Income is shrinking
Ms. TH, a reporter who has worked for nearly 20 years at a newspaper in Ho Chi Minh City, said that her salary coefficient is currently 4.32, and her monthly salary is nearly 7.8 million VND. Royalties are getting lower and lower due to economic difficulties, and the newspaper's revenue has decreased, so all expenses must be reduced accordingly. "The journalism profession has many investments and very specific expenses such as having to have a personal computer and camera for work. Or travel expenses, gasoline, parking fees... are not a small amount because almost every day we have to go to several places to get news, interview, meet... Collecting them all for the whole month, sometimes even the salary is not enough to cover it. In recent years, journalists have had more difficulties. Just from the beginning of the year until now, my agency has had more than 20 people quit their jobs because their income is too low," Ms. TH sighed.
The chief accountant of a self-funded press agency in Ho Chi Minh City said that with a base salary of VND1.8 million, a person who has worked for 27 years and has the highest salary coefficient of 4.98 will receive a monthly salary of VND8.9 million. For those who have just graduated and have a salary coefficient of 2.34, the salary is VND4.2 million/month. From July 1, the base salary will increase to VND2.34 million, an employee who has worked for 27 years will receive a salary of VND11.6 million/month (higher than the family deduction for calculating personal income tax (PIT) of VND600,000/month), and a new employee will receive a salary of VND5.4 million/month. "With such a low salary, self-funded press agencies will not be able to attract good reporters and journalists to work, and will not be able to compete with other agencies," he worried.
Reporter Ngoc Duong ( Thanh Nien Newspaper) working during the flood in the Central region in 2020
According to this person, the income of many journalists has dropped dramatically over the past year because press agencies (CPA) had to adjust the salary level paid to employees when the Ministry of Finance abolished Circular 150/2010 (Circular 150) with the regulation: "Salary costs included in reasonable expenses when determining taxable income of the newspaper are the actual salary paid to employees by the newspaper, with valid and legal documents". Since then, CPA has only been allowed to implement salaries according to the state salary scale, applied according to Decree 60/2021, although many CPA are financially autonomous and pay taxes like enterprises.
Before the abolition of Circular 150, the average salary of a reporter would be around 15 million VND/month, of which the salary according to the salary scale was more than 7 million VND, the rest was income based on productivity paid by the agency to encourage reporters and journalists to work. After the abolition of Circular 150, staff of press agencies also paid personal income tax in full, but the actual salary received at this time was only more than 7 million VND, plus the income paid for overtime, it was only more than 8 million VND/month. "The sharp decrease in income has discouraged many workers, productivity has decreased and many people have even quit their jobs and switched to other fields...", this person said.
Leaders of some major newspapers admitted that they had to encourage their colleagues to wait until July 1 to have a new salary mechanism to improve the income of journalists. However, up to this point, the salary regime has not been issued, so the agencies and press agencies continue to have to wait and the press team does not know when they will be able to feel secure with their work.
Recommendations for actual salary calculation
After the petition of a number of agencies, in early September 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued a document explaining the abolition of Circular 150 guiding VAT and CIT for agencies, causing difficulties for agencies. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance said that regarding the financial autonomy mechanism of public service units (including agencies - PV), on June 21, 2021, the Government issued Decree No. 60, stipulating that from the time of implementing the new salary regime according to Resolution No. 27/2018 of the 7th Conference of the Central Executive Committee, public service units that self-insure regular and investment expenditures (group 1) and public service units that self-insure regular expenditures (group 2) are paid salaries based on performance like enterprises.
However, up to now, the Government has made some changes in salary reform since July 1, but for public service agencies, there has been no guidance on the new salary regime according to the content of Resolution 27/2018. Therefore, public service agencies continue to wait in the context of difficulties, with income not enough to cover living expenses.
Therefore, while waiting for instructions on implementing the salary regulations under Resolution 27/2018, the agencies propose that the Ministry of Finance study, amend and supplement the regulations, allowing the agencies to decide on the level of additional salary expenses for civil servants and employees in addition to the basic salary according to the salary scale, position allowance; salary expenses included in deductible expenses when determining the taxable income of the unit are the actual salary amount paid (including salary scale, position allowance and additional salary) to civil servants and employees related to production and business activities; with sufficient legal invoices and documents and no other funding sources. Determining the salary expense level for civil servants and employees at the unit must be linked to the quantity, quality, work efficiency and according to the internal spending regulations.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tu, lecturer at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, said that Decree 60/2021 should only be applied to public service units receiving state budget salaries. For self-governing public service press agencies that do not receive state budget funds, it is necessary to allow a salary regime similar to that of enterprises. "Here, the press agency is "bisexual", being both a public service unit and an enterprise when implementing the accounting regime. That means the press pays corporate income tax but calculates salaries according to the public service mechanism. Public service agencies have a low state salary regime, so the corporate income tax to be paid will increase. The principle is that when paying corporate income tax, all reasonable and valid expenses must be recorded and deducted before determining taxable income. However, because the salary cost is calculated according to the state salary, instead of being calculated according to the actual salary paid on productivity, the income of journalists has decreased. Therefore, it is necessary to allow public service agencies to calculate salaries according to the same mechanism as enterprises. Do not worry about public service agencies paying high salaries to their staff, because high salaries mean they will pay high personal income tax," Mr. Tu emphasized.
Public service units that self-insure regular and investment expenditures, or self-insure regular expenditures and state financial funds outside the state budget, are entitled to implement a salary autonomy mechanism based on performance results like enterprises. Public service units that partly self-insure regular expenditures and public service units whose regular expenditures are fully covered by the state budget shall apply the salary regime as civil servants. The actual salary paid is linked to the job position and professional title of the civil servant, decided by the head of the public service unit based on revenue sources (from the state budget and from the unit's revenue sources), labor productivity, work quality and work efficiency according to the unit's salary regulations, not lower than the salary regime prescribed by the State.
(Resolution No. 27 dated May 21, 2018 of the 7th Conference of the 12th Central Executive Committee on reforming salary policy for cadres, civil servants, public employees, armed forces and employees in enterprises)
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nguoi-lam-bao-nong-long-cho-co-che-luong-moi-185240624231457684.htm
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