Abolishing lump-sum tax: Business households worry about 'running out of steam' due to additional costs and lack of technology

Removing lump-sum tax is the right step to make business household income transparent, however, it needs to be calculated so that business households can easily comply with regulations.

Large business households "race" before the time of tax abolition

According to Decree 70/2025/ND-CP amending and supplementing Decree 123/2020/ND-CP regulating invoices and documents, from June 1, 2025, business households with revenue from 1 billion VND/year and belonging to industries such as: food and beverage, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, retail... will have to issue electronic invoices generated from cash registers connected to data with tax authorities, no longer having to pay taxes according to the lump-sum method.

With the above regulation, business households that are subject to applying electronic invoices generated from cash registers must register with the tax authority and be accepted by the tax authority and promptly review and implement the conversion. By May 30 at the latest, business households must complete the registration to use electronic invoices generated from cash registers.

From May 1, a large number of business households and individuals came to carry out business registration procedures.

Along with that, Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW dated May 4, 2025 of the Politburo also clearly stated that by 2026 at the latest, the lump-sum tax for business households will be eliminated; Resolution No. 198/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on a number of special mechanisms and policies for private economic development sets the goal of eliminating lump-sum tax from January 1, 2026.

According to Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang, the abolition of lump-sum tax for business households is a correct policy of the Party and State to ensure transparency in business household activities, create equality in tax regime between business households and enterprises, and encourage business households to transform into enterprises.

“The Ministry of Finance is piloting this policy in some localities and has found that it is very good and effective and needs to be officially implemented as soon as possible. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is preparing the conditions, especially the conditions regarding information technology and facilities as well as regulations for us to soon implement it,” said Mr. Thang.

Currently, in Hanoi , the tax authority has reviewed business households and individuals with revenue of 1 billion VND/year or more to propagate, mobilize, and guide implementation... thanks to which the number of business households and individuals coming to carry out business registration procedures has increased sharply in recent days.

The local Tax Teams have also simultaneously implemented many positive solutions to support and guide taxpayers in implementing regulations on tax registration, business registration, electronic invoices generated from cash registers, etc.

According to records at the Hanoi City Public Administration Service Center - Branch No. 6, since May 1, the Center has received a large number of business households and individuals coming to carry out business registration procedures.

In just 3 days (from May 20 to May 22), the average number of registration applications per day was about 150-200 applications/day, compared to before, it has increased 3-4 times and is expected to continue to increase in the coming time.

Are business households "out of breath"?

However, there are also many concerns that eliminating lump-sum tax and applying another tax method will cause many difficulties for business households and individuals, thereby increasing compliance costs.

Ms. Pham Thi Thin, a business household paying lump-sum tax in Dai La, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi, shared that she has been selling goods for more than 10 years and is currently paying lump-sum tax of VND800,000/month, plus VND1 million in business license tax. When she abandons the lump-sum tax method and switches to electronic invoices linked to cash registers, what she worries about most is the additional costs, accounting books, storing input and output electronic invoices, etc.

Many businesses are worried about running out of steam when switching to electronic invoices linked to cash registers (Illustration photo)

"I'm not sure how much more costs will be incurred when switching to tax declaration, and the bookkeeping will be more complicated. I'm old, so I'm not familiar with technology and machinery. If I can't do it, I'll have to hire someone, which will add more costs. I don't know if I can sustain it because I only sell to the surrounding area ," Ms. Thin worried.

Sharing the same concern, Mr. Pham Anh Duong, owner of a restaurant on Ton Duc Thang Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi, said that sometimes errors occur when entering data on the computer, which is very difficult to correct, especially in the food industry, where there are many orders but sometimes each order is only a few tens of thousands, quite a bit.

"Prices are increasing while income is decreasing, now we have to invest in machinery and tax connection software, so we don't know how to handle it. I'm also worried that without accounting expertise, I will make mistakes in books and data and lead to fines. If I hire more people, it will cost more money and affect profits," Mr. Duong expressed.

These concerns are also the concerns of many business households and individuals today. From the perspective of a tax expert, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tu, lecturer at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, said that eliminating lump-sum tax for business households with large revenues is a welcome policy.

The abolition of lump-sum tax will contribute significantly to solving problems such as tax losses or negative situations. However, when implementing, there needs to be a roadmap and appropriate support solutions for business households. In the immediate future, the scope of application should be selected based on the scale of the business household and the business line. For example, industries such as: food and beverage, transportation, medicine sales, milk sales, etc. need to be included in the scope of implementation soon.

"The management agency must calculate how to make it easy for businesses to comply with regulations, with simple forms of invoices and documents. It is necessary to avoid confusing businesses, which may lead to a situation where businesses delay implementation or each business does things differently ," Mr. Tu commented.

According to Minister Nguyen Van Thang, to facilitate business households in declaring and paying taxes after the abolition of lump-sum tax, the Ministry of Finance has directed the review and improvement of tax policies and tax calculation methods for business households. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen the application of information technology and strongly transform digitally in the tax sector, such as: using electronic invoices generated from cash registers to ensure correct and sufficient collection and help save time and costs for business households.

At the same time, to reduce the cost burden and encourage business households to transform digitally, according to the provisions of Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW, the State supports the costs of building, renting, and purchasing digital platforms and shared accounting software for business households to use for free.

Cam Tu (VOV.VN)

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/bo-thue-khoan-ho-kinh-doanh-lo-hut-hoi-vi-them-chi-phi-khong-ranh-cong-nghe-ar945735.html