VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Ha Dong, the creator of Flappy Bird, who earned big money with the game, has declared his income to pay the corporate income tax of VND1.4 billion.  

Flappy Bird's author pays VND1.4 billion in personal income tax

With the current legal framework, it is difficult to collect tax from e-commerce and from individuals who have income from e-commerce activities, Nguyen Quang Tien, deputy head of the the General Department of Taxation’s (GDT) Tax Renovation Committee, admitted. However, he stressed this must be put under control.

A lawyer noted that a lot of sources of income are not subject to taxation under current laws. It is impossible to tax an individual who has income from bitcoin trading.

Bitcoin is not recognized by the State Bank as a currency in Vietnam. The current laws also do not recognize digital money as a type of asset. However, other laws stipulate that Vietnamese citizens and institutions can do types of business which are not prohibited. 

Therefore, in this case, bitcoin trading cannot be subject to tax, according to the lawyer. If taxation bodies tax them, it would automatically recognize the legitimacy of bitcoin as a type of asset and currency.

State management agencies themselves still disagree on the issue.

Mobile games, which are expected to earn VND1 trillion of the total VND6 trillion in revenue for the game industry this year, are expected to change the face of the game industry in Vietnam.

Tien said on Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam that the police once discussed with GDT about prosecuting the individuals who trade ‘virtual money’. “However, we think this is legitimate business activity,” he said.

The lawyer, agreeing with Tien, commented that it is necessary to keep objective about e-commerce activities and prioritize to develop the business field.

However, the problem is that traders need to be aware of tax policies to declare the type of business in a right way. To do this, they need guidance from taxation bodies.

Tien revealed that Dong has declared his income and tax of VND1 billion for his Flappy Bird. Meanwhile, GDT is working with relevant agencies to clarify the business type.

He went on to say that it is necessary to lay down a perfect legal framework on e-commerce urgently as e-commerce will develop very strongly in the time to come.

Vietnam has a young population where 40 percent of people use internet. All types of online services and e-commerce are present in Vietnam.

However, Tien admitted that this was a difficult task for taxation bodies. 

“They may be cleared and would leave no track for taxation bodies to look for,” he said. 

In many cases, servers are located overseas, while legal entities register their business in countries which have not signed double taxation avoidance agreements with Vietnam, or countries which Vietnam finds it difficult to exchange information with.


TBKTVN