Tax authorities will publicize 'ghost' enterprises and tax-evading business households

Tax authorities warn businesses and business households that have stopped operating but have not completed tax procedures or have fled their registered addresses.

On April 11, the Tax Department ( Ministry of Finance ) issued an open letter giving a serious warning from the tax authority to "ghost" enterprises, or business households that have stopped operating or fled without completing tax procedures.

In recent times , implementing the direction of the Government , the Ministry of Finance, the Tax sector has made many efforts to support the business community, households and individuals to fully comply with tax laws. Through that, the business environment has gradually become more transparent, fair and healthy. However, besides the majority of business entities strictly complying with tax obligations, there is still a large number of businesses, households and individuals who have not properly and fully performed their responsibilities as taxpayers, especially during the period of temporary suspension or termination of operations.

Typically, many enterprises have ceased operations but have not made declarations, have not completed procedures to terminate the validity of their tax codes (MST), or are no longer operating at their registered business addresses. In particular, there are cases where business activities still arise but they do not issue invoices, or issue invoices but do not declare or pay taxes. These are serious violations of the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration and the Law on Enterprises.

The Tax Department said: From July 1, 2022, the electronic invoice system will be deployed nationwide, helping the Tax sector establish a "big data" from sales transactions, tax declarations, tax obligations, production and business results... This data is not only connected to the national population database system (according to Project 06/CP) but also connected to data of other management agencies such as business registration agencies, banks, e-commerce platforms...

Thanks to the application of information technology, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), the Tax sector has improved its monitoring and analysis capacity. Specifically, the accurate identification of businesses, households, and individuals with tax and invoice violations has become easier and more effective. Common violations include: not operating at the registered address, not declaring when temporarily suspending or ceasing operations, not settling taxes or deliberately avoiding tax audit obligations.

A worrying thing is that many businesses and individuals have committed organized violations. After generating revenue, these entities do not issue invoices or issue invoices but do not declare them. There are even cases where they declare taxes but do not pay, or have tax debts but suddenly "disappear", no longer operate at the registered address and do not notify the tax authorities.

More importantly, when the Tax Authority proactively contacted, many cases did not respond or could not be contacted. This shows that the awareness of law compliance of some business owners and business households is still very limited, causing negative consequences: loss of state budget revenue, breaking the principle of fair competition, and causing legitimate businesses to be implicated when having transactions with violators.

Determined to thoroughly handle these violations, the tax sector has closely coordinated with relevant agencies such as the Police, the Immigration Department, etc. to apply necessary professional measures.

First of all, the business registration authority will be requested to revoke the Business Registration Certificate for the violating enterprise. At the same time, the immigration authority can apply the measure of temporarily suspending the exit of the legal representative or individual business owner who owes tax. In particular, the Tax Department has transferred many serious violation records to the Police to investigate and prosecute cases related to tax evasion, illegal invoice trading, etc.

Many people have taken advantage of the establishment of enterprises to profit from invoices, thereby appropriating state budget funds. These cases have been tried and sentenced strictly, demonstrating the determination of the authorities in cleaning up the business environment.

Emphasizing that the responsibility belongs to taxpayers based on the principle of "self-declaration, self-payment, self-responsibility", the Tax Department calls on individuals, enterprises, and related business households to proactively correct violations.

Firstly, business owners, individual businesses, and business households that have ceased operations but have not completed the procedures for terminating their tax codes need to urgently contact the tax authorities to fulfill their tax declaration and payment obligations. This is not only a legal responsibility but also a foundation to help avoid legal risks and ensure future rights.

Second, if no proactive cooperation is received, the Tax Authority will publicly disclose the violation information to the system as prescribed. At the same time, the files will be consolidated, completed and transferred to the Police for criminal prosecution if there are sufficient elements to constitute a crime.

Mr. Minh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/co-quan-thue-se-cong-khai-dn-ma-ho-kinh-doanh-tron-thue-102250411184712516.htm