Stabilizing state budget: Property tax reform in Vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY LUU THI TAM STABILIZING STATE BUDGET: PROPERTY TAX REFORM IN VIETNAM MASTER'S THESIS …………………………… PUBLIC POLICY Hanoi, 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY LUU THI TAM STABILIZING STATE BUDGET: PROPERTY TAX REFORM IN VIETNAM MAJOR: PUBLIC POLICY CODE: ………………… RESEARCH SUPERVISOR: Dr NGUYEN CAM NHUNG 61 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to my parents who were patient for my grow up I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Cam Nhung, who helped me in performing the thesis with deep enthusiasm I would like to thank all my teachers, program assistants in Program of Public Policy in Vietnam Japan University who have retransmitted knowledge to me And, I express my thanks to all of my classmates, my friends who share two years together and encourage me in life and performing the study Luu Thi Tam Hanoi, 2019 i ABTRACT In the context of declining revenues from oil, foreign trade and state-owned enterprises in Vietnam state budget, the Government of Vietnam has been reforming to find more stable revenues, property tax is a potential source despite property tax revenue accounts for a small propotion now In theory, real property taxes can be stable revenues to local budgets and self-adjust due to increasing price of houses and land as the economy grows However, compared to internations, Vietnam does not taxes on land improvements, which means that the tax base is narrow Besides, the taxable land price is regulated and fixed over a five-year period without adjusting the update according to the market value These restrictions reduce the tax fairness as well as the unrealized collection of budget objectives Therefore, based on tax design theory and lessons learned from some other countries, this research suggess several solutions to increase revenues by collection process, then wider tax base and raise tax rate in long-term In the first period, the government strengthened the efficiency of collection, in particular completing databases, using information technology and propaganda to increase voluntary morality; In urban area, tax price adjusted annual; In the long term, the government will gradually increase tax rates, expand tax bases with improvements on land as well as adjust land prices by GDP and ad-valorem to ensure the tax efficiency and feasibility; In addition, the government needs to consider, evaluate tax exempt policies, instead using these revenues to improve the quality of public goods ii Table of Contents ABTRACT - ii LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF TABLES - vi INTRODUCTION vii Research motivation: - vii The scope of research: - ix The purpose of research: ix Research methodology: - ix CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK -1 1.1 Literature review 1.2 Theoretical framework 1.2.1 Definition and role of balanced-budget 1.2.2 Condition for sound budget balance - 1.2.3 Determinants of stabilizing state budget in terms of tax 1.2.3.1 Macroeconomics stability 1.2.3.2 Tax regulations 1.2.3.3 A good tax structure - 10 1.2.4 Property tax versus state budget – relation 11 1.2.5 Conceptual framework for property tax reform 12 CHAPTER 2: STATUS OF STATE BUDGET AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF PROPERTY TAX IN VIETNAM - 15 2.1 Status of state budget in Vietnam -15 2.1.1 Overview of state budget revenue sources - 15 2.1.2 Vietnam budget trend and budget deficits situation 16 2.1.2 Structure of revenues in Vietnam state budget 18 2.2 Legal framework of revenues of property tax in Vietnam -19 2.2.1 Agriculture land use tax law - 19 2.2.2 Non-agriculture land use tax 21 2.3 Results of property tax implementation 23 2.3.1 Non-agriculture land use tax 23 2.3.1.1 Non-agriculture land use tax: Results of tax revenues 23 iii 2.3.1.2 Non-agriculture land use tax: tax collection results - 25 2.3.2 Agriculture land use tax - 26 2.3.2.1 Agriculture land use tax: Result of tax revenues - 26 2.3.2.1 Agriculture land use tax: Tax collection result 27 CHAPTER 3: EXPERIECES IN STABILIZING STATE BUDGET BY REFORMING PROPERTY TAX IN SOME COUNTRIES - 29 3.1 Taxation reforming objectives 30 