Minister Nguyen Van Thang 'clears' tax policy for business households

At the question-and-answer session with the Minister of Finance on financial issues on the morning of June 19, issues related to tax management, including electronic invoices, lump-sum taxes, tax incentives, etc., were among the issues that received special attention from delegates and many questions were asked.

Completing the database using AI in tax management for e-commerce activities

Delegate Nguyen Huu Thong - Binh Thuan said that the National Assembly has passed Law No. 56 amending 9 laws in the field of finance and state budget, including regulations on tax management for business activities on social networking and e-commerce platforms. The delegate asked the Minister to inform about the implementation status of the above regulations? Fundamental solutions to strengthen management of e-commerce activities in the coming time.

Responding to delegates, Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that in the recent past, the Ministry of Finance has vigorously implemented tax management in the field of e-commerce. Accordingly, it has issued under its authority or submitted to competent authorities for issuance of regulations on invoices and vouchers, tax deduction and payment responsibilities of e-commerce platforms, individual business households can authorize platforms to create electronic invoices, identify individual sales numbers via social networks, and at the same time promote policy communication in coordination with domestic and foreign trading platforms to communicate policies to relevant subjects.

Minister Nguyen Van Thang answered frankly and directly the issues that National Assembly deputies were concerned about. Photo: PV

The Ministry of Finance and the Tax Department have also applied science , technology, and digital transformation in tax management, operating electronic portals, and tax declaration and payment. "Currently, we have also applied information technology, even using AI in management for all of these issues." With the above efforts, we have initially standardized 95% of the population databases, connected and shared information with banks and e-commerce websites. 158 foreign suppliers declared and paid taxes with the tax paid amount of 23,000 billion VND. 106,000 individual business households declared and paid taxes of 1.2 trillion VND through the tax sector's electronic information portal supporting individual business households. E-commerce tax collection in 5 months reached over 75,000 billion VND, an increase of 55%. "This is a very encouraging growth rate," said the Minister.

Regarding solutions in the coming time, the Commander of the Finance sector said that, in addition to the solutions being implemented, the Ministry of Finance will continue to perfect regulations to clearly define e-commerce business activities, identify organizations and individuals doing e-commerce business. Provide guidance on electronic tax declaration and payment services; upgrade electronic information portals for taxpayers; access tax declaration records from foreign exchanges, organizations and individuals that are not present in Vietnam.

The Tax Authority will also focus on completing the database using AI, warning of tax fraud; reviewing and inspecting organizations and individuals that generate income from e-commerce, digital platforms, etc.

Guiding business households to implement electronic invoices, the Tax Department "has not fined anyone yet"

Questioning by delegate Pham Van Hoa - Dong Thap, many households, individuals, and private traders are still confused about electronic invoices, especially at the present time, when the Tax Department is stepping up inspections of compliance with regulations, these households are very afraid of being fined by the Tax Department. The delegate requested the Minister to have specific solutions to guide taxpayers to implement electronic invoices in accordance with regulations.

The delegate also pointed out that there are cases where private businesses circumvent the law, “when using customer services, consumers pay in cash and they collect but do not issue electronic invoices, they say that customers do not need invoices so I do not issue them. So how will the Tax Authority handle these situations, how to avoid tax losses?”

Issuing electronic invoices to customers at the supermarket. Photo: Tran Chau

Talking to delegates, Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that recently when we implemented electronic invoices, there were many problems and the Ministry of Finance, especially the Tax Department, has made every effort to coordinate with local authorities at all levels to guide and support business households, and explain to business households to properly implement the provisions of the law. The Minister also affirmed that according to the Tax Department's report, the Tax authority has not yet fined anyone, "still providing maximum support to business households and there is no story of fining any business household during the implementation process, unless it has been implemented later and those households deliberately do so, we must have sanctions", Minister Nguyen Van Thang emphasized.

Regarding the story of “circumventing the law”, as mentioned by the delegate, the Minister said that this is not a common phenomenon with only a few cases. This is an action that is not in accordance with the provisions of the law and has violated the Tax Law as well as regulations, so we will strengthen coordination with relevant agencies, especially with television stations, press agencies and local authorities to continue to propagate so that all these acts must end”, said the Minister.

