At the Tax Department in HCMC
The Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly delegation led by Van Thi Bach Tuyet, Deputy Head of the delegation, yesterday had a working session with administrators in District 5, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department and the Customs Bureau on the implementation of the Law on Tax Administration from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, it has received 7,781 applications for refund requests and the refund amount will be equal to VND 54,261 billion. The tax authority has issued 4,916 tax refund decisions or they have refunded an amount of VND30,626 billion; however, nearly VND24,000 billion has not yet been refunded to businesses because Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department Nguyen Tien Dung said that the tax sector has recently discovered that many businesses took advantage of the loophole in the tax refund policy, establishing businesses and chains of businesses to buy and sell invoices around, offering tax refunds for personal gain.
Therefore, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department recommended the National Assembly, the Government, and the Ministry of Finance to allow tax authorities to have the right to investigate and verify when there are signs of risk in tax management in general and tax refund in particular. Moreover, the related ministry and responsible agencies should supplement regulations on inspection first and tax refund later for tax refund requests of large amounts of money.
To deter people from taking advantage of the open business registration policy to set up businesses to buy and sell invoices for profit, the tax authority in Ho Chi Minh City proposed that legal representatives of a business must identify themselves in the e-identification app VNeID when they register to use electronic invoices.
Related to tax refunds, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department recommends that the new value-added tax refund is an increased opportunity that should be carried out by local tax agencies.
By Mai Hoa - Translated by Anh Quan