What is profit before tax? How to calculate profit before tax in Vietnam?
What is profit before tax?
Currently, there are no legal documents that specifically define what profit before tax is, but this can be understood as follows:
profit before tax is a financial indicator representing the profit a business earns from its business activities and other operations before paying taxes related to income (primarily corporate income tax - CIT). This is an important indicator for assessing the business performance of a company, excluding the impact of tax policies.
Additionally, profit before tax indicates the profitability of the company's production, business, and financial activities, helping managers and investors compare the performance across businesses without the influence of varying tax rates (as CIT may change depending on the country or tax incentive policies).
What is profit before tax? How to calculate profit before tax in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)
How to calculate profit before tax in Vietnam?
According to point 3.15, clause 3, Article 113 of Circular 200/2014/TT-BTC, the regulation is as follows:
Guidelines on Preparation and Presentation of the Income Statement (Form No. B02-DN)
...
3. Content and method of preparing the indicators in the Income Statement
...
3.15. Total Accounting Profit Before Tax (Code 50):
This indicator reflects the total accounting profit realized in the reporting year of the company before deducting corporate income tax expenses from business operations, other activities arising during the reporting period. Code 50 = Code 30 + Code 40.
Thus, profit before tax is indicator code 50 on the Income Statement according to Form No. B02-DN issued under Circular 200/2014/TT-BTC.
Specifically, profit before tax includes all profits earned from production and business activities, financial profits, and other arising profits. profit before tax is calculated by taking the total revenue minus the expenses.
The formula to calculate profit before tax is as follows:
| profit before tax | = | Total Revenue | - | Fixed Expenses | - | Incidental Expenses |
Where:
- Total Revenue is the total income earned from the production, business activities of the company reflected in receipts, and sales invoices.
- Fixed Expenses include capital costs, transportation expenses, production costs, employee salaries, rental costs, and other fixed business expenses.
- Incidental Expenses are all expenses incurred during the company's operations that are not in the business plan.
Illustrative Example: Assume a furniture manufacturing company has the following financial figures for the month:
- Total Revenue: 200 million VND (from table and chair sales).
- Fixed Expenses:
+ Factory rental: 20 million VND.
+ Machinery depreciation: 10 million VND.
+ Management staff salaries: 15 million VND.
+ Total Fixed Expenses = 20 + 10 + 15 = 45 million VND.
- Incidental Expenses:
+ Wood materials: 80 million VND.
+ Transportation costs: 10 million VND.
+ Bank loan interest: 5 million VND.
+ Advertising costs: 15 million VND.
>> Total Incidental Expenses = 80 + 10 + 5 + 15 = 110 million VND.
Applying the formula to calculate profit before tax:
- Total Revenue: 200 million VND.
- Total Fixed Expenses: 45 million VND.
- Total Incidental Expenses: 110 million VND.
>>> profit before tax = Total Revenue - Fixed Expenses - Incidental Expenses = 200 - 45 - 110 = 45 million VND.
Which income of enterprises is exempt from corporate income tax in Vietnam?
Based on Article 4 of the Corporate Income Tax Law 2008 (supplemented by clause 3, Article 1 of the Revised Corporate Income Tax Law 2013 and clause 2, Article 1 of the Law on Amendments to Tax Laws 2014), specific provisions on tax-exempt corporate income are as follows:
(1) Income from cultivation, husbandry, aquaculture, processing of agricultural products, forestry products, salt production of cooperatives; income of cooperatives operating in agriculture, forestry, fishery, salt production in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions or especially difficult socio-economic conditions; income of enterprises from cultivation, husbandry, aquaculture, processing of agricultural products, aquatic products in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions; income from fishing activities.
(2) Income from the execution of technical services directly serving agriculture.
(3) Income from performing contracts for scientific research and technology development, products in the trial production phase, products made from new technology first applied in Vietnam.
(4) Income from production and business activities of goods and services of enterprises with 30% or more of the average number of employees in the year being disabled persons, rehabilitated drug addicts, and people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS) and with an average number of employees in the year of twenty or more, excluding enterprises operating in the financial and real estate business sectors.
(5) Income from vocational training activities exclusively for ethnic minorities, the disabled, children in especially difficult circumstances, social evils.
(6) Income distributed from joint ventures, associations with domestic enterprises after paying corporate income tax in accordance with the Corporate Income Tax Law 2008.
(7) Sponsorships received for educational, scientific research, cultural, artistic, charitable, humanitarian, and other social activities in Vietnam.