Regarding household tax, as I reported from the beginning, we do not change our tax policy, we only have to be more transparent and the current tax policies and instructions are quite complete. Recently, there was some information that some business households closed down, as I reported, VTV also had very complete information about these households. Recently, at the working session with Hanoi city, General Secretary To Lam commented on this content. Recently, because it is related to our tax policy, it coincided with the peak period when the State launched a campaign against counterfeit, fake and poor quality goods. Most of the reasons for the stores closing down are because of fear of being inspected, fear of being fined, fear of having their goods recalled for not ensuring quality. I would like to report to the National Assembly delegates that this is not related to taxes.

We have not changed any policy, in the near future we will even have more preferential levels, such as raising the tax exemption level of households from 100 million to the taxable level starting from 200 million VND or more because our policy is better.

Abolishing lump-sum tax: towards a new tax management model and simple, transparent declaration

Concerned about the policy of abolishing lump-sum tax, Deputy Hoang Van Cuong - Hanoi City asked: Resolution 68-NQ/TW on private economic development has proposed one of the solutions to promote the professional development of business households, which is to abolish lump-sum tax, and Resolution 198/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on a number of special mechanisms and policies for private economic development has decided to abolish lump-sum tax for business households from January 1, 2026.

This policy is affecting millions of business households with a fearful mentality and even in the discussion session in the hall, a National Assembly delegate suggested considering or postponing the implementation of this. That shows that business households are not afraid of paying taxes but are very afraid of how to calculate taxes and the procedures to pay them correctly. Delegate Hoang Van Cuong asked whether the Government has any plans and solutions to prepare for the implementation of the new tax collection method for business households after abolishing lump-sum tax so that households feel more convenient, more professional and more excited about paying taxes.

Delegate Hoang Van Cuong - Hanoi City. Photo: PV

Responding to delegates, Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that currently our tax system has been assessed by international agencies as basically approaching international practices. However, there are still issues related to transparency in some types of taxes that we are currently collecting manually, which is a huge barrier leading to a lack of transparency in tax management.

“We see that the lump-sum tax mechanism, although appropriate for a certain period, has now revealed many shortcomings, lacks transparency, is easily abused, causes inequality between business types, and does not create motivation for business households to grow into small and medium-sized enterprises,” the Minister shared.

According to the Minister, the abolition of lump-sum tax from 2026 is a very correct policy of the Party and the State, a fundamental and necessary step for us to make the activities of business households transparent, creating equality in tax regimes between business households and enterprises. Promoting the transition to the enterprise model and expanding the formal economic sector and this policy, of course, in the process of implementation, when newly implemented, there will be impacts on millions of business households. "Currently, we are also preparing synchronously in terms of law and technology to support implementation to ensure convenience and reduce the burden of procedures as well as costs for households," the Minister emphasized.

Also related to the tax issue for business households, delegate Nguyen Thi Thu Dung (Thai Binh) asked whether this tax could lead to temporary or permanent closure, which has recently happened in many localities across the country?

Minister Nguyen Van Thang affirmed that we do not change tax policies, we only make current tax policies transparent. According to the Minister, recently, the implementation of tax policies coincided with the peak of the State's campaign against counterfeit, fake and poor quality goods. Most of the reasons for stores closing were due to fear of being inspected, being fined, and having their substandard goods recalled, which were not related to taxes.

“We have not changed any policies, and in the near future we will even have more preferential levels, such as raising the tax exemption level for households from 100 million to the taxable level starting from 200 million and up because our policies are better,” the Minister emphasized.

Providing more information on specific solutions for business households to better implement tax policies, the Minister said: Firstly, regarding the review and improvement of tax policies, the Ministry of Finance proposed amending the Law on Tax Administration and the Law on Personal Income towards a new tax management model and simple, transparent and easy-to-implement declarations, simplifying books, invoices and documents to ensure that business households will not be pressured when converting to an enterprise model.

The second is to enhance digital transformation in tax management such as applying electronic invoices generated from cash registers to help collect correctly and fully, while reducing time and costs for business households. In addition, providing free electronic tax declaration and payment systems, electronic invoice software, accounting software, especially supporting business households that are still facing difficulties in the early stages and promoting internal digital transformation, improving the quality of public services and tax management capacity, and enhancing data connectivity.

Third, it is to promote communication, training and consulting such as increasing propaganda, guiding business households to understand the benefits, how to implement electronic invoices and declare taxes, organizing training, legal, accounting and tax consulting for business households. Recently, the mass media, especially the Television Station, has coordinated very closely with the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Department to have propaganda and even guidance for business households related to this issue.

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Source: https://baonghean.vn/bo-truong-nguyen-van-thang-giai-oan-cho-chinh-sach-thue-doi-voi-ho-kinh-doanh-10299996.html