There is a phenomenon of businesses using invoices to legalize floating and smuggled goods.

According to the Ministry of Finance, current laws are moving towards equality and respect for the legitimate business rights of all individuals and organizations. The Law on Tax Administration stipulates that taxpayers directly declare, directly pay taxes and are directly responsible before the law, and businesses have the right to issue invoices for use in production and business activities.

However, in recent times, a number of taxpayers have taken advantage of the ease of business establishment procedures to establish businesses not for production or business but to sell fake invoices for illegal profits.

Illustration photo. (Source: ST)

Some enterprises with production and business activities but low awareness of law compliance have participated in purchasing and using illegal invoices to declare input value-added tax (VAT) deductions, reduce the amount of VAT payable to the state budget (NSNN), and increase the amount of VAT refunded.

In addition, there is a situation of using invoices to legalize floating goods, legalize smuggled goods, embezzlement, falsely creating arising costs, reducing costs leading to a decrease in taxable income and corporate income tax payable to the State budget;...

Since applying electronic invoices under Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP, tax authorities have had and stored data on purchased and sold electronic invoices and other information of taxpayers to build tools and software applications to support classification and identification of taxpayers with tax and invoice risks, promptly issuing warnings to have appropriate tax management measures.

With close and regular coordination between the tax authorities and other authorities, many cases of invoice trading have been cracked down in recent times and have been promptly reported by the press. This helps all individuals, organizations and businesses identify illegal invoice trading and use and sanctions for each act so that taxpayers know and avoid participating in invoice trading transactions; publicize personal information and businesses that have engaged in invoice trading to set an example and contribute to "warning" those who have and are intending to violate the law on invoices.

The General Department of Taxation has issued a document directing local tax authorities nationwide to conduct close and timely review and supervision of enterprises showing signs of risks of illegal purchase and use of invoices through information channels such as: collecting data on organizations, individuals, and enterprises under their management; information on taxpayers from other agencies; suspicious transaction information from banking supervision agencies; information from other state management agencies (Government Inspectorate, State Audit, other agencies, etc.); denunciations; media.

Identify and make a list of businesses with signs of risk in issuing and using illegal invoices; grasp the behavior and methods of these subjects according to the instructions issued by the General Department of Taxation. Closely monitor taxpayers with high risks regarding invoices...

In addition, the General Department of Taxation also requires the functional departments of the tax authority to verify the operating status of the taxpayers under the direct management of the tax authority according to regulations. The tax authority shall promptly and fully update information on taxpayers not operating at the registered address to publicly announce information on enterprises that have issued invoices but abandoned their business addresses or temporarily suspended their business operations on the tax authority's website and mass media to prevent violations of tax and invoice laws. Review and evaluate enterprises with high risks regarding invoices to conduct inspections and examinations on the right subjects and with focus.

The viewpoint of the Tax sector is to strictly handle violations, proactively coordinate with investigation agencies or transfer files for handling according to regulations for taxpayers who use illegal invoices and illegally use invoices, to promptly prevent and take preventive measures to avoid consequences and damage to the state budget.

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/bo-tai-chinh-co-hien-tuong-doanh-nghiep-dung-hoa-don-de-hop-thuc-hoa-cho-hang-hoa-troi-noi-hang-lau-post310892.html