Vietnam collected nearly VND5 trillion ($217 million) in taxes from major technology corporations in the world in 2021.
Finance Minister Ho Duc Phuoc said the above information on March 16 at a question-and-answer session before the National Assembly Standing Committee on tax administration online and was announced by the state-controlled media on the same day.
Specifically, Mr. Phuoc said that the tax agency in the past years collected through organizations in Vietnam (tax paid on behalf of foreign contractors is nearly VND5 trillion, of which many large enterprises have paid taxes such as Facebook, which paid VND1,694 billion, Google about VND1,618 billion, Microsoft nearly VND576 billion and tax collection from cross-border trade services VND1,317.7 billion.
The Finance Minister also said that the Ministry has directed the General Department of Taxation to build an electronic portal on cross-border tax declaration and the online environment. This portal will be opened for foreign businesses when selling goods across the border to directly declare and pay taxes starting from March 21.
The General Department of Taxation will also take the residential identification code as the tax code to actively manage the issue of online sales tax collection.
Mr. Phuoc added that by the end of 2021, Circular 100 amends Circular 40 of the Ministry of Finance to guide tax collection for business households and individuals. In which, there is more mention of personal tax collection for sales on e-commerce platforms, but no specific roadmap has been given. Therefore, if the e-commerce platform does not declare or pay taxes on its behalf, it is necessary to share and provide information of business people according to the guidance of the General Department of Taxation.
Thereby, e-commerce platforms such as Tiki, Shopee, Lazada, Sendo, or shipping units will be responsible for providing the information of the shop owner (if residing in Vietnam) to the tax agency.
As for individuals doing business on social networks like Facebook, local tax authorities exploit data published on sales pages and fan pages to determine the identity of online business individuals, thereby finding ways to collect taxes.
Translated by Thoibao.de from RFA: https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/news/vietnamnews/finance-minister-reveals-to-collect-vnd5000-bln-of-taxes-from-facebook-google-microsoft-03162022081432.html
