Taxes miss out on the 'rich'?

Youtuber earns billions, pays taxes little by little

For example, according to statistics from Social Blade as of May 30, YouTuber Tho Nguyen has 10 million followers. The site estimates that Tho Nguyen can earn between 20,000 and 319,000 USD per month, equivalent to an annual income of 239,600 USD - 3.8 million USD. Converted, Tho Nguyen's channel has an income of more than 5.5 billion VND - 88.5 billion VND. According to current regulations, YouTubers must pay 7% tax on revenue (including 2% personal income tax and 5% value added tax). Thus, the amount of tax Tho Nguyen must pay is about 380 million - 6 billion VND per year. However, according to information from the Binh Duong Tax Department, the owner of Tho Nguyen's account is Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Tho, residing in Binh Duong, who paid 360 million VND in taxes in 2020 and 213.5 million VND in early 2021. Thus, it can be seen that the YouTuber only declared to pay taxes at the lowest income level of less than 4 billion VND/year.

YouTubers and TikTokers have huge incomes but pay much less taxes than salaried workers.

Ngoc Duong - Nhat Thinh

Suppose an individual with a salary has a total income of about 4 billion VND/year, after deducting family circumstances for the taxpayer and 2 dependents, the taxable income is 3.76 billion VND, the threshold is 35%, the amount payable is more than 1.3 billion VND, equivalent to a tax rate of more than 32% on total income. Thus, even with the same income, the salary earner has to pay 3-6 times higher personal income tax than the amount of tax that YouTuber Tho Nguyen paid.

In fact, not only YouTuber Tho Nguyen, many other YouTubers and TikTokers have become famous for many years and have a large number of followers. For example, after reaching 10 million subscribers in early August 2021, NTN channel became the first individual in Vietnam to achieve the Diamond button and now has 10.2 million followers. The owner of the channel, Nguyen Thanh Nam (in Thai Binh), also has 3 other official YouTube channels including Mr Nam Vlogs, Mr Nam Gaming and NTN Vlogs. Statistics from the Social Blade page show that this channel currently has an estimated average annual income of 153,000 - 1.7 million USD, equivalent to 3.7 - 40 billion VND. Another YouTube channel with a "huge" number of fans is Cris Devil Gamer with 10.6 million subscribers and also achieved the Diamond button since October 2021. A previous estimate also by Social Blade, the annual revenue of the owner of this channel, Phan Le Vy Thanh, is from 162,400 - 2.6 million USD, equivalent to 3.9 - 62.4 billion VND... Most of these YouTubers do not make public how much tax they pay or whether they pay it or not.

Similarly, many individuals doing business online also have "huge" incomes but according to regulations, they only pay tax of 1.5% on total revenue (including value added tax and personal income tax). There are no exact figures from this activity, but according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2022, the scale of the domestic retail e-commerce market is estimated to reach 16.4 billion USD, equivalent to 393,000 billion VND, accounting for 7.5% of the country's revenue from consumer goods and services. With a growth rate of 20%/year, Vietnam is ranked by eMarketer in the group of 5 countries with the highest e-commerce growth rate in the world. With the above sales, it is estimated that the tax from this activity will be more than 5,800 billion VND/year. But last year, the tax sector only collected from domestic organizations and individuals with commercial activities of over 600 billion VND, mainly from organizations and enterprises (DN). Thus, the personal income tax from individuals doing business online is just a drop in the ocean.

Singing at weddings, income equal to a car

Not only YouTubers, TikTokers or individuals doing business and selling on social networking sites, the income of singers has long been a topic of public interest. At the end of 2022, "Bolero Goddess" TM announced that she would sing at a wedding in the West with a fee equal to the price of a car. A company that used to organize music shows said that the fees for inviting singers are quite diverse. In a music show 2 years ago, the company invited singer M., a class A singer, to sing 3 songs for a price of 500 - 600 million VND. As for class B singers, it was around a few tens of millions of VND per song.

Also at the end of 2022, singer SB owed nearly 100 million VND in personal income tax, so he was not allowed to perform abroad, which attracted a lot of attention. This is just one of the cases where artists were found to owe taxes. From 2016 to July 2019, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department collected taxes from artists with a total of more than 31 billion VND. Of which, in 2019, the tax authority collected 15 billion VND in taxes from artists. The highest tax collection among these belonged to a director living in Ho Chi Minh City with an amount of 2.4 billion VND. In 2016, the Tax Department collected taxes from 20 artists with an amount of 5.3 billion VND; in 2017, it collected 12 artists with 6.6 billion VND; in 2018, it collected 5 artists with 4.5 billion VND. In 2012, the Hanoi Tax Department also collected 600 million VND in taxes from 6 famous artists, including a director with an income of over 1 billion VND and a singer with an income of nearly 1 billion VND in the year. It is worth mentioning that the amount of tax paid by artists and famous people is becoming increasingly secretive.

17 years ago, a list of income and taxes that singers had to pay in a year was published, attracting much attention. Among them, singer HNH paid the highest tax at 179.5 million VND, with an income of 732 million VND. Next was singer LT with an income of 693 million VND, paying 137 million VND in taxes. Third was singer D.VH with 132 million VND in taxes, despite having the highest income of 780 million VND... The income level announced at that time surprised many people because it was much lower than the actual amount. However, since then, the tax authority has almost not revealed the identities of artists who pay taxes or have their salaries increased many times.

According to a tax official, artists do not work under their own names but under stage names, and often have management companies that sign contracts under the company's name. Therefore, it is difficult to count the income or taxes that artists pay. Many singers who have been active for several years have been heard to have bought houses worth tens of billions, and driven cars worth billions; but there is really no figure for how much tax they pay to the state budget (?). In addition to performing, many artists also have income from many sources such as advertising for corporate brands, products, hosting shows, taking photos, etc. But no one knows how much their income is in general, in complete contrast to salaried employees, who all declare it fully. Not to mention that many YouTubers, TikTokers, singers, artists, etc. can transfer their income to the company to deduct all operating expenses and only pay corporate income tax if there is a profit, while salaried employees cannot do this.

In 2022, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department handled 38 people with income from Google with the amount of tax arrears, fines and late payment fees up to 169 billion VND. Of which, a person with a "huge" income from Google but "forgot" to pay taxes was collected and fined 31 billion VND by the District 7 - Nha Be Tax Department... However, these numbers are just a drop in the ocean compared to the revenue and growth rate of e-commerce in Vietnam.

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