Firms plea for clear tax messages

Inconsistencies in legal documents and a dearth of up-to-date information had confused the implementation of tax and customs-related operations, vice chairman of  Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Pham Gia Tuc said at last week’s tax dialogue between Ministry of Finance (MoF) and enterprises.

Garment 10 Corporation deputy director Hoang Minh Khang said many documents from Ministry of Industry and Trade highlighted objects to enjoy tax exemption, but enterprises and tax-customs agencies had different interpretations which sometimes made enterprises incur unfair tax payment.

“Removing these obstacles would make competition among enterprises fairer and improve relationships with customs and tax agencie,” Khang said.

Tran Minh Tuan, director of LG Electronics’ supply chain department, said many enterprises in the electronics field were burdened by import tax applications for television and computer monitors.

“In fact, these two kinds of monitors are the same which can be replaced by each other. However, under the current tax policies, the import tax rates for them are different with zero per cent for computer monitors and three per cent for TV monitors,” he said.

“Some enterprises like LG pay a 3 per cent tax rate for TV monitors, but some others have a zero per cent rate which leads to unfairness and makes many enterprises lose competitive advantages,” Tuan said.

Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan said the tax rate for monitors would be reviewed to ensure equality between enterprises. He said the MoF was setting up a tax tariff in line with WTO commitments which needed enterprises’ support to avoid the same items having different tax rates.

Regarding the corporate income tax on golf businesses, Vietnam’s Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises vice chairman Nguyen Van Toan said when established, many enterprises enjoyed a preferential 18 per cent tax rate. However, according to the draft decree amending Decree 124/2008/ND-CP guiding the implementation of the Corporate Income Tax Law, it seems that all these enterprises would be hit by the new 25 per cent tax rate. “The question here is whether these enterprises are allowed to keep the current tax rate of 18 per cent as regulated on their investment licences,” Toan said.

Deputy Minister Tuan said these enterprises would continue to enjoy the tax preferential providing that they did not operate in provinces which were not allowed to issue preferential tax rates for golf businesses.

He said the MoF would consider enterprises’ opinions to amend and supplement legal documents.