3.2 Taxation design 32 3.2.1 Tax base - 32 3.2.2 Tax rate 33 3.2.3 Price Assessment 34 3.2.4 Collection process - 35 3.3 Taxation performance: effectiveness 35 3.4 The lesson learned from other countries -36 CHAPTER 4: POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR PROPERTY TAX REFORM TOWARD STABILIZING STATE BUDGET 38 4.1 To enhance collection efficiency 39 4.1.1 Factors to improve tax collection performance 39 4.1.2 these steps to optimize property tax revenue by enhancing collection process effectiveness 42 4.2 Expading tax base -43 4.2.1 Expading tax base of non-agriculture land use tax 43 4.2.1.1 Adjusting prices of property taxpayable - 43 4.2.1.2 Expanding taxpayables 48 4.2.2 Expanding tax base of agriculture land use tax 51 4.2.2.1 Land categories and land price to calculate tax payables - 51 4.2.2.2 Expanding tax base by abolish tax exemption, protect cultivated land area, reduce abandoned land area 51 4.3 Adjusting tax rate -54 CONCLUSION 57 REFERENCES 59 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The scale of budget revenues and expenditures balance with GDP in Vietnam from 2007 to 2017 ……………………… 25 Figure 2.2: The budget deficit in Vietnam from 2007 to 2017 ……… 26 Figure 2.3: The structure of revenues in Vietnam state budget from 2012 to 2017 …………………………………………………… 27 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Table 2.1: Table 2.2: Table 2.3: Table 2.4: Table 3.1: Table 3.2: Table 3.3: Table 3.4: Table 3.5: Table 3.6: Table 4.1: Concepual framework for property tax reform ……………… Tax categories of agricultural land use tax ………………… The tax rate of non-agricultural land use tax ……………… Revenue of non-agricultural land use tax (2012-2017) …… Revenue of agricultural land use tax (2010-2017) ………… The comparison between Vietnam and other developing countries …………………………………………………… Reforming objectives in Vietnam and other developing countries …………………………………………………… Tax base in Vietnam and other countries …………………… Tax rate in Vietnam and other developing countries ……… Price assessment in Vietnam and other developing countries Tax collection in Vietnam and other developing countries … Tax revenues in hypothesis ………………………………… vi 23 25 31 33 35 38 39 42 43 44 45 63 INTRODUCTION Research motivation: The state budget of Vietnam depends on revenues of oil or natural resources, foreign trade and state-owned enterprises These have been recording decreasing trend and will be continuous in next time, because of oil or nature resource are nonrenewable Another reason is the participation in trade agreements such as Free Trade Agreements (FTA), government commited to reduce import tariffs on various types of goods when participating in these agreements, so leading to reduction in foreign trade revenue In addition, the more and more state-owned enterprises privatize also reducing the contribution and role of this group in the economy The change of domestic and foreign contexts raises the need to reform and improve the policy of mobilizing budget resources Therefore, government has designed policies stabilizing state revenues to decline budget deficit while maintain government‘s goals in the future as well as adapt to development goals In the theory, there are two sides to approach the goal of balancing the budget deficit including expenditure and revenue aspect This research focuses on revenue side - sustainable revenue creating by tax policies, which minimize the social losses and get the objectives of the state In revenues from central and local government, the government aims to decentralization to achieve the goal of reducing the burden on the central budget According theory, a good tax system is a system with a wide tax base and a low tax rate, which means an increase in indirect tax revenues that helps balance the direct tax in the period of 2011-2020 Vietnam aims to "build and complete the tax policy system to ensure transparency, clarity, ease of understanding, easy implementation; expand tax base to develop revenue sources, cover newly generated revenue sources and restructure towards increasing domestic revenue sources (excluding crude oil vii revenues) by 2015 to reach over 70% of total home budget revenues by 2020, it will be over 80% of the