Many problems surrounding resource tax and land rent

(Baonghean) - The dialogue between the Tax Department and representatives of more than 300 small and medium enterprises in the province in different industries on October 16 was lively and frank. Many opinions of enterprises raised difficulties surrounding resource tax, land rent and corporate income tax.

Chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of Quy Hop District, Mr. Nguyen Giang Hoai - Director of Phu Quy Stone Joint Stock Company, commented: The Law on Minerals does not include tin in the list of rare resources, while the Law on Corporate Income Tax (CIT) includes tin in the list of rare resources and is subject to high tax rates. The current tax rate for tin is from 38-52%, which is unreasonable. Mr. Hoai also raised another problem in Quy Hop: Quy Hop's stone is marble, mainly colored stone, sedimentary stone similar to Thanh Hoa's stone. According to Decision No. 513 dated March 12, 2011 of Thanh Hoa province, the taxable price for 1m3 of stone is 500,000 VND, for all types of colored stone. In particular, Nghe An enterprises are implementing Decision No. 15 of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee dated February 22, 2011, with the level of 2 million - 8 million VND, 4 - 16 times higher than other provinces for a similar type of resource. This is not realistic, causing the locality to lose its competitiveness in regional products, while at this stage, enterprises are facing many difficulties. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Giang also reflected: The small industrial park Thung Khuoc - Quy Hop is located along National Highway 48, on this road there are factories. When doing land lease procedures, land rent, industrial park enterprises are calculated with different prices for the road surface area, the area behind the land is calculated with different prices like residential land. But this is an industrial park, on the entire factory in terms of function and usage, is it reasonable to apply such land rent prices?

Business representatives expressed their opinions at the dialogue.

The Director of Nghe An Tax Department, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hoa, said that there is currently a problem between the Mineral Law and the Corporate Income Tax Law. The Mineral Law does not include tin in the rare resources, but Circular No. 130/2012 guiding Decree 124 stipulates that tin is a rare resource, subject to a tax rate of 32-50%, for projects that began operating from 2009, while previous projects follow the old tax rate policy. The Nghe An Tax Department has collected and submitted this problem to the Ministry of Finance and the Government for comments. Specifically, for tin mining and processing projects in Nghe An, will the tax rate be 32% or 50%?

Regarding the issue of resource prices for colored stones in Nghe An being higher than those in Thanh Hoa, the Tax Department stated: Recently, many businesses have reported that the prices of resource products have dropped very quickly over the past year. The Tax Department has noted and discussed with businesses as follows: The Nghe An Tax Department has investigated and learned that Decision 134 of Thanh Hoa province dated May 10, 2012 has replaced the old Decision 535 of this province. Accordingly, the tax price for colored stones in Thanh Hoa has increased to 7 million VND/m3. In the coming time, the Tax Department will review the resource tax price for stones in Nghe An. Regarding land rent in small industrial parks along National Highway 48, the Tax Department will also work with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Finance to see if the land rent calculation is appropriate.

Also related to the issue of land rent, Nghe An Guest House II proposed that there should be a policy to reduce land rent for units in Cua Lo because the business time in Cua Lo only reaches 30% in 1 year. The Tax Department replied: In Article 14, Article 155 of Decree No. 142/ND-CP dated November 14, 2005 of the Government on land rent and water surface rent collection, according to regulations, cases eligible for exemption and reduction of land rent and water surface rent do not stipulate land rent reduction for cases of using land for seasonal production and business. The proposal of the unit exceeds the authority of the tax authority. The Tax Department would like to acknowledge and report to the superior to have a draft to amend and supplement the policy on land rent collection to submit to the competent authority for consideration.

At the conference, the Tax Department also carefully answered many questions from businesses about tax policies, conditions for enjoying corporate income tax reduction, online tax declaration, and whether tax debt notification is reasonable or not... Businesses said that this regular dialogue mechanism is very good, promptly removing difficulties for businesses. However, businesses also said that tax policies are too numerous and change frequently, leading to businesses not being able to update, so the Tax Department needs to disseminate them to businesses early.

Chau Lan