Transfer of gold bars may be subject to 0.1% personal income tax

The Ministry of Finance has just sent a document to the Government members asking for opinions on a draft of a number of contents to receive and explain the opinions of National Assembly deputies on the draft Law on Personal Income Tax (amended) to report to the National Assembly Standing Committee; including contents related to regulations on the time of application, the threshold value of taxable gold bars and adjusting the tax rate to suit the roadmap for gold market management and will collect personal income tax on gold bar transfers at a tax rate of 0.1% on the transfer price each time.

Transferring gold bars may be subject to personal income tax of 0.1%. Photo: Minh Quyet/VNA

According to the synthesis, there are 7 opinions of National Assembly deputies who do not agree with the tax on gold bar transfers because many people buy gold to store, not speculate; low tax rates are not effective enough to regulate, but create unnecessary administrative burdens; taxing will lack humanity and be difficult to implement.

Among them, there are opinions that personal income tax is intended to regulate income, not a tool to regulate the gold market, and concerns about the feasibility of tax collection organization such as who collects, when to collect, how to collect, and consideration of removing this regulation to avoid being unreasonable with the gold hoarding habit of Vietnamese people.

In addition, there are suggestions to review the regulation on taxing gold bars because it may lead to double taxation, when people pay tax when buying gold and then pay tax again when selling it; gold bars are already subject to value added tax, adding personal income tax is unreasonable and may distort the market.

Besides, there are opinions suggesting that it is necessary to clearly distinguish two groups of subjects: people who hoard gold in small quantities for long-term savings and investors who trade gold, from which there will be different tax policies...

On the contrary, 4 opinions agreed with the Government 's Proposal on including income from gold bar transfers subject to personal income tax, but said that there should be a threshold to exclude cases of buying and selling gold for the purpose of saving, storing, not for business, but there should be specific criteria.

At the same time, there is a proposal to expand the taxable area to all gold transfer activities, not just gold bars, to cover market reality and be consistent with Resolution 278/NQ-CP on gold trading management.

One opinion agrees with taxing to prevent speculation but suggests determining a reasonable tax exemption threshold (for example, equivalent to the value of social housing of about 700-800 million VND), avoiding taxing people's small savings, and not allowing "tax on tax" to happen.

There are two opinions agreeing with the regulation that gives the Government the right to apply taxes during periods of unusual fluctuations to stabilize the market, avoid price differences and foreign currency losses. This policy is not in effect regularly, only taking place in a certain period of urgency, maybe for 6 months or a few unusual months to stabilize the market.

Regarding the tax rate, two opinions agreed with the 0.1% tax rate to ensure fairness but suggested clarifying what is meant by “transfer” to avoid applying it to small savings transactions. At the same time, it is necessary to regulate the threshold and frequency of gold bar tax to avoid taxing even small savings transactions. Some opinions suggested considering increasing the tax above 0.1%, suggesting classifying speculative assets, applying a 5% or progressive tax.

Notably, there is an opinion suggesting to remove the phrase "in accordance with the gold market management roadmap" in Clause 11, Article 3, and only stipulate the value threshold and tax collection time as detailed by the Government. Another opinion suggests that the framework principle should be stipulated in the draft Law on tax threshold for gold bars and special assets, and the detailed regulations should be assigned to the Government for guidance to ensure supervision by the National Assembly.

In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the drafting agency has carefully reviewed and studied relevant legal regulations, international practices and current gold market management conditions to complete this provision in the draft Law to ensure that it meets the requirements of Party and State leaders on contributing to gold market management, while having a necessary roadmap to ensure feasibility in implementation and receiving consensus from the majority of affected subjects.

Accordingly, the proposal to tax gold transfers has been carefully reviewed and studied, based on the synthesis of opinions from agencies, ministries, branches and on the basis of receiving opinions from National Assembly deputies, the draft Law assigns the Government to base on the situation of gold market management, stipulate the time of application, the threshold value of gold bars subject to tax and adjust the tax rate in accordance with the roadmap for gold market management and will collect personal income tax on gold bar transfers at a tax rate of 0.1% on the transfer price each time.

The Government's assignment of specific regulations on the taxable value threshold of gold bars is to eliminate cases where individuals buy and sell gold for the purpose of saving and storing (not for business purposes), in line with the current practice of buying and storing gold of a segment of the population.

The drafting agency said that this regulation creates a legal basis for deciding on tax collection and specific contents such as tax thresholds, adjusting tax rates when the conditions for gold market management meet the requirements of tax collection and management. In addition, because this is a new regulation with a wide range of impacts, the regulation as in the draft Law is a necessary step to contribute to protecting the stability of the economy , properly implementing the direction of the Party and the State on strictly managing gold trading activities, contributing to limiting speculation in gold, attracting resources in society to participate in the economy.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thi-truong-tien-te/chuyen-nhuong-vang-mieng-co-the-chiu-thue-thu-nhap-ca-nhan-01-20251130210841997.htm