total state budget revenue‖1 Another pursues of state management at the moment in Vietnam are decentralization.2 In perspective of taxation and the experience of some countries in the world, property taxes are effective to finance the local budget for supply public goods like education or health In Vietnam, revenues from land and natural resources (except for oil and gas) are sources of local government revenue Therefore, there are opinions from policymakers that if the property tax policy is appropriately designed, it will be able to generate stable revenues for the local budget, offset the cost of public services Then reducing the burden on the central budget In Vietnam, policymakers suggest property taxes can be long-term solutions In 1992, with the goal of contributing to state management of land, encouraging organizations to use land economically and encouraging the contribution of land users to the state budget The government enacted the Ordinance on house and land tax Subjects liable to tax under this Ordinance are residential land, construction land and houses In addition to the Ordinance on housing and land tax, in 1992 also issued the Ordinance on agricultural land use tax At the present, Vietnam only collects taxes on land without collecting taxes on houses or improvements on land Proportion of property tax revenues have room to increase in the total state budget revenue, thus government has focused on property tax reforms, to the present actual revenue is still lower than potential, and the ability to increase in time helps stabilize state budget Prime Minister (2011) Decision No 732/QD-TTg Decision approving the tax system reform strategy for the 2011-2010 period (Article 1) Prime Minister (2010) Official Letter 278 / TTg-PL Official Letter on assigning the task of researching and developing the State Budget Law project viii REFERENCES Alm, J., Sanchez, I., & De Juan, A (1995) Economic and noneconomic factors in tax compliance Kyklos, 48(1), 1-18 Alm, J (2013) A convenient truth: Property taxes and revenue stability Cityscape, 243-245 Bahl R & Martinez-Vazquez J (2007) The property tax in developing countries: Current practice and prospects Documento de trabajo (07RB1) Craig, M R S., & Hua, M C (2011) Determinants of property prices in Hong Kong SAR: Implications for policy (No 11-277) International Monetary Fund Das-Gupta, A (2004) The Economic Theory of Tax Compliance with special Reference to Tax Compliance Costs Publications Unit, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy Debrun, M X., & Kapoor, R (2010) Fiscal policy and macroeconomic stability: automatic stabilizers work, always and everywhere (No 10-111) International Monetary Fund Eshag, E (1983) Fiscal and monetary policies and problems in developing countries Cambridge University Press Fujimoto Handout of Class 3: Macroeconomic policies in Developing countries Development Finance subject, Vietnam Japan University (2017) Heller, T C (1974) The Theory of Property Taxation and Land Use Restrictions Wis L Rev., 751 Kalkuhl, M., Fernandez Milan, B., Schwerhoff, G., Jakob, M., Hahnen, M., & Creutzig, F (2017) Fiscal instruments for sustainable development: The case of land taxes Mankiw, N G (2010) Macroeconomics,(7th Int ed.) Mankiw N G Weinzierl M & Yagan D (2009) Optimal taxation in theory and practice Journal of Economic Perspectives 23(4) 147-74 McCluskey, W J., & Trinh, H L (2013) Property tax reform in Vietnam: Options, direction and evaluation Land Use Policy, 30(1), 276-285 McCluskey W J & Franzsen R C (2017) Land value taxation: An applied analysis Routledge Ocampo, J A (2008) A broad view of macroeconomic stability The Washington consensus reconsidered, 63-94 Poterba, J M (1995) Balanced budget rules and fiscal policy: Evidence from the states National Tax Journal, 48(3), 329-336 59 Rosengard J K (2012) Property tax reform in developing countries Springer Science & Business Media Slack, N E (2013) The Property Tax in Theory and Practice Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto Stiglitz, J E (1987) Pareto efficient and optimal taxation and the new new welfare economics In Handbook of public economics (Vol 2, pp 991-1042) Elsevier Shukla, Gangadha Prasad; Pham, Duc