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Income tax payers to get money back
People who have already paid their new income taxes should have the money returned following a circular just issued to delay the tax, said officials Tuesday.
Under circular No. 27 issued by the Ministry of Finance Friday, personal income – including salaries, profits from real estate and stock transactions and other investment returns – would not be taxed until May.
Tran Thi Le Nga, a senior official from the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, said organizations had not submitted their employees’ income taxes yet as the deadline would have been February 20.
Nga said the enterprises instead should simply return the money to their staff.
Similarly, stock brokerages will need to pay back the capital gains taxes they have collected from investors, she said.
However, as of Tuesday, most local stock brokerages were still collecting taxes on share trading.
Vo Huu Tuan, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Bao Viet Securities branch, said his company had continued temporarily collecting the tax as the regulation had only been delayed.
Tuan said his company would study the circular and inform investors on the issue as soon as possible.
Johan Nyvene, CEO of the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation, known as HSC, said his company had not received any detailed instructions from tax agencies.
Nyvene said his brokerage decided to continue collecting the tax from traders because it would be hard to do so later if the tax is not waived completely.
The National Assembly will decide in May if the personal income tax payments will be waived completely or just delayed. The government said the delay in the collection of personal income tax until May aimed to help stimulate spending amid the global economic crisis.
Although Friday’s circular would not come into effect for 45 days, Nga said organizations needed to repay the taxes soon and no longer needed to collect income taxes from their staff through March.
She said that even if taxpayers had lost their proof of tax payment, their organizations, which are obligated to keep records of the collected tax, must still return the money.
Nguyen Huy Truong, an official from the General Department of Taxation, said although his department had not imposed a deadline for repaying the personal income tax, organizations would be considered to be breaking the law if they refused to return collected tax money.
From February to May, the enterprises would not be allowed to deduct personal income taxes from their staff salaries, he said.
However, individuals and organizations would still need to calculate the tax payable over the period, Truong said.
Thanh Nien
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