Facebook, Google, Microsoft have paid taxes more than 5,100 billion

Finance Minister Ho Duc Phuc is one of four industry leaders who will answer questions before the National Assembly, expected on the morning of June 8. In the report serving the question just sent to the National Assembly, he said, the average tax revenue of cross-border platforms is over 1,100 billion VND a year. From 2018 to the end of April this year, through organizations in Vietnam (tax paid on behalf of foreign contractors), these platforms declared and paid 5,111 billion VND. In which, the tax paid by Facebook is 1,965 billion VND, Google also paid 1,902 billion VND and Microsoft is 651 billion VND.

Thus, compared to the data reported by Minister Phuc in March, the tax collected from digital platforms has increased by VND 1,100 billion so far.

In addition to this amount, the tax agency also collected VND 735 billion from handling violations and preventing revenue loss with individuals and organizations earning income from providing cross-border digital services and e-commerce business. Particularly, this revenue in the first 4 months of the year was 176 billion.

However, with the fast-growing digital economy and e-commerce characteristics, the Finance Minister said that tax management and collection face many challenges.

The first is the ability to fully manage revenue sources and taxpayers. Currently, this tax collection in most countries is based on the presence of taxpayers, while businesses and individuals doing business on digital platforms, across borders can distribute income to the most profitable locations. tax according to the regulations of each country.

Another difficulty is that the tax base cannot be determined. In fact, a presence in the digital space is not within the scope of current tax law. Typical for this activity is online advertising and interactive activities through the platform of social networks.

On the other hand, it is also difficult to clearly distinguish the income as the tax base. For example, revenue related to software, digital information content products, applications posted on the network, … it is difficult to determine the amount paid for royalties, service fees or business profits. business.

In addition, the sharing economy model, like Grab, is difficult to determine whether it is a transport service or providing a connection service as a basis for declaring and calculating value added tax.

Controlling cash flow on digital platforms and e-commerce platforms is also not easy, as non-cash payment methods are quite diverse (via banks, P2P peer-to-peer payments…).

In Vietnam, controlling domestic e-commerce business transactions is difficult as the COD (cash on delivery) payment system is more popular than non-cash forms.

In order to manage and avoid tax loss in digital platform business, Minister Ho Duc Phuc said that regulations on tax management (value-added tax, personal and corporate income) will be revised and supplemented. fig. This correction is directed towards payment intermediaries, foreign digital platform provider partners and owners ecommerce level responsible for providing information, declaring tax, and paying tax on behalf of the seller. The tax industry also upgraded technology infrastructure, built a database on tax management, risk management with e-commerce…

Mr. Minh