Amending the Law on Personal Income Tax: National Assembly Deputies Propose Many Important Adjustments

(Chinhphu.vn) - Many National Assembly deputies believe that amending the Personal Income Tax Law is necessary; at the same time, they make specific recommendations such as: Adjusting family deduction levels according to economic regions; considering keeping or shortening the progressive tax schedule; more clearly defining taxes on the transfer of gold bars and inherited real estate...

National Assembly deputies discussed in Group 11 about 3 draft laws.

On the afternoon of November 5, continuing the working program of the 10th Session, the National Assembly discussed in groups three draft laws: Law on Tax Administration (amended); Law on Personal Income Tax (amended); Law on Thrift and Anti-Waste.

In particular, the draft Law on Personal Income Tax (amended) attracted many opinions from delegates with in-depth analysis of tax policy in the current context and the requirement of fairness among income groups.

Delegates agreed that, after 18 years of implementation, the Law on Personal Income Tax has made an important contribution to forming awareness of compliance with tax laws, creating a sustainable source of revenue for the state budget.

However, in the new context where the digital economy is developing strongly, with the emergence of many new types of assets and forms of income such as virtual assets, carbon credits, auctioned license plates, etc., the amendment is extremely necessary.

Collecting tax on gold bar transfer: Need a clear and transparent roadmap

Participating in the discussion at Group 11 (including Can Tho and Dien Bien delegations), delegate Le Thi Thanh Lam (Can Tho delegation) was interested in the personal income tax rate for gold bar transfer activities.

The delegate acknowledged the policy aimed at controlling speculation and making the gold market transparent. However, the delegate said that this policy also needs to be implemented with a clear distinction between speculation and hoarding to avoid affecting people who buy gold just for the sake of saving. Because for a long time, the practice of deducting a portion of income to buy gold has been the mentality and habit of the Vietnamese people, if they have money, they save to buy gold for when necessary.

Therefore, delegate Le Thi Thanh Lam said that the regulation of the taxable gold bar transfer value threshold will only be effective when the policy is implemented with a clear and transparent roadmap.

Along with that, it is necessary to build a flexible declaration and deduction mechanism, allowing gold trading organizations or future trading floors or commercial banks to perform deductions and tax payment procedures on behalf of traders, helping to reduce the procedural burden for individuals.

At the same time, electronic tax declaration is also integrated through the national tax data system to synchronize information, improve monitoring capabilities, increase transparency and efficiency in policy implementation.

Progressive tax schedule: 5 or 7 steps more reasonable?

Discussing at Group 4 (including Khanh Hoa, Lai Chau and Lao Cai delegations), delegates agreed on the necessity of amending the Law on Personal Income Tax.

Notably, the option of shortening the progressive tax rate from 7 levels to 5 levels is the content that received many analytical opinions in the discussion group.

Delegate Nguyen Thanh Trung (Lao Cai delegation) expressed his opinion and proposed to maintain the current regulation of 7 levels with a gap between levels of 5%, while at the same time studying the regulation of taxable income at each level appropriately.

The delegate analyzed that the draft Law proposed a gap between the levels with different slopes: Levels 1, 2, 3 are up to 10% apart, while levels 4 and 5 are only 5%. This leads to people with incomes at levels 2 and 3 being subject to higher tax pressure than the current regulations, while this is the majority group, mainly people with middle income - the group that needs encouragement in the economy. The delegate also cited international experience showing that some similar countries in the region still maintain 7 levels.

Meanwhile, delegate Nguyen Huu Toan (Lai Chau delegation) supported the 5-level plan, saying that in the context of globalization, keeping the progressive rate too high (especially at high income levels) could cause highly qualified and high-income people to register to pay taxes abroad to avoid double taxation or excessive regulation.

Delegate Nguyen Huu Toan commented that reducing the progressive slope (5, 10, 15, 25, 30, 35% for 5 levels) is a form of encouragement for highly qualified and high-income people to register to pay taxes in Vietnam, especially in the current global working trend.

Many opinions also mentioned the tax policy for inherited real estate. Delegate Do Ngoc Thinh (Khanh Hoa delegation) said that only income from inheritance should be completely exempted from tax for parents-children, husband-wife.

Citing that many countries consider income tax from real estate inheritance as an important taxable income, delegate Do Ngoc Thinh suggested that the drafting agency should study and develop a roadmap for calculating and collecting personal income tax on inherited assets of great value for the remaining relationships: paternal grandparents with grandchildren; maternal grandparents with grandchildren; siblings with each other. When the value of inherited assets exceeds a certain level, the amount of personal income tax payable for the value of assets exceeding the prescribed level can be determined according to the progressive tax schedule.

In addition, some delegates proposed to add a method to determine the family deduction level by economic region instead of an absolute, unified level nationwide. Because the cost of living between urban and rural areas has a significant difference, applying a common deduction level will not ensure fairness in the ability to pay taxes for people living in areas with high living costs and proposed to add a mechanism to determine the deduction level according to the regional minimum wage...

Thu Giang

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/sua-luat-thue-thu-nhap-ca-nhan-dai-bieu-quoc-hoi-de-xuat-nhieu-dieu-chinh-quan-trong-102251105185950353.htm