Minh; Engelschalk, Michael; Minh Le, Tuan 2011 Tax reform in Vietnam : toward a more efficient and equitable system (English) Washington, DC: World Bank http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/937621468327932237/Tax-reformin-Vietnam-toward-a-more-efficient-and-equitable-system Suárez, A., Watson, R T., & Dokken, D J (2002) Climate change and biodiversity Trinh, H L., & McCluskey, W J (2012) Property Tax Reform in Vietnam: A Work in Progress Truong, B T & Le, Q T (2017) Assessing Vietnam’s Tax incentive policies Oxfam in Vietnam Xu, T (2017) The relationship between interest rates, Income, GDP growth and house prices Research in Economics and Management, 2(1), 30-37 Wilby, A., Heong, K L., Huyen, N P D., Quang, N H., Minh, N V., & Thomas, M B (2006) Arthropod diversity and community structure in relation to land use in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam Ecosystems, 9(4), 538-549 Workshop: NIF (2018) Proterty tax experience Workshop Property tax and policy recommendation for Vietnam June 2018, Hanoi VEPR (2018) Workshop on "Applicability and impact of property taxes in Vietnam" took place on 12/12/2018 Hanoi Union hotel http://vepr.org.vn/533/newsdetail/1798495/vepr-tren-bao-chi/thue-tai-san-ban-khoan-tinh-hieu-qua.html 60 APPENDIX The orientation of agricultural and rural development policy in Vietnam In Vietnam Land Law ―The State encourages the form of farm economy (2013) development of households and individuals in order to effectively exploit land for production development, scale up and improve land use efficiency in agricultural production , forestry, aquaculture, salt production associated with services, processing and consumption of agricultural products‖ In Decision No 432 / The Vietnam Sustainable Development Strategy (to ensure QD-TTg dated April food security, sustainable agriculture and rural development) 12, 2012 for the period 2011-2020: "Restructuring agriculture and rural areas towards industrialization and promoting the strengths of each region; developing production of quality and effective agricultural products; link production to domestic and international markets to improve resource use efficiency (land, water, forest, labor and capital) " Decision No 899 / Restructuring the agricultural sector towards improving QD-TTg dated June added value and sustainable development 10, 2013 Decision No 62/2013 "Building and developing large-scale specialized farming / QD-TTg dated areas in the form of farms, farms and hi-tech agricultural October 25, 2013 zones "; ―Be first step to implement production organization base on cooperation and linkage between farmers and enterprises, organizations representing farmers in production associated with processing and consumption of agricultural products in 61 the same area, with a large farm size, with the aim of creating a concentrated, high-quality commodity farm produce, increasing the competitiveness of agricultural products in the market in order to improve production efficiency and increase incomes for farmers and partners involved " Resolution 55/2010 / No.55 : to exmept from 2011 QH12; Resolution Agricultural land use tax exemption has applied from No 28/2016 / QH13 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2020 62 APPENDIX 237 The estimate tax revenues for agriculture land use tax when tax rate at 0.03% Land square according to purposes of land using Using purposes Inculde: Code Total Total square of agriculture land 37 NNP Non-residential land in rural area Urban land 24,822,559.48 2,024,889.67 546,258.47 24,822,559.48 0.03% 7,446.77 2,024,889.67 0.03% 607.47 546,258.47 0.03% 163.88 Caculated bases on data in Decide No 272/QD/TTg dated27th January 2007 61 APPENDIX Examine the order of contents affecting tax compliance behavior Fill in to corresponding to the content below, where is the most influential factor on your tax compliance behavior and is the least impacting factor Nội dung/Contents a Số thuế phải nộp cao a The tax payable too high b Tính cơng sắc thuế (1) Số thuế phải nộp có tính cơng tầng lớp xã hội; (2) Tỷ lệ khả trốn thuế người nộp thuế) b Equity ((1) Equity among social classes; (2) Evasion against depends upon the audit and the fine rates by government.) c