Proposal to consider imposing personal income tax on gold bar trading

VTV.vn - The Economic and Financial Committee proposed considering imposing a tax on gold bar transfers to avoid inconvenience for people transferring gold not for speculative purposes.

On the afternoon of October 13, continuing the 50th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Personal Income Tax (amended).

The Draft Law stipulates taxpayers, taxable income, tax-exempt income, tax reduction, and the basis for calculating personal income tax.

Presenting the Government's proposal, Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan said that the draft Law supplements regulations on other income groups subject to personal income tax, such as: income from transferring license plates of cars won at auctions according to the provisions of law; income from transferring digital assets, transferring gold bars, etc.

The Draft Law assigns the Government to specify details on other incomes to ensure consistency with actual occurrence.

Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan

Regarding family deductions (including family deductions for individual taxpayers and family deductions for dependents), Mr. Cao Anh Tuan stated that the Government proposed amendments in the direction of assigning the Government to regulate in accordance with the socio-economic situation in each period to implement the policy of decentralization and delegation of power.

According to the Deputy Minister, the Government has drafted a Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee adjusting the family deduction level to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee at the October session.

"The family deduction level will be adjusted to increase higher than the current level (VND 11 million/month for taxpayers and VND 4.4 million/month for each dependent) by more than 40% (equivalent to VND 15.5 million and VND 6.2 million respectively). This adjustment level is based on the growth rate of average income per capita and the growth rate of average GDP per capita," Mr. Cao Anh Tuan stated.

The Draft Law also adjusts the progressive tax schedule applicable to resident individuals with income from salaries and wages in the direction of reducing the number of tax rates and widening the gap between rates.

Specifically, from the current 7 tax rates (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%) reduced to 5 tax rates (5%, 15%, 25%, 30%, 35%).

Widening the gap between levels, level 1 (tax rate 5%) increases from 5 million VND/month to 10 million VND/month, level 2 (tax rate 15%) increases from 15 million VND/month to 30 million VND/month,... level 5 (tax rate 35% - highest tax rate) increases from 80 million VND/month to 100 million VND/month (increase of 25%).

Avoid inconvenience to people

Presenting the audit report, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said that many opinions suggested properly considering the imposition of tax on gold bar transfers to avoid inconveniences for people who transfer gold not for speculative or business purposes.

"There is a proposal to add a determination/limit to the weight threshold of gold bars subject to personal income tax," said Mr. Phan Van Mai.

At a press conference on October 3, the Ministry of Finance announced a proposed tax rate of 0.1% on the transfer price of gold bars each time.

Previously, at a press conference on October 3, Mr. Luu Duc Huy, Deputy Director of the Department of Tax, Fees and Charges Policy (Ministry of Finance), said that the Ministry of Finance agreed with the State Bank to submit to the Government to include in the draft Law on Personal Income Tax to consider tax collection on gold bar transfer transactions.

"The initial proposal is a tax rate of 0.1% on each transfer price," Mr. Huy said, adding that this policy is not expected to apply to raw gold or fine art jewelry. The specific application will be submitted to the National Assembly for the Government to stipulate.

In Resolution 278, the Government assigned the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank to study regulations that income from gold trading activities is subject to personal income tax. This is to increase market transparency and limit gold speculation.

Mr. Huy also cited current regulations stating that individuals are not allowed to trade in gold bars because this is a conditional activity that must be licensed by the State Bank. Therefore, the operator considers gold transfer transactions as "another income", instead of income from individual business activities to apply tax.

Regarding the content of family deduction, Mr. Phan Van Mai stated that the Standing Committee of the Committee believes that the proposal to amend and supplement the regulations on family deduction levels is necessary to suit the current practical situation.

"Regulations on family deductions are one of the important contents that receive special attention from people and public opinion during the process of amending and supplementing the law," said Mr. Phan Van Mai.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai

Through the practice of adjusting and amending the provisions of the current law on family deductions and studying the experiences of other countries, the auditing agency found that the family deduction level does not necessarily need to be adjusted regularly and continuously. Therefore, there is no need or urgency to assign the Government to regulate to ensure flexibility and timeliness.

Therefore, the majority of opinions in the review agency proposed that the law should specifically stipulate the family deduction level for taxpayers and dependents as expressed in the current law to ensure authority, clarity and transparency.

Some opinions agree to assign the Government to regulate the family deduction level. However, it is proposed to stipulate in the law the minimum and maximum family deduction levels for taxpayers and dependents, establishing the basic principles for the Government to regulate specific deduction levels.

Regarding the tax schedule, Mr. Phan Van Mai said that many opinions in the standing committee were concerned about the reasonableness of the plan to adjust income thresholds and corresponding tax rates.

The reason, according to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee, is that this is a tax schedule applied to people with income from salaries and wages. However, the taxable income in the year is still too low compared to the actual income level that has changed since 2009 when the Personal Income Tax Law began to be applied.

Furthermore, the tax schedule is provided with 5 tiers and higher steps as well as higher starting and final tax rates, but there are still some taxable incomes compared to the current law. This will create a greater personal income tax burden for taxpayers.

Meanwhile, many other taxable incomes have reduced tax burdens for taxpayers compared to current levels, such as income from 80 - 100 million/month with current tax rate of 35%, the draft law reduces it to 30%,...

"The amendment of the tax schedule as in the draft law is not really reasonable and does not ensure fairness for taxpayers among income groups," Mr. Phan Van Mai emphasized.

Also according to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee, there is a proposal to keep the regulation of 7 levels with a gap between levels of 5% as the current regulation and only adjust the taxable income at each level to be more suitable with the current reality, ensuring the rights and interests of taxpayers.

Source: https://vtv.vn/de-nghi-can-nhac-viec-ap-thue-thu-nhap-ca-nhan-voi-mua-ban-vang-mieng-10025101317555093.htm