There is no “tax on tax” for cultural activities.

At the National Conference on the Development of Vietnam's Cultural Industries chaired by the Prime Minister on the morning of December 22, Ms. Nguyen Thai Hoai Anh - Deputy General Director of Sun Group said that it is necessary to consider the task of Planning for the Development of Cultural Industries, as well as developing a plan to implement this Planning in each period, as a prerequisite task, as an overall strategic orientation for Vietnam's tourism industry.

According to Ms. Hoai Anh, there needs to be a social mechanism to mobilize capital for implementation, call for ideas, and conduct systematic research from cultural space planning, product development, and industry planning to promote cultural and tourism values, while developing supporting industries to have a complete ecosystem.

Regarding policy mechanisms, most localities support the development of cultural tourism and call on investors to pay attention and research.

Finance - Banking - Deputy Minister of Finance: There is no — Ms. Nguyen Thai Hoai Anh - Deputy General Director of Sun Group (Photo: VGP).

However, the Deputy General Director of Sun Group said that, in reality, tourism and cultural projects are projects that require interested investors to accept long-term financial investments, with slow capital recovery times.

“There should be specific mechanisms and policies to attract investors in this field, for example, preferential mechanisms on taxes, land use fees, and incentive mechanisms for investors participating in investment in tourism, culture and connecting infrastructure,” Ms. Hoai Anh suggested.

Ms. Truong Uyen Ly - Director of Hanoi Grapevine shared that creative space is a very dynamic, diverse, flexible and open model. Thereby, connecting art and culture, business and technology to introduce talents, products and creative ideas to the public.

However, according to Ms. Ly, creative spaces are still facing difficulties due to low spending limits, especially in public-private projects. Currently, creative spaces are still fulfilling tax obligations like other normal businesses, so they will face more difficulties. When participating in public-private partnership projects, they often face difficulties with very low spending levels from the State.

“Regarding taxes, I propose to exempt income tax for businesses operating in this field for the first 3 years and reduce it to 10% for the next 2 years, and exempt income tax for public-private projects,” Ms. Ly suggested.

Regarding tax policy recommendations at the conference, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said that currently, regarding VAT, corporate income tax and other policies, the Government and the Ministry of Finance have developed incentives for the cultural sector as well as businesses and organizations operating in the cultural sector.

Mr. Chi said that the recommendations that the delegates made are beyond current policies and regulations. The Ministry of Finance would like to take note of them for research and synthesis in programs and plans to amend tax laws related to the field of cultural industry development as recommended by the delegates.

“We will report to the Government, the Prime Minister, and competent authorities to make appropriate adjustments, creating the best conditions for businesses operating in the cultural field such as digital content creation, creative spaces, other cultural industry activities such as cinema... to take advantage of opportunities to develop the cultural industry on that basis,” said Mr. Chi.

Regarding the proposal of double tax, the Deputy Minister of Finance affirmed that currently, the tax policy does not have double tax on cultural activities, there are only incentives that have not reached the desired level of each specific case and there may be inconsistencies between different types of culture.

"We have noted this and will synthesize, evaluate, recommend, and report to competent authorities to provide maximum support for this activity," Mr. Chi concluded .

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