On the afternoon of November 19, the National Assembly discussed two draft laws on Tax Administration (amended) and the Law on Personal Income Tax (amended).
Speaking to clarify the content of the Law on Personal Income Tax (amended), Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang said that regarding the partial progressive tax table, we used to have 7 levels, now reduced to 5 levels.
Through discussion in groups and halls, some delegates suggested keeping the 7 levels. The Minister said that he will coordinate with the National Assembly agencies to study.
Regarding the proposal to tax personal income on gold bar transfers, Minister Nguyen Van Thang stated that the biggest goal of this tax policy is not to increase budget revenue, but to adjust gold trading behavior, limit speculation, and avoid putting pressure on the gold market and foreign currency market.
"When the gold market is affected by speculation, it is the people who are the most affected because of unusual fluctuations in gold prices," said Minister Nguyen Van Thang, emphasizing that this tax policy is one of many solutions to contribute to stabilizing the gold market, and after reviewing, there is no tax overlap in this policy.
Regarding the issue of family deduction by region, the Minister of Finance said that the family deduction for taxpayers or dependents is a specific level according to the general level of society, regardless of whether the person has a high or low income.
If the deduction threshold in rural areas is lower than in urban areas, then invisibly, taxes have been imposed on people with low incomes, difficult living and working conditions...
Previously, households and individuals doing business carried out tax obligations according to the contract tax method, that is, they determined their own revenue and paid at that rate. Up to now, the new collection method requires business households to declare according to actual revenue and not use contract tax.
The Minister emphasized that when switching to this new collection method, taxes previously suffered huge losses, especially in developed economic regions.
"The tax calculation method remains the same and the taxable threshold is better. Previously, over 100 million VND/year had to be paid in taxes, but now it has increased to 200 million VND/year. Therefore, it is impossible to say that we are making it difficult for businesses, said the Minister.
However, the minister expressed his agreement with the opinions of the delegates that there are shortcomings in the way of calculating the tax collection threshold for business households, not creating fairness compared to workers with income from wages and salaries.
"In Vietnam, we have a saying that we are not afraid of shortage, only afraid of being unfair," said the Minister and said that in this law amendment, we are considering raising the taxable income threshold for salaried workers, therefore, the tax policy for households and individuals doing business also needs to ensure a fair level for this group.
Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem of ensuring that the tax rate of business households must be commensurate with the tax rate currently collected for salaried employees. That is the reason why the Ministry of Finance proposed to increase the taxable revenue threshold for business households to over 200 million VND/year.
However, through the suggestions of the delegates, the Minister of Finance said that this revenue threshold must still be recalculated so that business households do not feel more disadvantaged than the threshold starting to collect taxes for salaried workers.
In which, it will study to have a suitable starting tax threshold for business households.
