Two-Year E-commerce Tax Collection Totals VND180 Trillion

This figure was disclosed by Mr. Mai Son, Deputy Director of General Department of Taxation, during a press meeting on tax management information for e-commerce.

According to Mr. Mai Son, in recent years, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce has developed very strongly, powered by the boom of scientific and technological revolution. To effectively manage this field, the tax sector has drastically launched short-term and long-term measures and solutions with its jurisdiction to strengthen tax management in e-commerce like advising and proposing the Government and the National Assembly to promulgate tax regulations to strengthen the legal basis for tax management in e-commerce, enhancing the responsibility of central agencies, e-commerce platform operators, foreign suppliers and partners in Vietnam for e-commerce.

The tax sector has informed and supported taxpayers in diverse and effective forms, helping spread governmental policies on healthy, competitive and sustainable e-commerce development. It has launched information technology applications to facilitate e-commerce organizations and individuals to carry out tax procedures online.

To enhance tax and e-commerce administration, General Department of Taxation has been closely coordinating with relevant e-commerce authorities by signing working coordination agreements and advising the Government to introduce Directive 18/CT-TTg dated May 30, 2023 on strengthening connection and data sharing for e-commerce development, preventing tax loss and ensuring monetary security.

Besides, the tax industry has approached e-commerce with eight platform categories: E-commerce platforms; e-commerce websites and applications; social media platforms; traffic, transportation and delivery platforms; agent platforms; subscription platforms; advertising platforms; and application store platforms.

In addition, the sector has also classified taxpayers engaged in e-commerce into two major groups.

The first group provides domestic goods and services, including e-commerce platform owners, organizations and individuals providing domestic goods and services through e-commerce platforms, social networks and other platforms.

The second supplies goods and services across borders (including foreign suppliers without permanent establishments in Vietnam that conduct e-commerce or digital-based business with organizations and individuals in Vietnam; Vietnamese organizations and individuals with income from posting products and digital information contents on foreign platforms; organizations and individuals providing cross-border goods and services through e-commerce platforms and other platforms).

Deputy General Director Mai Son said, taxable revenue from organizations and individuals with e-commerce business was VND3,100 trillion (US$130.57 billion) and the tax revenue was VND83 trillion in 2022 and respective figures in 2023 were VND3,500 trillion (US$146.28 billion) and VND97 trillion.

To effectively administer e-commerce, in addition to perfecting policies and mechanisms, facilitating tax declaration and payment and using electronic invoices for organizations and individuals doing e-commerce business, the tax sector will step up information and support and continue tax management modernization. It will also continue to review and enrich the e-commerce database from information sourced from relevant authorities and business entities in the e-commerce ecosystem.

By Kien Hien, Vietnam Business Forum