million VND.
"Except for ingredients, melon, bags... it costs about 700,000, the rest is about 300,000 VND in interest," she calculated. A month of steady selling will result in a profit of 56 million, a year's revenue of more than 200 million VND. "If we only count revenue and taxes, small traders like me would suffer. The whole family gets up early to work together, it's like taking advantage of the labor to make a profit," she said.
Many business households in An Phong frankly shared that they only have enough to maintain their lives. The restaurant often takes advantage of the porch or yard corner, and family members take turns helping. Every day starts from early morning, preparing goods, cleaning, serving customers and then collecting until late at night. After deducting expenses, the remaining amount is only enough to cover living expenses and children's education, rarely there is a surplus. For them, keeping the restaurant open regularly and their temporary life is a precious thing.
The taxable revenue threshold will be recalculated to ensure fairness for business households
Mr. Tong Van Doanh, former tax officer in charge of tax collection in An Phong ward (Hai Phong) said that determining the income threshold is to encourage business households to declare transparently and ensure tax fairness. However, with the characteristics of small business, "the threshold of 200 million VND/year may not accurately reflect the actual loss and interest of the people".
According to him, the local tax authority always records the opinions of business households and will recommend that superiors consider to have policies more suitable to actual conditions.
Regarding the taxable revenue threshold of VND 200 million/year or more, Deputy Director of the Tax Department Mai Son also said that current statistics show that if the revenue threshold of VND 200 million/year is applied, about 44.4% of business households will be exempt from personal income tax. According to him, the design of this threshold has taken into account the ability to support small business groups.
Mr. Son shared that the tax sector is in the process of transitioning from contract tax management to self-declaration, so the tax authority will continue to monitor, assess the actual impact and listen to people's feedback. If necessary, the tax authority will propose to adjust the revenue level more appropriately to ensure a policy that is close to reality, he said.
On November 19, at the National Assembly's discussion session on the draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) and the Law on Personal Income Tax (amended), Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang said that the Ministry will propose recalculating the starting revenue threshold to apply tax to business households to make it more suitable.
The Minister agreed with the opinions that the current method of determining the taxable revenue threshold is showing inadequacy, not creating fairness for workers with income from wages and salaries.
The leader of the Ministry of Finance said that in the process of amending the law, the Ministry of Finance is also considering raising the taxable income threshold for salaried workers. Therefore, the tax policy for households and individuals doing business also needs to be recalculated, especially the taxable revenue threshold, to avoid the situation where business households feel disadvantaged compared to the group of salaried workers. The Minister affirmed that he will receive opinions and study a more suitable starting level for business households.
