Finance Ministry wants online game companies taxed

The ministry made this proposal in a draft law on special consumption tax that is being reviewed by other government agencies.

Taxing online games was last discussed by the National Assembly in 2014 but not approved since many feared it could lower the competitiveness of domestic companies against foreign players.

But the situation seems to have changed.

In 2020 Vietnam had five of the 10 biggest video game publishers in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, according to ranking platform Data.ai.

Out of every 25 games downloaded globally, one was made by a Vietnamese company, which put Vietnamese producers in seventh place in game downloads.

In 2021 revenues from online games in Vietnam were worth $665 million, according to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information.

It said many Vietnamese companies are based in Singapore, which makes it difficult to collect taxes.