Business households worry about inventory items for decades, no documents
When the roadmap for converting from contract tax to declaration is widely deployed, one of the biggest problems for businesses is handling inventory goods purchased before the new regulation is applied. Many items have existed for many years, no longer have invoices and documents, causing people to confusion in tax declaration and payment.
A jewelry business household is wondering how the inventory of stones that were in stock for 5-10 years ago will be calculated when switching to tax declaration? Because this is a long-standing inventory, not a product that has a long history of use but can be kept for a long time. So when decorating for tax, how will this inventory be included in the books?
Not only the jewelry business group, many households selling handicrafts or high-end fashion inventories are also facing similar difficulties. A trader in Cau Giay (Hanoi) said: "We have imported many goods since 2016, bought them from acquaintances or from many different sources and do not have invoices or documents. Now if the tax authority requires declaration, I am very worried, because there are no more documents to prove it".
Need for flexibility in handling inventory
Regarding the concerns of business households, Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc - Chairwoman of the Vietnam Tax Consulting Association - said that the principle of inventory is to have legal invoices and documents to prove the origin - where to buy, exploit or import - to avoid the situation of counterfeit goods and goods of unknown origin. However, most business households previously paid contract tax, so they did not care about input invoices.
According to Ms. Cuc, when switching to declaration, the tax of goods will be calculated on the selling price multiplied by the prescribed tax rate, not based on the time or original purchase value. "The principle is to determine the origin of goods: whether resource tax has been paid or not, whether it is legal or not...".
"For goods that are not subject to smuggling or counterfeit goods, I propose that if business households still pay taxes according to the declaration form and have not transferred them to the enterprise, the tax authority may not collect the input invoice, but allow the seller to pay tax on the selling value according to regulations" - Ms. Cuc expressed her opinion.
She also said that in the case of a jewelry business household moving to a business, it is necessary to determine the value of inventory at the time of conversion. This requires a specialized valuation center to determine value so that businesses can use it as a basis for calculating reasonable capital prices.
"We propose to allow the valuation council to be the basis for making inventory statements, for example, at the time of inventory on December 31, if the inventory report identified a rock worth 2 billion VND, that value could be considered the capital price to calculate tax when selling. This will help businesses feel secure in converting, avoiding the fear of having to retrieve old invoices" - Ms. Cuc said.
Tax authorities confirm that they will not recall old invoices if the goods are legal
On the tax authority's side, Mr. Mai Son - Deputy Director of the Tax Department (Ministry of Finance) - said that for households trading in high-value goods, it is important that the goods must be of legal origin and not violate the law.
"The goods may be bought from people, the sellers no longer need to use them. As long as the goods do not violate ownership rights, are not counterfeit or poor quality, the tax authority will record and assess the status of the goods when the household switches to declare" - Mr. Son said.
He said that business households will declare and pay taxes themselves, while tax authorities are responsible for supporting, guiding, and together determining the expected value and revenue. Business households need to declare and fully list to prove the origin of inventories. The determination of value should be based on inspection, market price and specialized valuation results.
"During the conversion period, there will certainly be problems, but the tax industry will guide households to determine the correct value of goods. In addition to the tax sector, market management agencies and specialized units will also coordinate to control goods and prevent counterfeit and violating goods" - Mr. Son emphasized.
According to the representative of the Tax Department, similar situations have been prepared by the tax sector in the guidance document, and at the same time, officers in charge have been arranged for each locality, area and hotline to receive and promptly respond to taxpayers.
The Deputy Director of the Tax Department shared that the shift from contract tax to declaration is an important step towards a transparent and fair system, helping people be more proactive in fulfilling their tax obligations.
He emphasized that the Tax sector is committed to continuing to review legal regulations to reduce administrative procedures, creating maximum convenience for business households and enterprises. The Tax Department is also coordinating to build a truly simple accounting regime, suitable for each scale of operations, from the group of households with revenue under 200 million VND to under 3 billion VND, helping people easily declare and make financial transparency.
"We hope that people can rest assured that the Tax sector will ensure transparency, fairness and accompany taxpayers to comply with regulations. When the tax authority has accompanied, I am confident that there will be no administrative violations due to mistakes; if there are errors, the tax authority will be responsible for guiding and supporting to overcome them" - Mr. Mai Son affirmed.
