Question 96. When an Employer provides a car for an Employee to use, does the Employee have to pay PIT on the monetary amount the Employer has paid to purchase the car?

Answer:

Pursuant to the Law on PIT, monetary or non-monetary benefits other than salary and wages paid by the Employer, which are enjoyed by the Employee in any form will be considered to be taxable income. However, expenses for means of transporting the Employeesfrom dwelling houses to workplaces and vice versa will not be included in the taxable income of the Employee according to the enterprise’s regulations[1].

Thus, it can be understood that if the Employer incur expenses for transporting the Employee (whether collective or individual) from his or her home to his or her workplaces and vice versa, the expenses will not be included in his or her taxable income even if the vehicle is only for picking up and taking home a particular individual. However, in order to understand properly that the expenses for means of transporting the Employee from home to workplace and vice versa are not subject to PIT in accordance with the law, the Employer should note the following two issues:

  • The purpose of equipping the means of transporting the Employee is to serve the corporate business based on the route from home to workplace and vice versa. Therefore, if the Employer allows the Employee to use corporate cars for personal use and pay for all arising expenses such as gasoline, driver hire, toll, maintenance fee etc., the expenses for the vehicle to serve other affairs outside the corporate business will be included in the Employee’s income subject to PIT. Therefore, for the avoidance of any doubt, the Employer should specify in the enterprise’s vehicle use regulation or in the LC signed with the Employee who is granted any vehicles; and
  • The initial purchase price of the vehicle will not be included in the income subject to PIT, as the vehicle is owned by the enterprise and the purchase price of the vehicle is to create fixed assets for the enterprise. Therefore, when determining whether any income is liable to PIT or not, it is based only on expenses such as gasoline, driver hire, toll, maintenance fee, etc., without including the initial car purchase cost.

[1]Article 2.2 (đ.5) of Circular 111/2013/TT-BTC dated 15 August 2013 as amended and supplemented by Article 11.4 of Circular 92/2015/TT-BTC dated 15 June 2015