Confusion due to "delay" between lease and tax code issuance
Recently, reader N.D.H (Ho Chi Minh City) sent a reflection to functional agencies about problems in regulations on tax payment for real estate leasing activities. According to sharing, Mr. H.'s business temporarily suspended operations and dissolved in 2022. During this time, specifically in June 2022, he signed a 5-year house rental contract.
However, because the administrative procedures related to enterprise dissolution lasted until July 12, 2023, so at that time, the homeowner was officially granted a personal business tax code (MST).
It is worth mentioning that immediately after being granted MST, the homeowner fully fulfilled the obligation to declare and pay tuition fees, value-added tax (VAT) and personal income tax (PIT) for 2023. The issue that worries Mr. H. is how the revenue from renting out houses in the last 6 months of 2022 - the time he was not granted MST - will be handled in accordance with the law.
Declaration obligations from the time of contract signing
Responding to this issue, a representative of the Regional Tax Department (Ho Chi Minh City) affirmed that, based on the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14 and current guiding circulars of the Ministry of Finance, tax obligations arise from the reality of business operations.
Specifically, for cases where homeowners have incurred house rental business activities from June 2022, taxpayers are required to declare and pay taxes from the time of signing the house rental contract, regardless of the time of being granted a tax code later. This means that, even if the tax code is new in 2023, the homeowner still has to declare additionally (recover) for the months leased in 2022.
To facilitate people, tax authorities have now strongly deployed digital platforms. Taxpayers do not need to go directly to the tax authorities but can declare electronic declarations through the Public Service Portal (dichvucong.gdt.gov.vn) or the Electronic Tax Page (thuedientu.gdt.gov.vn). In particular, tax payment can be done quickly right on the eTax Mobile application on smartphones.
