Corporate income tax rules set to change

Laws - Businesses will soon be required to pay corporate income tax on interest earnings from banks or credit organizations, lending capital to other ventures or sales of foreign currencies, under a new decree.

Decree 122/2011/ND-CP, which will take effect at the beginning of March and be applied to all 2012 earnings, adds several specific regulations to Government Decree 124/2008/ND-CP guiding the Law on Corporate Income Tax which was issued in 2008.

Under the new regulation, corporate income tax will also be imposed on income earned by partially or fully transferring capital which was invested in other ventures, selling their affiliates and transferring shares.

Enterprises who transfer projects or their mineral exploration and exploitation rights will have to pay income tax on any related earnings.

Several types of earnings are eligible for tax breaks. Specifically, income collected from production, commodities sales and service enterprises will be exempt from corporate income tax if 30 per cent of their labor force includes handicapped, HIV/AIDS sufferers or recovered drug addicts. These enterprises must have at least 20 workers during a year and cannot be involved in the finance or real estate sector.

The previous proportion was 51 per cent.

Tax exemptions will also be applied for income earned in operations that offer training for ethnic minorities, disabled people, needy children, drug addicts and people suffering from HIV/AIDS.