Taxation bodies vow to collect tax from online sellers

A tax officer in HCMC denied that taxation bodies do not have enough convincing evidence to impose taxes on online traders. 

The HCMC Taxation Agency has found a solution to the problem. It has requested commercial banks in the city to provide the lists of clients who have income from social networks. 

With information provided by commercial banks, plus data stored in its TMS system, the tax agency can calculate the amounts of tax online traders have to pay. 

Of the institutions and individuals found, there are individuals with huge income who may be forced to pay tax arrears of VND42 billion.

A business was found as having earnings of VND109.8 billion from Google. It made declarations about the income, but it paid the preferential corporate income tax rate of 10 percent. 

The taxation agency concluded that the business should have paid the standard tax rate, and collected tax arrears and imposed a fine of VND2.8 billion.

An individual earned VND41.4 billion from Google for ad services. He was fined and forced to pay tax arrears, worth VND4 billion for ‘forgetting’ to declare tax. Another individual from Quang Nam province earned $727,680 from Google.

According to Do Quoc Tuan from the HCMC Taxation Agency, the agency has worked with four banks in the city to find institutions and individuals who have income from social networks in the period from 2014 to November 2017.

There are many Vietnamese institutions and individuals providing services across borders that receive pay from overseas for services. 

However, only a few institutions, mostly foreign invested ones, have made declarations about their income and paid tax, while the majority have not fulfilled their duties.

Lawyer Pham Dinh Hung from Sai Gon A Chau Law Firm affirmed that the income from online business is covered by the Personal Income Tax Law, which is in line with international practice.

Online traders have to make a declaration and pay tax if their income is higher than VND100 million a year.

Also according to Hung, the Penal Code stipulates that those who evade VND100-300 million worth of tax may receive a prison sentence.

The HCMC Taxation Agency has sent a dispatch to the HCMC branch of the State Bank, requesting it to instruct other commercial banks in the city to continue providing a list of institutions and individuals who have earnings from social networks for the agency’s consideration.

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Thanh Lich