Commenting on the draft Law on Personal Income Tax (amended), ministries and branches proposed expanding the scope of tax exemption, but the Ministry of Finance affirmed the principle of equality between all individuals with income up to the taxable threshold.
In the process of commenting on the draft Law on Personal Income Tax (amended), the Ministry of Public Security recommended studying and supplementing regulations on tax exemption for income such as salaries, wages and wages paid from the state budget.
Because according to Point a, Clause 1, Article 5 of the 2025 State Budget Law, revenues from taxes in general and personal income tax in particular are state budget revenues. Therefore, the state budget paying salaries, wages and other items of salary and wages to employees, then collecting personal income tax on the salary and wages paid by the state budget to the state budget, creates additional processes, procedures, departments and personnel to collect the state budget.
Responding to this content, the Ministry of Finance said that the Law on Personal Income Tax (PIT) is applied uniformly to all individuals with income reaching the tax payment threshold. Raising the issue of excluding salaries and wages paid by the state budget is inappropriate and can easily cause mixed reactions in public opinion.
The general principle of the law on personal income tax is that individuals with the same taxable income must fulfill their tax obligations equally, regardless of whether they are public or private employees. The deduction for individuals is also regulated equally.
The Ministry of Public Security also recommends studying personal income tax exemption for "overtime pay", "night shift pay", " severance pay", "difficulty pay". These are encouraging amounts, compensating for risks for workers. If taxes and policies are calculated to encourage overtime and productivity bonuses, the impact will be reduced, while causing disadvantages for unskilled workers and night shift workers.
In addition, this agency proposed to clarify the criteria for determining unregistered assets in income from inheritance and gifts to ensure transparency, avoid applying arbitrations; at the same time, study and add digital assets (electronic money, virtual assets) to the taxable list to keep up with modern financial trends. Responding to the recommendations, the Ministry of Finance said that the current Law has relevant provisions and the draft continues to inherit.
