Article 3 of the revised law, approved by the National Assembly (NA) last week, requires enterprises to pay the original taxes plus an interest rate of 0.03% per day for their arrears when the law comes into force from July.
The new punitive interest rate is below 0.05% per day or 1.5% per month as stipulated by Article 5 of Law No. 71/2014/QH03 on amendments and supplements to some articles of the laws on taxes.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance proposed that the punitive interest rate should not be regulated by the laws and that the Government should be allowed to decide it depending on operations of enterprises and business situations.
According to the ministry, the rate has been adjusted many times but still mismatched the reality. The rate of 0.05% per day, or 18% per year, applied since early last year is much higher than the current average bank interest rate of 9.5-10.5% a year.
When the tax management law was passed in 2006, the penalty was 0.05% per day. According to Law No.21/2012/QH13 introduced in 2012, the punitive rate for late tax payments in a period of 90 days was 0.05% per day but 0.07% per day for longer periods. But Law No. 71/2014/QH13 issued in 2014 stipulates the fine at 0.05% per day.
Article 60 of the current law on tax management, if tax authorities are late in tax refunds for enterprises due to their mistakes, the latter could demand interest payment for late tax refunds. The interest rate equal to that applied by banks at the time of payment, according to the Government’s Decree No. 83/2013/ND-CP.
However, the NA Standing Committee said tax authorities that are late for tax refunds to enterprises have not paid the interest to taxpayers. Therefore, the committee proposed the Government revise the decree in a way that forces taxagenciesto pay interest for taxpayers.
More goods, services to beexemptfrom VAT
Value added tax (VAT)exemptionswill apply to more groups ofgoods and servicesfrom July 1 as specified in the revised law on amendments and supplements to some articles of the laws on VAT, special consumption tax and tax management.
The 13th NA passed the revised tax before the legislature wrapped up its final session in Hanoi on Tuesday.
Under Article 1 of the revised law, VAT breaks will be valid forcare servicesfor elderly and disabled persons and export products made from mineral resources with a total value of resources plus energy cost accounting for at least 51% of production cost.
Article 1 also states that from July 1, products of the cultivation and livestock sectors, and unprocessed and semi-processed seafood will be free from VAT declarations but still enjoy a deduction of this tax.
At its eighth session, the 13th NA adopted Law No. 71/2014 /QH13 on amendments and supplements to some articles of the laws on taxes. This law regulates that from early 2015, fertilizer products, specialized machinery and equipment foragricultural production, offshore fishing vessels, andanimal feedare not subject to VAT.
Enterprises which trade VAT-free products are not allowed to get the deduction and refund of input VAT.
Source: http://www.vietnambreakingnews.com/
Keywords: Punitive interest, late tax payers down
