HANOI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's capital Hanoi will collect arrears of existing big trading businesses on Facebook and encourage smaller ones to pay taxes, local media reported on Tuesday.
"With big trading accounts (of Facebook, owned by people in Hanoi), we will collect arrears. For the rest, basically, we encourage people to register to pay tax," daily newspaper Tien Phong (Pioneer) quoted Nguyen The Manh, director of the Hanoi Department of Taxation, as saying.
The department has recently sent letters to owners of nearly 13,500 Facebook accounts which have trading activities, proposing them to pay taxes.
According to the department's latest statistics, in Hanoi, there are nearly 17,000 Facebook accounts which engage in trading products or services on Facebook.
Last month, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation sent letters to owners of more than 13,000 social network accounts, mainly Facebook and Zalo ones, proposing them to complete tax registration at tax offices. However, most of the account owners have yet to show up.
By the end of February 2016, Vietnam had 35 million Facebook users, or one-thirds of the country's population, Facebook announced in late March 2016. Facebook is the dominant social network in Vietnam, with few Vietnamese people using other social networks.
