Support for business households to 'abandon' lump-sum tax

From 2026, tax management for business households will have a major change: abolishing lump-sum tax and switching to calculating tax on revenue. A promotion mechanism is needed in the direction of "The State and the people work together".

Many experts believe that there needs to be a specific support mechanism for business households to transform digitally. In the photo: traders at Ben Thanh Market, Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: QUANG DINH

Resolution 68 of the Central Committee on private economic development clearly stated: providing free digital platforms, shared accounting software, legal consulting services... for small and micro enterprises, business households, and individual businesses. Therefore, many business households and experts suggested that there should be a specific support mechanism soon.

In order for the country to have 2 million enterprises as set out in Resolution 68, it is necessary to support HKD to transform digitally and become enterprises. The cost of digital transformation needs to be partly supported by the State. International experience, countries such as Singapore, China... have also done the same.

Mr. Tran Minh Tuan

Worry about invoice costs pushing up product prices

According to the Tax Department ( Ministry of Finance ), as of June 30, more than 47,000 households nationwide had registered and used electronic invoices (E-invoices) generated from cash registers, an increase of 10,000 households compared to the initial target.

According to Decree 70/2025, from June 1, businesses with revenue of 1 billion VND/year in industries such as food and beverage, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, retail... will apply to issue electronic invoices from cash registers with data connection to tax authorities.

After one month of implementation, many businesses with revenue below this threshold also registered to apply because they saw the benefits and they gradually got used to the new regulations.

Sharing with Tuoi Tre, Ms. D.TN, a fashion businesswoman at Dong Xuan market (Hanoi), said that since June 1, she has applied electronic invoices generated from a cash register connected to the tax authority because it is very convenient when importing and exporting goods, no need to keep records anymore, but revenue is shown on the issued electronic invoices. Customers pay by bank transfer, scan QR codes... very convenient and minimizes confusion.

After only a few days of getting used to the software, business transactions are now almost entirely electronic, no longer requiring manual records. In particular, according to Ms. N., when selling products with electronic invoices, the number of customers has increased compared to before.

However, what Ms. N. is most concerned about is the high cost of the software for issuing electronic invoices. Although the solution provider offers free use of the software for electronic invoices for 6 months, last June, the fee for using the software for issuing electronic invoices for 2026 that had to be paid to the provider was 1,850,000 VND.

Thus, the cost of using the invoice software is 150,000 VND/month. With only 120 - 150 invoices issued each month, the average price is about 1,000 - 1,200 VND/invoice, not including the equipment for printing and issuing invoices, which is another 2.5 million VND.

"I am currently working and monitoring, for now I have to reduce profits to keep customers. But maybe next year I will have to increase the selling price. To share the difficulties with small businesses, I hope the software provider has a suitable price and the State has a policy to support some of the costs of equipment or software for issuing electronic invoices, digital signatures..." - Ms. D.TN proposed and suggested that electronic invoices should be considered as phone subscriptions of network operators, the cost is about 50,000 VND/month/household if using less than 300 invoices/month. For households that issue more, the cost will increase but at an acceptable level.

Agreeing with Ms. N., Ms. PTH, owner of a grocery store on Hang Buom Street (Hanoi), said that she sells both wholesale and retail, so there are peak days with more than 200 electronic invoices/day, because even selling a 5,000 VND ballpoint pen requires an invoice. That is 4,000 invoices/month, with the invoice software costing 200,000 VND. That is not to mention the printing and invoice issuing equipment invested in before, which was nearly 5 million VND.

"In addition to the cost of electronic invoice software, businesses will now have to include 1% VAT on consumer goods in the price of goods. So the final buyer will have to pay," said Ms. H.

Le Thanh - Source: VCCI

Need to be more convenient and practical

Applying the issuance of electronic invoices from cash registers with data connection to tax authorities for more than a month, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tan - Tan Vinh Nguyen Business Registration Office (Nguyen Chi Thanh Street, Cho Lon Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) - said he has gotten used to the new form.

His family's noodle shop's revenue is about 100 million VND/month (equivalent to 1.2 billion VND/year). So with a tax rate of 4.5% of revenue, the tax payable is slightly higher than the previous lump-sum tax of more than 4 million VND/month.

However, the biggest concern after a month is that sometimes there are wrong items, or extra drinks, towels... the invoice has already been printed, the data is sent directly to the tax office so it cannot be reprinted. If reprinted, it will be counted as a new sale, increasing the revenue.

Mr. Tan also said that in reality, someone was supposed to pay 2 million VND but mistakenly transferred 20 million VND. The restaurant had to return the excess amount, but he was worried that it would increase the restaurant's revenue for the month, increasing the amount of tax to be paid. "I recommend that there should be an intermediary step so that stores can correct any incorrect or inconsistent information," Mr. Tan said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Doan An, representative of Ha Ky tea shop (Chau Van Liem street, Cho Lon ward, Ho Chi Minh City), said that after applying the issuance of electronic invoices generated from a cash register with data connection to the tax authority, the shop hired two employees to work in shifts to support customers by phone during peak hours. Because there was no POS machine, the shop issued invoices from phone software.

"After more than a month, the staff started to get used to the new way of working, but sometimes errors occurred during use but when reported to the supplier, they were not resolved promptly, such as errors in printing orders when customers ordered. It is recommended that the tax authority should have regulations with suppliers to ensure the rights of business owners" - Ms. An suggested.

