Follow tight in supporting businesses so that the policy comes to life

The Government's Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP stipulating the reduction of value added tax (VAT) from 10% to 8% has been in effect since February 1, 2022. However, through the survey, there are still opinions that a decent number of people and businesses have not yet understood this regulation. While people are looking forward to tax reduction, some businesses said that the issue is not because they were not willing to implement, but because they cannot clearly understand which items are on the list of items eligible for tax reduction; or having difficulty in looking up, comparing codes of goods and services to impose value added tax of 8%. Enterprises also hope that the Ministry of Finance will soon issue a circular with detailed instructions for the decree to come to life.

The Ministry of Finance said that on January 28, 2022, the Government issued Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP detailing the implementation of the tax exemption and reduction policy under Resolution No. 43/2022/NQ- QH15 on fiscal and monetary policies to support the program of socio-economic recovery and development.

Accordingly, on VAT: 2% reduction of value added tax rate from February 1, 2022 to the end of December 31, 2022 for groups of goods and services currently applying the 10% VAT rate (remaining 8%) except for some goods and services (goods and services not eligible for tax reduction include 12 groups and are detailed in Appendices I, II, III issued together with the Decree).

As soon as Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP was issued, on January 28, 2022, the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Taxation) issued Official Dispatch No. 01/CD-TCT requesting tax departments to actively propagate, disseminated to taxpayers in the area to promptly implement Decree No. 15 detailing the implementation of tax exemption and reduction policies under Resolution No. 43/2022/NQ-QH15 of the National Assembly in order to remove difficulties for taxpayers in the current period.

After the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, the General Department of Taxation issued Official Letter No. 02/CD-TCT dated February 9, 2022 requesting the comrades of the Tax Department to direct the departments and branches to further promote propaganda and dissemination to people and businesses in the area under their management.

At the same time, the General Department of Taxation requires tax departments and tax sub-departments to follow closely the localities and taxpayers to guide, support, inspect and supervise the implementation of guidelines and policies of the National Assembly and the Government. Especially for businesses, organizations, households and individuals trading groups of goods and services subject to VAT reduction in the locality, tax authorities will closely follow up to support the correct implementation of regulations on the 2% VAT rate reduction in 2022 according to Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 of the National Assembly and Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP of the Government.

The decree is implemented without the need for a guiding circular

The Ministry of Finance (General Department of Taxation) regularly propagates and explains Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP to taxpayers through its website as well as various support channels.

Regarding the reflection that businesses do not know which products are eligible for tax reduction, according to the Ministry of Finance, in Decree 15/2022/ND-CP, 12 groups of goods and services are excluded from VAT reduction and details in 3 Appendixes issued with the decree.

Regarding the claims related to the price of goods at the people's markets, Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP stipulates that business households and business individuals calculate VAT by the percentage of revenue method is reduced by 20% of percentage point to calculate VAT when issuing invoices for goods and services for VAT reduction.

Regarding the opinion that the Ministry of Finance needs to soon issue a detailed circular, according to the Ministry of Finance, in order for the National Assembly's resolution to quickly come into effect, the Ministry of Finance has submitted to the Government for promulgation a decree detailing the implementation.

Therefore, the Ministry of Finance will not issue a guiding circular. For problems in the implementation of Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP, based on the provisions of Clause 3, Article 3 of Decree 15/2022/ND-CP, if arising in the implementation process, problems, the Ministry of Finance will guide and solve.

In fact, the above feedback is only the opinion of a small part of businesses. Because through a survey by a reporter from VFT and feedback from the public, the business community, managers, economic experts and people highly appreciate the efforts of the Ministry of Finance and the Government in supporting people and businesses to overcome difficulties caused by the pandemic. Although the tax reduction is not large, it is unprecedented and shows the Government's sharing and companionship with people and businesses in difficulties.