Recently, a programmer in Hanoi, Vietnam took the initiative to declare and pay 23.4 billion VND (approximately 6.6 million yuan) in personal income tax to the local tax bureau, because her income last year was 330 billion VND (approximately 6.6 million yuan). 93 million yuan). The Vietnam National Taxation Bureau stated that this is a 28-year-old female programmer. Her main source of income is programming applications on the Google Store and Apple Store.
Another 30-year-old male programmer with an income of 260 billion dong (about 73.6 million yuan) also took the initiative to hand over 18 billion dong (5.1 million yuan) to the Taxation Branch of Zhiqiao District, Hanoi City, Vietnam RMB) personal income tax.
According to interviews with Vietnamese media, these programmers’ income mainly comes from writing embedded advertising applications. After the programs they write are published to the Apple and Google app stores, as long as users download or use the software, they will receive a certain percentage of commissions from advertisers embedded in the software.
The person in charge of the Vietnam State Administration of Taxation said that these taxes are based on individual voluntary declarations, and the Vietnamese tax department has not yet begun to conduct a special review of this. But even so, the amount of taxes levied by the Hanoi Taxation Bureau on individuals engaged in e-commerce business activities in 2020 has increased five times compared with 2019.
In the past two years, Vietnam has levied nearly 1 trillion VND (approximately 280 million yuan) in personal income tax from people engaged in Internet programming. These taxes mainly come from Facebook and Google advertising. Income is determined based on the commissions Facebook and Google pay to individuals directly or through advertising companies, so it is relatively transparent and well-documented.
In the author's opinion, the applications compiled by programmers are actually a form of patented technology and should enjoy a certain sales commission. In comparison, our programmers are more like manual workers than mental workers. No wonder no one cares about them when they are 40 years old.