Need policies to support business households

Speaking to Tuoi Tre from an expert perspective, Mr. Tran Minh Tuan - Director of the Department of Digital Economy and Digital Society (Ministry of Science and Technology) - said that businesses that have applied electronic invoices connected to cash registers, purchased and sold goods with non-cash payments, used software for electronic declaration and tax payment... have participated in the digital transformation process.

This is considered the weakest group in the market. This is also the group that the State is encouraging to develop. Resolution 68 of the Central Committee on private economic development clearly states that digital platforms, shared accounting software, legal consulting services, etc. should be provided free of charge to small and micro enterprises, business households, and individual businesses. Therefore, the State needs to invest in 1-2 digital platforms such as digital signatures, legal support, etc. to support business households.

However, some businesses issue 300-500 invoices per day, while others only issue 3-5 invoices. Therefore, it is necessary to divide by scale, field, business line... to provide appropriate support.

"To achieve the goal of having 2 million enterprises nationwide by 2030 as set out in Resolution 68, it is necessary to support HKD to transform digitally and become enterprises. The cost of digital transformation needs to be partly supported by the State.

International experience, countries like Singapore, China... have also done the same" - Mr. Tuan informed and suggested: The State supports 50% of the cost of purchasing software to issue electronic invoices, paid directly to the supplier. The remaining half of the cost is paid by the business community.

Regarding the cost of electronic invoice software, according to Mr. Tuan, currently suppliers offer packages with costs corresponding to a certain number of electronic invoices. The higher the package, the more electronic invoices are issued and vice versa. In order to have appropriate software costs, the Ministry of Finance needs to establish a construction cost norm and a suitable profit margin, not depending on the business.

"Software companies, especially state-owned enterprises such as VNPT, Viettel, and MobiFone, provide e-invoice solutions for businesses, so they do so with social responsibility and to fulfill the tasks assigned by the State rather than for business purposes," said Mr. Tuan.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc - President of the Tax Consulting Association - commented that the current tax policy system is still relatively complicated, especially for households that are new to technology or changing business models. For example, for the elderly, using electronic invoices and declaring on digital platforms is still confusing.

Therefore, in the coming time, Ms. Cuc recommends that the tax sector should continue to simplify procedures, provide clear instructions, and upgrade technology infrastructure to support taxpayers.

"We expect there will be more synchronous solutions so that businesses can not only comply with the law but also develop with peace of mind," Ms. Cuc emphasized.

2.11 million business households subject to tax

Regarding tax management for business households, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu - Head of the Business Department (Tax Department) - said that by the end of June, the total number of business households that had submitted tax declarations nationwide was 3.03 million, of which 2.19 million were contract households, the rest were declaring households. The number of households subject to tax was 2.11 million, accounting for 70%. The number of business households not subject to tax was 0.92 million.

Total budget revenue from HKD in the first 6 months of 2025 is estimated at 17,100 billion VND (Hanoi is estimated at 3,371 billion, Ho Chi Minh City is estimated at 5,436 billion VND), reaching 53.4% of the collection task, equal to 131% compared to the same period in 2024.

It is noteworthy that in the past 6 months, 13,699 HKDs paying lump-sum tax converted to paying tax by the declaration method. In particular, 1,474 HKDs, of which 910 HKDs converted to enterprises in June alone.

Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department strives to reduce cost to 50 VND/invoice

Regarding the implementation of electronic invoices generated from cash registers connected to tax authorities in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Doan Minh Dung, Head of Ho Chi Minh City Tax, said that as of June 30, 18,370 HKD had applied.

Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department has worked with cash register solution providers to agree on a maximum electronic invoice price of VND50/invoice.

Mr. Doan Minh Dung

Customers pay by bank transfer for coffee and get a receipt in Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: Q. DINH

According to Mr. Dung, all households operating in the area have been supported to access cash register solutions and use electronic invoices in accordance with regulations. This is a favorable foundation for moving towards converting contract households into declared households and enterprises from January 1, 2026.

To achieve this result, according to Mr. Dung, at the beginning of this year, Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department identified the implementation of electronic invoices generated from cash registers as one of the key tasks in 2025.

Ho Chi Minh City Tax also coordinated with units providing cash register solutions, electronic invoice solutions initiated from cash registers, Ho Chi Minh City Tax Consulting and Agent Association to support business households. Through the program, solution providers agreed to provide free products, services and electronic invoices for 6-12 months, tax agents committed to supporting free tax declaration consulting for business households for 6-12 months.

Regarding the cost of implementing electronic invoices connected to cash registers, Mr. Dung said that Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department has worked with cash register solution providers to agree on a maximum electronic invoice price of VND50/invoice.

In order to ensure effective and sustainable implementation, and at the same time prepare for the goal of converting all contract households to declaration households from January 1, 2026, Mr. Doan Minh Dung proposed that the Tax Department develop a flexible conversion roadmap, suitable for each group of subjects, especially long-term business households, elderly household heads, and households with low revenue. At the same time, the accounting regime for business households needs to be simple; quickly develop and deploy free software to support digital transformation for business households.

On the other hand, Mr. Dung said that it is necessary to upgrade the "invoice information in barcode form" feature on eTax mobile, helping buyers quickly provide information to sellers via barcode scanning.

Back to topic

LE THANH - ANH HONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ho-tro-de-ho-kinh-doanh-bo-thue-khoan-20250714075315241.htm