Continuing the Tenth Session, this morning, December 8, the National Assembly discussed in groups the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Value Added Tax.
Immediately resolve problems arising from practice
According to the draft Law reported to the National Assembly at this morning's session, the draft Law amends and supplements the provisions on value-added tax policy for agricultural products, animal feed, input value-added tax deduction and tax refund conditions in Clause 1, Article 5, Clause 5, Article 9, Article 14 and Clause 9, Article 15 of Value-Added Tax Law No. 48/2024/QH15.
Specifically, to continue to support and facilitate enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions in agricultural product trading activities and support farmers in product consumption, the Government proposes to supplement Clause 1, Article 5 on non-taxable subjects (this content was previously stipulated in Clause 1, Article 1 of Law No. 106/2016/QH13 and was abolished in Law on Value Added Tax No. 48/2024/QH15) and add 1 clause (Clause 3a) in Article 14 on input value added tax deduction of Law on Value Added Tax No. 48/2024/QH15.
The Government also proposed to remove the regulation on tax refund conditions (buyers are only entitled to tax refunds when the seller has declared and paid taxes) at Point c, Clause 9, Article 15 of the Law on Value Added Tax No. 48/2024/QH15 (this content has just been added in the Law on Value Added Tax No. 48/2024/QH15)...
At Group 11, including the National Assembly Delegation of Can Tho City and Dien Bien Province, the delegates basically agreed on amending the Law to remove "bottlenecks", immediately solving urgent problems, difficulties and inadequacies arising from practice. However, some opinions were also concerned about the Law on Value Added Tax, which has just been amended by the National Assembly in 2024, and has now proposed to amend and supplement it, and requested the Government to explain this issue more clearly.
From the perspective of the drafting agency, at the meeting of Group 11, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang, National Assembly Delegate of Dien Bien province, said that the Ministry of Finance was very receptive and "chose the difficult path" when proposing that the National Assembly amend and supplement a number of articles of the Law on Value Added Tax at this Session because the Law will take effect in July 2025. The review agency also had two streams of opinions, many of which suggested continuing to implement according to the provisions of the Law on Value Added Tax 2024.
"But why do we still have to decide to submit to the National Assembly to amend the Law? Because this content, when put into practice, will affect all agricultural, forestry and fishery product purchasing activities in all regions across the country. And it is very difficult. Difficulties for businesses lead to difficulties for people," Minister Nguyen Van Thang clearly stated.
Sharing the opinions of delegates about not only recognizing the above problems now, Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that when amending the Law on Value Added Tax in 2024, this issue was also raised but "we were not bold enough".
Acknowledging that this is the responsibility of the drafting agency, the Minister also pointed out that many National Assembly delegates have expressed their opinions, and in fact, in the recent process, the largest agricultural and forestry corporations have expressed their opinions on this matter. "If not corrected immediately, it will mainly affect farmers, those who can be said to be vulnerable in the context of floods and natural disasters like the recent one," the Minister emphasized.
Create the most favorable conditions for businesses and people
The Law on Value Added Tax 2008 stipulates that products of crops, forests, livestock, aquaculture, and fishing that have not been processed into other products or have only undergone normal preliminary processing by organizations and individuals that produce, catch, and import themselves are not subject to value added tax. If sold to other businesses or cooperatives at the commercial stage or to consumers, the final consumer is the subject to the 5% tax rate.
According to Minister Nguyen Van Thang, the above regulation has led to many businesses having to go through many stages to buy and sell invoices, leading to tax fraud.
To address this issue, in 2016, the National Assembly added a provision to the Law that allows businesses not to declare and pay output VAT, but to declare and deduct input VAT for obvious costs such as electricity, water, and transportation at the commercial stage; and when selling to consumers, they are still subject to the 5% tax rate. This provision still ensures the nature of VAT, but at the same time overcomes the situation of fraud in VAT refunds.
However, according to the Minister, when the 2024 Law on Value Added Tax removes the above provision, it will lead to difficulties. Therefore, it is necessary to regulate this under the 2016 Law on Value Added Tax. Amending the provisions on tax refund conditions and including them in the Law on Tax Administration is appropriate.
In addition, the Minister also said that recently the Ministry of Finance received many opinions from corporations, general companies, and associations related to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. The opinion of the Ministry of Justice is that tax declaration and payment is clearly the responsibility of the seller, while tax refund is the right of the buyer.
"That means these two are very separate. According to current regulations, if a buyer wants to get a tax refund, they must prove that the seller has invoices and documents. Adding a regulation requiring the seller to have declared and paid value added tax before the buyer can get a tax refund is inconsistent with the responsibilities between the seller and the buyer, and will inevitably cause difficulties for businesses because the buyer cannot verify or prove whether the seller has declared and paid tax or not."
Emphasizing this, the Minister also said that not only the agricultural sector, many other sectors are also falling into this situation and in the near future the Ministry will also have to propose further review.
"This proposed amendment is to create the most favorable conditions for businesses and people and to ensure fairness, transparency, and regulations related to management should be included in the Tax Administration Law," the Minister affirmed.
Organize implementation in accordance with the spirit of the Law on Tax Administration
National Assembly Deputy Le Minh Nam (Can Tho) expressed his agreement with the amendment of the Law to remove bottlenecks in tax refunds and contribute to overcoming the consequences of storms and floods, quickly restoring production and business activities, especially in the agricultural sector; emphasizing that this is an urgent requirement arising from reality, so it needs to be considered and resolved promptly.
Delegate Le Minh Nam also said that after the preliminary review session of the Economic and Financial Committee, the Government had a report accepting and affirming that the amended contents would not cause any problems or risks according to the conclusion of the National Assembly Standing Committee.
However, the delegate also requested the Government to pay attention to the issues raised by the inspection agency and the conclusions of the National Assembly Standing Committee to organize implementation in accordance with the spirit of the Law on Tax Administration, ensuring to minimize inadequacies and risks during the implementation process.
Previously, in the Report on the review of the draft Law, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said, "Many opinions believe that the basic problem still comes from the delay in VAT refunds. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully consider and evaluate each specific proposal of the enterprise; consider which content needs to be amended in the Law, which content is implemented by the organization, and which needs to be amended in the sub-Law documents.
The amendment cannot be too biased towards the goal of facilitating businesses, but instead creates loopholes, causing loss of revenue to the budget and not ensuring Regulation No. 178-QD/TW on controlling power and preventing corruption and negativity in law-making work.
Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/sua-doi-luat-thue-gia-tri-gia-tang-dam-bao-giam-thieu-bat-cap-rui-ro-trong-to-chuc-thuc-hien-10399624.html
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