Chính phủ khơng đưa giải trình chi tiết xác khoản thu chi ngân sách nhà nước c The government can not delare detail and exact revenues and expenditures in state budget d Bạn không nắm thông tin, quy định liên quan cách khai thuế, số thuế phải nộp, thời hạn nộp khia thuế d Taxpayers is not clear about tax regulations (how to declare tax, deadline make payment and payable tax amount) e Thủ tục hành (kê khai, nộp tiền) phức tạp không thuận tiện e Complicated tax public services such as complex declaration and tax payment is not convenient f Nhà nước sử dụng ngân sách để đầu tư chi tiêu không hiệu f The state uses inefficient tax revenue source 64 Thứ tự/ Important order APPENDIX State budget revenues from assets, property38 No Content 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Average Total state 754,572 828,348 877,697 966,870 1,039,000 1,212,180 946,445 477,106 567,403 593,560 740,932 829,000 990,280 699,714 336,937 368,833 377,707 450,977 544,425 456,092 422,495 45,141 45,287 44,287 68,998 99,696 79,500 63,818 5.98% 5.46% 5.03% 7.13% 9.59% 6.55% 6.62% 10.00% 7.90% 7.45% 9.30% 12.00% 8.00% 9.11% 13.40% 12.30% 11.70% 15.30% 18.30% 17.40% 14.73% 7,559 727 8,788 14,575 22,351 15,654 11,609 1.00% 0.87% 1.00% 1.50% 2.15% 1.29% 1.30% 1.69% 1.28% 1.48% 1.96% 2.70% 1.60% 1.79% budget revenue Total domestic budget revenue Total local budget revenue Land using revenue Percentage of total state budget revenue Percentage compared to domestic revenue Percentage compared to local budget revenue Hire land revenue Percentage of total state budget revenue 10 Percentage compared to domestic 38 Ministry of finance (2018), Report: Summarize and evaluate the situation of implementing the collection policy related to assets 65 revenue 11 Percentage 2.24% 1.97% 2.30% 3.23% 4.10% 3.40% 2.87% 1,908 1,631 2,597 2,756 3,916 2,205 2,502 0.25% 0.19% 0.29% 0.28% 0.37% 0.18% 0.26% 0.42% 0.28% 0.43% 0.37% 0.47% 0.22% 0.37% 0.56% 0.44% 0.68% 0.61% 0.72% 0.48% 0.58% 11,816 13,595 1,609 22,405 27,304 20,209 16,156 1.56% 1.64% 1.83% 2.32% 2.63% 1.67% 1.94% 2.64% 2.39% 2.71% 3.02% 3.29% 2.04% 2.68% 3.50% 3.68% 4.25% 4.97% 5.02% 4.43% 4.31% compared to local budget revenue 12 Revenues from the sale of state-owned houses, asset 13 Percentage of total state budget revenue 14 Percentage compared to domestic revenue 15 Percentage compared to local budget revenue 16 Revenues from registration fees 17 Percentage of total state budget revenue 18 Percentage compared to domestic revenue 19 Percentage compared to 66 local budget revenue 20 Revenue when 66,424 61,240 57,281 108,734 153,267 117,568 94,086 8.79% 8.16% 8.15% 11.23% 14.74% 9.69% 10.13% 14.75% 11.85% 12.07% 14.65% 18.46% 11.86% 13.94% 19.70% 18.39% 18.93% 24.11% 28.14% 25.71% 22.50% 1,023 1,377 1,428 1,460 1,397 1,176 1,310 0.13% 0.16% 0.16% 0.15% 0.13% 0.09% 0.14% 0.22% 0.24% 0.24% 0.19% 0.16% 0.11% 0.19% 0.30% 0.37% 0.37% 0.32% 0.25% 0.25% 0.31% establishing ownership and use rights of assets 21 Percentage of total state budget revenue 22 Percentage compared to domestic revenue 23 Percentage compared to local budget revenue 24 Revenue of nonagricultural use tax 25 Percentage of total state budget revenue 26 Percentage compared to domestic revenue 27 Percentage compared to local budget revenue 67 28 Revenue of 69 69 61 58 60 39 59 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.00% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.00% 0.01% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 1,092 1,446 1,489 1,518 1,457 1,215 1,370 0.14% 0.17% 0.17% 0.16% 0.14% 0.09% 0.15% 0.23% 0.25% 0.25% 0.20% 0.17% 0.11% 0.20% 0.30% 0.37% 0.37% 0.32% 0.25% 0.25% 0.31% 3,732 3,829 4,828 6,839 8,471 8,770 6,078 4,397 3,573 5,832 5,879 8,046 1,025 4,792 0.25% 0.20% 0.27% 0.30% 0.36% 0.38% 0.29% agricultural use tax 29 Percentage of total state budget revenue 30 Percentage compared to domestic revenue 31 Percentage compared to local budget revenue 32 Revenue of property tax (land using, house ) 33 Percentage of total state budget revenue 34 Percentage compared to domestic revenue 35 Percentage compared to local budget revenue 36 Personal Income Tax 37 Corporation Income Tax 38 Percentage of 68 total state budget revenue 39 Percentage 1.81% 1.30% 1.80% 