Vietnam taxed tech giants $218 mln in four years

Vietnam taxed cross-border platforms like Google and Facebook some VND5 trillion ($218.53 million) in 2008-2021, Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc informed lawmakers Wednesday.

During the four-year period, Facebook was taxed VND1.69 trillion, Google, VND1.62 trillion, and Microsoft, VND577 billion, Phoc said.

Last year, Vietnam earned VND1.32 trillion from taxing cross-border platforms, up 15 percent from 2020, he added.

Vietnamese authorities have been calling for properly taxing tech giants like Facebook and Google, saying these companies account for around 70 percent of the online advertisement market, but use different means to evade tax.

The General Department of Taxation said last year that Facebook, Google, Netflix, YouTube and other cross-border platforms were not fulfilling their tax obligations in Vietnam.

Vietnam is also looking to tax online sellers, both on e-commerce platforms and social media, as e-commerce sales have been surging by double-digits in recent years.