A reduction in corporate income tax and a debt relief of the corporate tax of an amount estimated at VND542 billion are two main contents of the draft resolution on some tax solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles, as well as to promote the development of enterprises in Vietnam.
Appropriate tax reduction
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue stated that the issuance of the draft resolution is consistent with the guidelines stipulated in Resolution 35/NQ-CP dated May 16, 2016 on supporting and developing enterprises by 2020.
Thus, Deputy Prime Minister Hue asked the Ministry of Finance to urgently complete the draft resolution in the direction of the reviewing and narrowing the scope of application to ensure compliance with the spirit of Resolution 35/NQ-CP.
Along with that, it is essential to remove obstacles, particularly land rental tax policies applicable to enterprises.
The Ministry of Finance has asked the Government for consultancy on the policy content to amend and supplement the existing regulations that are applicable in a long term.
Specifically, the tax measures proposed such as reducing the corporate income tax to 17 per cent that is applicable to small and medium-sized enterprises, business start-up, and IT enterprises must be consistent with most of the provisions in the draft Law on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.
If the Law on supporting the small and medium-sized enterprises does not provide criteria and tax incentives as well as additional provisions on the draft resolution for timely implementation in 2017 and 2018, the Ministry of Finance will propose to the National Assembly and the Government to amend and supplement the tax law for a long-term implementation.
This will not regulate the income offset from the transfer of the real estate with the production losses from trading activities when the corporate income tax is determined.
The Ministry of Finance shall conduct the final review and evaluation on the implementation of the Enterprise Income Tax Law 32/2013/QH13, including the petition to the Government for amending and supplementing the law if necessary.
In addition, the income tax incentives for business investment activities regarding the upgrading of old apartments will be 15 per cent if this secures the separate accounting and the project is conducted in 2017 and 2018.
Removing deferred payment of tax debt relief
Deputy Prime Minister Hue also agreed to remove the deferred payment of debt for taxpayers who provide public goods and services paid by the state budget or paid late by the government that led to the deferred payment and late payment fines. As estimated by the Ministry of Finance, the amount of late payment expected to be considered for removal is more than VND542 billion.
However, under the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Hue, this draft resolution does not provide the regulations on debt relief, deferred payment, penalties for cases of dissolution, bankruptcy, and leaving the business, because this is related to the tax administration issues but the difficulties and problems of enterprises. In some cases, if necessary, the provisions will be regulated in written documents.
Namely, the number of tax arrears, late payment of money or fines due to dissolution, bankruptcy and leaving the business has been proposed to be removed for taxpayers are estimated at VND7,400 billion. The tax debt, deferred payment, and the fines that are estimated at VND6,700 billion are imposed on the taxpayers who had dissolution, bankruptcy, and leaving business for 2 years from 2014 to 2015.
Deputy Prime Minister Hue also requested to clearly explain the 50 per cent of personal income tax extracted from salaries and wages of individuals are applicable in the fields of high technology, agriculture, and agro-processing to remove difficulties for enterprises.
If necessary, this only applies to individuals working for small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of high technologies, because these sectors really need to be encouraged in the 2017 and 2018. In the long term, it is necessary to evaluate the proposals for amendment and supplement of the Law on personal income tax.
In regard to this issue, at the Government's regular meeting in October, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc required local authorities to implement synchronous measures to urge the tax administration and tax debt collection to keep the tax debt rate less than 5 per cent of the total revenues, compared with those in 2015.
PV
Vietnamese
