In 2018, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung affirmed that the value-added tax rate would remain at 10%, not increasing it to 11% or 12% as previously proposed.
Reporting to the National Assembly during the morning session on May 26th, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung stated that, in order to implement Resolution 07 of the Politburo and Resolution 25 of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Finance continues to improve the institutional framework for budget revenue collection, based on several guidelines in relevant laws.
Notably, regarding the 2018 Value Added Tax (VAT) Law, Mr. Dung stated that, after considering feedback from businesses, citizens, experts, and agencies, the general tax rate will remain at 10%, not increasing the VAT to 11% or 12% as initially proposed. At the same time, the tax structure will be restructured to include goods and services subject to 0%, 5%, and no tax, ensuring fairness and, in particular, limiting the integration of social welfare policies into tax policies, which undermines the neutrality of taxation.
Regarding property tax, further research should focus on creating social equity and providing a basis for social management and market orientation, ensuring transparency in asset disclosure to support anti-corruption efforts, with the goal of increasing budget revenue being a secondary objective.
At the same time, strengthen the activities of inspection, auditing, and accounting agencies, correctly identify the focus, subjects, areas, and sectors with high risks in order to strictly handle violations in accordance with the law.
In 2016, the auditing agency conducted audits and recommended an increase in state budget revenue of 19.100 billion VND, including an increase in taxes, fees, and charges of 3.600 billion VND. In 2017, the finance sector conducted inspections and audits, recommending financial handling and administrative penalties exceeding 55.000 billion VND, of which tax inspections and audits resulted in an increase of 19.000 billion VND in budget revenue, a reduction of 1.800 billion VND in deductions, and a reduction of 37.600 billion VND in losses.
According to Minister Dinh Tien Dung, regarding tax management specifically, although the current tax debt ratio remains high at over 7%, the situation has shown very positive changes. Tax arrears have decreased both in absolute terms and as a percentage of total state budget revenue.
Specifically, the amount of outstanding tax debt decreased from VND 81.970 billion in 2016 to VND 73.100 billion at the end of 2017, a reduction of 10,8%. The amount of recoverable tax debt decreased from VND 31.700 billion to VND 26.000 billion, a reduction of 18%, and approximately 2,5% of total budget revenue.
Previously, in proposals put forward in mid-2017, the Ministry of Finance wanted to increase the VAT on goods and services currently taxed at 5% to 6%; and on goods and services taxed at 10% to 12% starting from the beginning of 2019. This proposal from the Ministry of Finance faced strong public opposition. According to many experts, increasing the VAT would have a significant impact on the socio-economic situation, placing a heavy tax burden on the entire population, especially low-income earners…www.expertis.vn
