Vietnam to lower personal income tax rates for most payers

HANOI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam will decrease personal income tax rates for most payers, and increase rates for windfall receivers, the Tax Policy Department under the country's Finance Ministry announced on Thursday.

The ministry plans to reduce the number of tax brackets to five from the current seven, which means people with medium income will either no longer have to pay the tax or pay at lower rates.

In 2016, Vietnam collected personal income tax totaling 65 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 2.9 billion U.S. dollars), mostly from foreigners, according to the ministry.

Personal income tax is levied on the worldwide income of Vietnamese residents and on Vietnam-sourced income of non-residents, irrespective of where the income is paid.