Business households reduce tax burden pressure
In the latest plan submitted to the Government, the Ministry of Finance proposed raising the tax-exempt revenue threshold to VND500 million/year, and at the same time applying a new tax calculation method: Only collect tax on the part of revenue exceeding the threshold instead of calculating it on the entire revenue. The Ministry also recommends adding a method of calculating tax based on income (revenue minus expenses) with a tax rate of 15%.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan - 42 years old, owner of a noodle shop in Cau Giay (Hanoi) - said that if the tax-free revenue threshold of 500 million VND/year is applied, "the pressure on business households will be significantly reduced". Every morning, her restaurant sells about 70 - 100 bowls of noodles, with no small revenue, but the actual profit is quite low due to a series of increasing costs such as meat, vegetables, broth, gas and wages. "If we only calculate taxes on the revenue exceeding the threshold, we will be more assured, especially in months when revenue has decreased sharply" - she said.
On Xuan La Street, Tay Ho (Hanoi), Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, 35 years old, a grocery store owner, said that the new proposal is more suitable for the reality of small business. Ms. Ha shared that the store had to maintain many fixed expenses such as: Electricity, water, sales software, transportation of goods and monthly import price fluctuations. "If you choose to calculate tax on the portion of revenue exceeding the threshold or calculated according to profit, grocery households will be more balanced, especially at times when purchasing power is low" - she said.
About 90% of business households will not have to pay taxes
Assessing the tax-exempt revenue threshold according to the new proposal, Mr. Le Van Tuan - Director of Keytas Tax Accounting Company Limited - said that the level of 500 million VND/year according to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance is built on three groups of grassroots.
The first group is practical factors. The report of the Ministry of Finance shows that as of October 2025, the whole country has more than 2.54 million regular business households. If the threshold of 500 million VND/year is applied, about 2.3 million households, equivalent to 90% of business households will not have to pay taxes.
The second group is similarities in tax policy. Salary workers are entitled to deduct from themselves, dependents and compulsory expenses related to insurance, health care, and education before calculating taxes; therefore, there needs to be a reasonable revenue threshold for business households to ensure relatively fairness.
The third group is fairness between groups of individuals doing business with each other, between non-taxpayers and taxpayers, including value added tax.
On the other hand, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tu - lecturer at Hanoi University of Business and Technology - said that the new way of calculating tax based on income is "correct in nature", because income tax must be calculated from interest, not revenue. This view is also being agreed by many experts and tax consultants.
Ms. Le Yen - Chairman of the Board of Directors, concurrently General Director of Hanoi Tax Consulting Company Limited (HanoiTax) - commented that tax calculation needs to be based on added value or new profits that accurately reflect business reality. Revenue is a rough figure, not including any expenses. A household can have a revenue of several hundred million or several billion VND, but the actual profit after site clearance, electricity, water, operation, capital... is sometimes only a few million. If tax is directly included in all revenue, most households will not be able to bear it, she said.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc - Chairwoman of the Vietnam Tax Consulting Association - highly appreciated the proposal to calculate income tax on profits, because business households only have to pay taxes if they have a profit and do not have to pay when they are at a loss. According to her, this is an approach to ensure more transparency and fairness.
Ms. Cuc emphasized another important change in the new tax calculation method, which only affects the revenue exceeding the tax exemption threshold. She gave an example: If the tax exemption threshold is 300 million VND/year, households with a revenue of 301 million VND will only calculate the tax on the part exceeding the threshold of 1 million VND, instead of calculating the entire 301 million VND as at present. That is a very basic change, good news for business households and individuals, she said.
