Consider increasing budget revenue by adjusting value added tax

Tax instruments are especially important for cultural development.

Discussing at the conference hall, delegate Bui Hoai Son (Hanoi City Delegation) said that tax tools are especially important for cultural development. In the world, many countries have used tax tools as one of the important policies to invest and support cultural development. In our country, through many conferences, seminars, and studies, bottlenecks in tax incentives for the cultural sector have been pointed out.

Therefore, the delegate believes that this amendment to the Law on Value Added Tax is a very good opportunity for us to partially remove this bottleneck, helping to create attractiveness and mobilize resources for cultural development.

Delegate Bui Hoai Son (Hanoi City Delegation) said that tax tools are especially important for cultural development.

Appreciating the efforts of the drafting agency in adding some tax incentives for cultural activities, however, delegate Bui Hoai Son still has some concerns about some issues. "In Clause 2, Article 9 on the subjects applying the tax rate of 5%, I propose to maintain the provisions of the 2008 Law on Value Added Tax for the group of contents being cultural activities, sports exhibitions, art performances, imported film production, film distribution and screening" - the delegate suggested.

According to delegate Bui Hoai Son, increasing value-added tax on cultural and sports activities will limit people's access to these public products, goods and services.

In addition, in Clause 1, Article 9 on the subjects applying the 0% tax rate, delegate Bui Hoai Son proposed to add content on cultural and entertainment services, transfer of copyright and related rights for use outside the territory of Vietnam. Because according to the delegate, applying a 10% tax rate on exported cultural services is not in line with international practice, reduces the competitiveness of Vietnamese cultural products, and reversely protects foreign cultural products.

Along with that, in Clause 1, Article 9, the delegate proposed to add content on goods and services provided to foreign organizations producing films using filming locations in Vietnam, film production services provided by foreign organizations and Vietnamese organizations according to Government regulations. "The lack of tax incentives for foreign film units is not appropriate..." - the delegate emphasized.

In addition, in Clause 12, Article 5, the delegate proposed to add the content that goods and services provided to non-profit cultural establishments serving cultural and artistic activities using 100% of the people's contributions and humanitarian aid capital according to Government regulations are not subject to value added tax.

Delegate Hoang Van Cuong (Hanoi City Delegation) said that this amendment to the Law should not aim to increase state budget revenue.

Should not set a target to increase state budget revenue

Participating in the discussion, delegate Hoang Van Cuong (Hanoi City Delegation) said that the amendment of this Law should not aim to increase state budget revenue. Because according to statistics, value added tax collection always accounts for a fairly high proportion, the mobilization rate from value added tax is among the highest compared to other countries in the region.

In addition, the index assessing the level of tax mobilization is the tax productivity and the value added tax collection efficiency in Vietnam are both high, showing that the value added tax collection is very effective.

According to the delegate, value added tax is a tax applied to consumers, not to producers. However, when the price of goods increases, the consumption of goods will decrease, thereby affecting producers, affecting producers will directly affect the production sector.

Delegate Hoang Van Cuong stated that in order to restore the economy, over the past two years, taxes had to be reduced to stimulate production. Therefore, the delegate suggested that budget revenue should not be increased by adjusting value added tax. To increase budget revenue, the delegate said that property tax and environmental protection tax could be studied.

Delegate Pham Duc An (Hanoi City Delegation) suggested that the drafting agency consider and expand the regulation in the direction of stipulating that the subjects not subject to value added tax at this point are the sale of secured assets of credit institutions.

Meanwhile, delegate Pham Duc An (Hanoi City Delegation) was interested in the content related to taxable entities in Article 5; specifically, Point h, Clause 9, Article 5 stipulates that entities not subject to value added tax are the sale of secured assets of debts of organizations in which the State owns 100% of the charter capital, established by the Government, with the function of buying and selling debts to handle bad debts of Vietnamese credit institutions.

Regarding this content, delegate Pham Duc An suggested that the drafting agency consider and expand the regulation in the direction of stipulating that the subjects not subject to value added tax at this point are the sale of secured assets of credit institutions.

“When collateral assets have to be sold, it means that borrowers are in a difficult situation. And in this case, if there is value added tax, it will add to their debt burden. If they are exempted from value added tax, they may be able to keep a part of the remaining asset value to serve their daily life or resume production and business,” explained delegate Pham Duc An.

According to delegate Pham Duc An, such a regulation is very necessary. Besides, in reality, such a regulation does not have much impact on tax collection.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/can-nhac-tang-thu-ngan-sach-bang-dieu-chinh-thue-gia-tri-gia-tang.html