Finance Ministry Proposes Taxation on Gold Investors

The Ministry of Finance has proposed two methods of taxing gold traders with the first option aimed at imposing a 20% tax on income they get from profitable transactions.

 

The methods were put forward at a meeting held by the ministry’s Tax Agency Dec 15 in Hanoi and attended by representatives of State Securities Commission, taxation departments of Hanoi and HCM City and gold trading centers.

 

For the second method, gold trading firms will briefly turn 0.002% of the sales price on every transaction, no matter if the transactions bring loss or profit, over to the Tax Agency. At year-end, investors will adjust the sum with the agency and pay 20% of their profits.

 

If the second method is chosen, the companies which run gold trading floors have the responsibility for withholding personal income tax of investors and paying it to the state budget.

 

The information on taxing gold investors meant that the ministry is inclined to manage gold trading floors, rather than shut them down, said a Hanoi-based gold exchange operator.

 

Participants at the meeting said the Tax Agency must define whether gold should be considered as goods or money in order to build up a suitable taxation mechanism for the gold trading floors.

 

If government agencies decide that it is necessary to tax gold investors as investors in stocks and bonds are taxed, the tax will be withheld as stipulated in the Personal Income Tax Law.

 

Currently, virtually anyone can open a gold exchange; some of the biggest are run by jewelry companies. The central bank believes that if the exchanges are allowed at all, only credit institutions should be allowed to run gold trading floors.

 

Vietnam currently has 20 gold trading centers with nearly one million gold taels worth $1 billion changing hand a day. (Vietnam Economic Times)