HoREA proposes removing tax restrictions on unlisted shares.

(CLO) The draft Decree guiding the Personal Income Tax Law continues to maintain many tax exemption and reduction policies that are considered appropriate to practice. However, HoREA believes that the regulations on tax on the transfer of unlisted shares are still inadequate.

The Ministry of Finance is drafting a Decree detailing certain provisions of the Law on Personal Income Tax.

In this draft, the Ministry of Finance continues to implement the policy of exempting personal income tax on income from the transfer, inheritance, or gifts of real estate, income from the transfer of housing, land use rights, and the sole property attached to residential land owned by an individual.

At the same time, the draft also exempts income tax on interest earned from deposits at credit institutions, interest from life insurance contracts, income from remittances, income from salaries and wages for night work, overtime work, and salaries and wages paid for days not taken as leave.

HoREA proposes 'loosening' tax restrictions on unlisted shares. (Illustrative image/CDS)

Furthermore, the draft continues to implement the personal income tax policy on income from real estate transfers, calculated at 2% of the transfer price…

Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), emphasized that the policies outlined in the draft are very much in line with the practical realities and aspirations of the people and businesses.

However, the Chairman of HoREA believes that there are still some inconsistencies in the regulations in Article 10 of the draft, related to the determination of income from capital transfers and securities transfers.

According to the draft, income from the transfer of shares of a company that is not a public company or of an organization that is not listed or registered for trading is classified as "income from capital transfer".

This group includes the transfer of capital contributions in limited liability companies, partnerships, cooperatives, etc.

The chairman of HoREA argued that such a classification would result in significantly higher applicable taxes compared to securities transfers.

Specifically, income from capital transfers is subject to a 20% tax rate on the taxable income for each transfer. If the purchase price and related costs cannot be determined, the tax rate is calculated at 2% of the transfer price.

Meanwhile, income from the transfer of securities (such as shares of public companies, listed or registered trading organizations) is subject to a tax rate of only 0.1% on the transfer price for each transaction.

HoREA argues that this distinction is unreasonable and unfair, because, in essence, shares of a company, whether it is a public or private company, listed or unlisted, are all a type of security as stipulated in the Securities Law 2025.

Shares are assets that confirm the legal rights and interests of the owner in a portion of a company's capital; therefore, the act of transferring shares is essentially the same across different types of businesses.

Therefore, he proposed adding regulations to recognize income from the transfer of shares of companies that are not public or unlisted as income from "securities transfer".

This will help to uniformly apply a 0.1% tax rate on transfer prices, similar to other securities transactions.

According to HoREA, such adjustments are not only consistent with the provisions of the 2025 Securities Law but also ensure the principle of fairness in tax policy, avoiding "discrimination" among investors in the market.

Furthermore, the Association also emphasized that in reality, many joint-stock companies are not listed or registered for trading on the stock exchange but still operate efficiently, transparently, and comply with governance and accounting standards. Therefore, applying a higher tax rate to share transfers in these businesses is not entirely reasonable.

Based on the above analysis, HoREA recommends that the Ministry of Finance consider amending and supplementing Article 10 of the draft to reclassify income from the transfer of unlisted shares into the group of income from the transfer of securities.

This will create a fairer and more transparent investment environment, while also contributing to the healthy development of the capital market in the future.

Source: https://congluan.vn/horea-de-nghi-coi-troi-thue-cho-co-phan-chua-niem-yet-10339133.html