The fact that the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department has just issued a decision to collect and impose a fine of 4.1 billion VND on an individual with an income of 41 billion VND on Facebook, Google, YouTube… not declaring and paying taxes is attracting public attention. . The interest is not only because the group of people who produce content on YouTube or Facebook is increasing in Vietnam, but also because the tax administration for these cases has never been mentioned.
According to Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, many domestic individuals and businesses receive “huge” money from foreign organizations, but most of them do not declare tax or declare incompletely. The sources of income here come from activities such as writing software, games, or video clips… are very diverse.
Many individuals receive ‘huge’ money from foreign organizations but most of them “forget” to declare tax (Artwork)< /p>
Through a review with banks, the Tax Department of Ho Chi Minh City discovered these cases and issued invitations to nearly 14,000 account holders to work. According to calculations, if the screening and arrears are correct and sufficient, the tax sector will collect a tax amount of up to hundreds of billions of dong per year.
Lack of close coordination
According to Assoc. Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, Senior Lecturer at the Academy of Finance, collecting business tax online is relatively difficult, because tax authorities cannot regularly check and monitor business activities on these networks. Especially, in the context of online business types, there is a tendency to explode rapidly.
“The coordination between tax authorities and banks and network operators has not been close and methodical in recent years. Due to the lack of adequate management by the business registration authority as well as the coordination between the network operators, tax authorities and the involvement of commercial banks, this situation has occurred. loss of tax revenue in online business activities”, Assoc. Dinh Trong Thinh pointed out.
Assoc. Dinh Trong Thinh said that tax collection must first start from the network operator. The network operator must have the responsibility and obligation to cooperate with the tax authority to manage business activities and promote on the mass media and on social networks. To get the most comprehensive view of online business subjects.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which is the business registration management unit, must also coordinate with the network operator, on that basis, the tax authority relies on business registrations on social networks to be able to regularly monitor , manage these subjects in the same way as traditional business entities.
“The tax arrears like the past are just a waste of time. If there was close coordination between the relevant agencies, it would be possible to monitor the revenue, profit as well as the tax payable by these account holders, as well as ensure the interests of consumers. , Assoc. Dinh Trong Thinh said.
Delayed and irresponsible authorities
According to lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, Chairman of the Board of Members of Basico Law Firm, tax collection is being carried out in a methodical and professional manner.
.jpg)
Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, Chairman of the Board of Members of Basico Law Firm
“Tax collection is all done by localities, there are no clear instructions, as is the arrears of personal income tax for singers in the past. This should have been directed from top to bottom to know how to deploy, how to request, to agree on how to do it, but now, we are letting this be done spontaneously. “, lawyer Truong Thanh Duc said.
According to Mr. Duc, while countries around the world have been collecting taxes on people who earn revenue from Google and Facebook for a long time, Vietnam has just begun to do so. This shows the delay and lack of responsibility of the authorities, namely the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Taxation.
“In Vietnam, they are still doing things spontaneously, “losing cows to build a barn” while abroad they have very clear regulations on tax collection for organizations and individuals earning income from Google, Facebook”, said Mr. Duc.
In fact, in Vietnam, there are a lot of famous people, hot facebookers … high income from social networking sites, YouTube. However, these earnings are largely undeclared, taxed or incompletely taxed. The reason is that the management and supervision mechanism is still lax and confusing. To overcome this situation, experts say that the authorities can immediately base on the Law on Tax Administration to request banks to check the cash flow transferred to Vietnam from the “big guys”. technology like Google, YouTube or Facebook. From there, get information about individuals and businesses that receive huge income from abroad but do not declare tax to have appropriate solutions and increase tax revenue.
