The draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) has just been sent by the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Justice for review after incorporating, explaining, and revising it according to the comments of the National Assembly Standing Committee. Notably, in the 9th draft of the Law, the drafting agency has added many contents related to building the tax administration force compared to the 2019 Law on Tax Administration.

Specifically, regarding the support regime for tax officials, the Ministry of Finance proposed two options.

Option 1 (in case of approval from the Politburo before the law is passed): tax management officials are entitled to monthly support equal to 100% of their salary according to the current salary coefficient (excluding allowances).

This monthly allowance is paid together with salary and is not used as a basis for calculating social insurance contributions and benefits. Income from this allowance is exempt from personal income tax and other financial obligations to the State.

Option 2 (in case there is no agreement from the Politburo before the law is passed): The Government shall prescribe the income supplement for tax administration officials and employees in tax administration agencies after approval by competent authorities.

Also according to the draft law, tax management officials are subject to the regime of titles, standards, salaries, benefits, badges, ranks, uniforms, and signs of tax management officials to ensure tax management work, encourage and enhance responsibility, professionalism, and efficiency in performing public duties.

The State ensures financial resources for the operations of the tax administration force and tax administration agencies; in which priority is given to allocating the annual state budget to build and operate information technology systems, digital transformation in tax administration, electronic invoices, facilities, equipment and specialized tasks serving the work to improve the efficiency of tax administration.

Regarding this proposal, Dr. Can Van Luc, Chief Economist of BIDV and Member of the Prime Minister's Policy Advisory Council, believes that the proposal needs careful consideration to ensure fairness among different groups of civil servants and public employees. Vietnam has many specialized professions, so it is necessary to ensure a correlation between income levels and the nature of work in each field.

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Experts say that social equity is a mandatory criterion when making proposals related to laws or legal documents. Photo: NK

According to Mr. Luc, there are many ways to support cadres and employees in specific fields, without necessarily creating precedents that can easily cause reactions in society.

“The Ministry of Finance must clearly define the ‘specific characteristics’ of the tax sector, which no one understands better than the Ministry of Finance. For example, they may have to work day and night, especially at the end of each quarter and year, but many other sectors have similar work characteristics. Therefore, a comprehensive review is needed, especially for specific sectors and industries, to ensure fairness,” Mr. Luc emphasized to a VietNamNet reporter .

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duc Loc, Director of the Institute for Social Life Research, also said that social fairness is a mandatory criterion for all proposals related to laws or legal documents.

According to Mr. Loc, any proposal to support 100% of salaries for tax officials or other civil servants needs to clearly state the legitimate basis.

“Each field has its own characteristics and different levels of contribution. Therefore, only when there are specific legal regulations should a specific mechanism be applied, otherwise it will create social debate about fairness,” said Mr. Loc.

Furthermore, any policy that benefits a group of civil servants must ensure the universality of the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants.

“When you want to change something, there needs to be a justification for that change. If this case is opened and other sectors also propose similar mechanisms, will the original law still retain its value?

In principle, all policy proposals must not conflict with the existing legal system; otherwise, it will lead to inconsistencies in implementation. When drafting legal documents, if each sector only focuses on its own interests, it is very easy to create a situation of uncoordinated and unsustainable development in the related legal system,” Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duc Loc noted.

The Ministry of Finance proposes to support 100% of monthly salary for tax management officials . The Ministry of Finance proposes that tax management officials receive monthly support equal to 100% of their current salary coefficient. This income is exempt from personal income tax and other financial obligations.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/bo-muon-ho-tro-100-luong-cho-cong-chuc-thue-lam-ro-dac-thu-la-gi-de-cong-bang-2470951.html