HCMC – As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to show complicated developments, the Ministry of Finance has proposed the Government continue extending the deadlines for enterprises to pay taxes and fees this year.
The payment deadlines of four taxes and fees in particular have been proposed to be extended by three to five months, comprising value added tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax and land rentals, the local media reported.
Of these, the deadline to pay value added tax with an amount of over VND68.8 trillion may be extended by five months. In addition, enterprises may be allowed to pay corporate income tax, estimated at more than VND40.5 trillion, three months later than the plan.
Personal income tax and land rentals were estimated at VND1.3 trillion and VND4.4 trillion, respectively.
Thus, the total taxes and fees payable may reach VND115 trillion. The Ministry of Finance affirmed that the amount would be collected at the end of this year, so the State budget revenue this year will not be affected.
Chu Tien Dung, chairman of the HCMC Union of Business Associations, hailed the ministry’s proposal, saying that the city is now home to some 480,000 firms, which paid some VND371 trillion in taxes and fees last year. Although the new Covid-19 wave has not directly affected the entire country, enterprises in HCMC have been hit due to a shortage of laborers.
Last year, enterprises struggled to overcome difficulties. They will start to recover this quarter, so the Government should extend their deadlines to pay taxes and fees. In reality, the extension by three to five months will not help enterprises much; it should be six months, Dung added.
He said that the extension of tax and fee payment deadlines was just a short-term solution, adding that the improvement of policies and the business environment remained a driving force for the growth of the enterprises.
Economic expert Le Dang Doanh also threw his support behind the proposal, noting that despite the tight State budget, the late collection of taxes and fees by several months would not have much of an impact and that it was more important to cut unnecessary expenditures.
State management agencies must accelerate the removal of obstacles facing enterprises instead of using the pandemic to delay the handling of enterprises’ proposals, Doanh noted, adding that this was an opportunity to restructure the State budget, cut unnecessary expenses and downsize the State apparatus in many agencies.