1.70% 2% 1.92% 1.76% 2.41% 2% 2.80% 2.80% 3% 4.17% 2.86% 75,576 70,019 69,369 122,912 171,181 128,539 106,266 9.17% 8.52% 8.58% 11.68% 15.23% 10.16% 10.56% 16.78% 13.39% 14.11% 16.54% 20.62% 13.89% 15.89% 22.41% 20.76% 22.10% 27.23% 31.39% 30.13% 25.67% compared to domestic revenue 40 Percentage compared to local budget revenue 41 General revenue from assets 42 Percentage of total state budget revenue 43 Percentage compared to domestic revenue 44 Percentage compared to local budget revenue (Source: Ministry of Finance) 69 APPENDIX Summary table of proposals to improve tax collection performance Information administration Tax collection Propaganda and and price assessment enforcement (1) To set up and update (1) Application of an (1) Disseminating the documents each information technology information land plots system for managing current law (2) Synchronizing digital information system in whole country (3) Price data on land plots and (2) Tax officials guide and taxpayers (2) assist Issuing electronic taxpayers providing invoices Released and and simultaneously on a updated directly to the procedures computer, without general individual pricing for implementing system management (3) Encourage compliance in taxpayers' behavior multiple areas land to CPI and GDP in information assessment (4) Assessing the value of about (4) Enforcement, sanctions (3) Tax collection through banks raise transparency and easy control 70 with behaviours violation APPENDIX Summary table of reforming in tax base characteristic Elements Offers Current law Short-term Long-term Non-agriculture land use tax Provincial Urban People's Land price to tax Committee (UBND cấp Market price price (term, base) Each five years Government Potential value price through using framework Tỉnh) Adjusting land Rural To adjust by Adjusted to the rate of GDP CPI annual growth Land; Taxables Non-agriculture Construction land on land in Land and Land construction on land urban Instead of tax incentive policies to achieve social Exemption Dificult living goals and encourage investment, use tax revenue condition areas to provide and optimize public goods to encourage investment and get to social goals Agriculture land use tax Provincial Land price to tax People's Short-term: Long-term: Committee Land price frame Potential value through classify land issused by government using categories; Rice productivity Adjusting land price (term,base) Taxables Each five years Adjusted to the rate of GDP growth To exempt until - Agriculture land 71 December, 31st - Instead of tax incentive policies to encourage 2020 investing on agriculture, use tax revenue to prevent natural disaster, raise microfinance to farmers, conect farmer community And to complete database for management "Building and Policy orientation for development developing - Agro-forestry against desertification to protect large-scale cultivated land square, groundwater and surface specialized water; maintain biodiversity farming areas in - Multi-cultivation and intercropping combinate the form of with farms, farms solutions for farmers to deal with natural disasters, and hi-tech price fluctuations and output of agricultural agricultural products biological conservation are livelihood zones "39 39 Vietnam National Assembly (2013) Decision No 62/2013 / QD-TTg dated October 25, 2013 Decision ablut the policy to promote development of cooperation and links production mounted with agricultural consumpltion, building large farm 72 APPENDIX Summary table of proposed tax rate increase option Non-agriculture land use tax Current formulation Option Range of tax rate from Tax rate 0.5% Option Tax rate 0.5% 0.03% to 0.15%, highest tax rate is 0.2% for encroachment land Increase by area limit Short- A part of land value Tax rate: 0.1% term Long- Whole land value Gradually increase to term 0.5% Agriculture land use tax Current formulation Option  Tax exemption Short-term Replace tax calculation based on land  50% Tax payable in case class with uniform tax rate of 0.03% exceeding the quota of Abolish tax exemption policy land allocation  100% tax payable in case Long-term agricultural land expires Increase the tax rate to match the policy objectives but state has not been recovered 73