Simplify procedures, reduce costs for business households
In the process of perfecting tax policies for business households, the goal set out is to simplify declaration and tax calculation, reduce compliance costs, especially for small-scale business households accounting for the majority.
According to the plan being proposed by the Ministry of Finance, the revenue threshold applying the simple tax calculation method for business households may be significantly increased compared to the current level.
Ms. Cao Thi Thanh Lan - Deputy Head of the Income Tax Department, Department of Tax, Fee and Charge Policy Management and Supervision (Ministry of Finance) - said that the Ministry of Finance has submitted to the Government a plan to raise the revenue threshold applying the simplified tax method from 1-3 billion VND to 3-10 billion VND/year for business households.
Data from the tax authorities, in 2025, there are about 2.7 million households and individual businesses nationwide under tax management. In which, the group with revenue below 1 billion VND/year accounts for 96.23%; the group from 1 to 3 billion VND accounts for 2.84%; the group over 3 to 10 billion VND accounts for 0.73%, and the group over 10 billion VND only accounts for about 0.14%.
Thus, if the revenue threshold is increased from 3 billion VND to 10 billion VND, the group of households with revenue over 3 to 10 billion VND will switch from the income tax calculation method to revenue tax calculation.
According to Ms. Lan, this plan will help simplify tax declaration and calculation and reduce compliance costs for business households. Accordingly, business households only have to implement a simpler bookkeeping regime, using one accounting book instead of four books as at present, and at the same time do not have to determine costs to calculate taxable income.
Mr. Bui Anh Tuan - Director of the Department of Private Enterprise Development and Collective Economy (Ministry of Finance) - informed that the proposal to raise the simple taxable revenue threshold for business households to 10 billion VND/year is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly at the October session this year.
If this plan is approved, 99.86% of business households will apply the tax calculation method based on revenue" - Mr. Tuan said.
According to Mr. Tuan, before calculating personal income tax, the revenue of business households is deducted from the tax exemption threshold of 1 billion VND. The revenue exceeding 1 billion VND will be taxed according to the corresponding ratio for each industry. "The point of view is how to minimize costs for business households" - Mr. Tuan said.
Reduce the pressure of declaration and bookkeeping for business households
From the experience of consulting for businesses and business households, Ms. Vu Thi Binh - Director of Binh Vu Business Administration Consulting and Training Co., Ltd. - said that the revenue threshold of 10 billion VND is a suitable level, especially for wholesale households and agents.
According to Ms. Binh, raising the threshold for applying the revenue-based tax calculation method will help business households reduce the pressure to prove input costs. Revenue-based tax calculation can also help reduce some accounting costs. However, for simplification to be truly effective, invoice policies also need to be designed closely to the actual operation of business households.
This is especially noteworthy for business households on e-commerce platforms, where one household can generate thousands of invoices per day. If there is no appropriate invoice issuance mechanism, business households may have to hire outside accountants to handle, thereby increasing costs.
Current pressure is not only in costs but also in the psychology of worrying about mistakes" - Ms. Binh analyzed, when businesses have to handle many requests related to the time, information and content of invoices.
From this reality, Ms. Binh proposed considering a combined invoice mechanism for small orders of individual customers. Meanwhile, orders with large value or transactions with businesses need to have separate invoices.
Simplification also needs to be recognized in the accounting management stage. According to Ms. Binh, commercial households with inventory still need software to manage goods, input and output invoices, and revenue data. Therefore, policy simplification should not only stop at reducing the number of books but also simplify the way of managing and processing data behind them.
For households with revenue over 10 billion VND, accounting for only about 0.14%, the new proposal will put most business households under tax according to revenue. However, it is necessary to continue to improve regulations on invoices, books, and data management to reduce substantive compliance costs.
