Income tax, disease control on NA agenda

Income tax, disease control on NA agenda (25-10-2007) National Assembly deputy Duong Kim Anh from Tra Vinh Province makes a statement on the Infectious Disease Control Law yesterday afternoon. — VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat HA NOI — The National Assembly’s 500 deputies agreed that Viet Nam should have a Personal Income Tax Law when they discussed the proposed law yesterday morning. But most worried about how the new law should work. The most contentious issues were how to define “family circumstances” when calculating individual income, how to collect the money and what threshold should be set before payments begin. As with Tuesday’s session, the deputies formed city and provincial delegations, and typically representatives from Tuyen Quang, Quang Ninh and Ben Tre provinces agreed with the draft law’s threshold of VND4 million-a-month as taxable income. Deputy Dinh The Huynh, Tuyen Quang Province, said: “Voters told me that the VND4 million was acceptable.” Nguyen Duc Kien, Quang Ninh, said: “The law is to ensure that anyone who earns money pays tax. The law sets taxable income at VND4 million because of the country’s present conditions. It should be thought of as a trial so that people can get accustomed to paying.” Some argued that either the new tax should be paid at the monthly VND4 million threshold or that income should be calculated from the minimum wage to allow for inflation. Trinh Thi Thanh Binh, Ben Tre Province, said: “The threshold of VND4 million is reasonable We should not be worried that…