Next year, the Law on Value Added Tax will be amended.

On the morning of December 18, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to include the project to amend the Law on Value Added Tax in the 2024 law-making program.

The National Assembly will review and comment on this draft law at the 7th Session (mid-2024) and pass it at the 8th Session (late 2024).

The Law on Value Added Tax (VAT) was passed on June 3, 2008 at the 9th session of the 12th National Assembly, effective from 2009 and was amended and supplemented with a number of articles in 2003 and 2005. However, Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long said that with the current socio-economic development situation and future trends, the VAT policy has encountered certain limitations.

The Government has reviewed and approved the proposal for the Law with 5 policy groups. These include completing regulations on subjects not subject to value added tax; regulations on value added tax calculation prices; regulations on value added tax rates; regulations on input value added tax deductions and regulations on value added tax refunds.

Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long speaks on the morning of December 18. Photo: National Assembly Media — Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long speaks on the morning of December 18. Photo: *National Assembly Media*

According to the Minister of Justice, the amendment of this law aims to promptly remove difficulties for production and business activities, reform administrative procedures, unblock and promote resources for socio-economic development; in line with international tax reform trends; and ensure stable state budget revenue.

Chairman of the Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung suggested that the drafting agency clarify the basis for adjusting the subjects from not subject to value-added tax to subject to 5% or 10% tax; review the groups of taxable products to ensure coverage of taxable subjects.

Mr. Tung also proposed to study and review the legalization of sub-law regulations related to land prices deducted to calculate value added tax on real estate transfer activities to ensure clarity and transparency.

The Government further clarified the reasons for supplementing the tax rate regulations for unprocessed agricultural, livestock, and aquaculture products; the practical basis and impact of amending and supplementing the conditions for deduction and refund of value-added tax on exported goods and services; and reviewing the supplementary regulations in case taxpayers discover errors in their tax declarations, they must make additional declarations and deductions in accordance with the provisions of the law on tax administration.

Commenting earlier, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue assessed that the draft laws must consider the entire tax law, "not just VAT" to ensure consistency, especially with the recently passed National Assembly Resolution on global minimum tax.

Regarding the Law on Value Added Tax, Mr. Hue suggested that the drafting agency consider more about the VAT taxable items for agricultural products. This is a complicated content, which has caused many negative violations related to VAT invoices for items such as coffee, shrimp, and fish.

On the other hand, VAT regulations are contained in many different decrees, so they need to be reviewed and legalized to the maximum extent. "VAT refunds are also an issue that needs attention. VAT is an extremely complicated issue, so we need to look directly at the issues for review," the National Assembly Chairman requested.

Son Ha

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