The Ministry of Finance is seeking comments on the draft Decree detailing Clause 9, Article 6 of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of 7 laws, specifically on the tax debt threshold and debt period for cases of temporary suspension of exit; expected to take effect from January 1, 2025.

According to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, business individuals and business owners with overdue tax debts of 10 million VND or more for more than 120 days will have their exit from the country temporarily suspended.

For enterprises/cooperatives/cooperative unions subject to compulsory enforcement of administrative decisions on tax management with overdue tax debt of 100 million VND or more for more than 120 days, the legal representative will be temporarily suspended from leaving the country.

In particular, exit will be temporarily suspended for tax debtors who are individuals/business owners, legal representatives of enterprises/cooperatives/cooperative unions that are no longer operating at the registered address.

The tax authority will notify the taxpayer of the temporary suspension of exit via electronic means.

In case the notice cannot be sent electronically or in case the tax debtor is no longer active at the registered address, a notice will be posted on the tax authority's website.

After 30 days from the date of notification to the taxpayer about the application of temporary exit suspension measures, if the taxpayer has not fulfilled his tax payment obligations, the tax authority shall send a document on temporary exit suspension to the immigration authority for implementation.

In early October 2024, the General Department of Taxation issued Official Dispatch No. 4216 to tax departments on tax debt management and collection, requiring immediate application of coercive measures (including temporary suspension of exit) for tax debtors over 90 days.

In this draft Decree, the Ministry of Finance has increased the debt period to 120 days to increase taxpayer compliance and improve the efficiency of tax debt collection.

According to the General Department of Taxation, in the first 9 months of 2024, there were 21,366 cases of temporary suspension of exit by tax authorities; on average, each month there were 2,374 cases of temporary suspension of exit due to tax debt.

From the beginning of 2023 to the end of September 2024, the tax authority issued 23,747 notices of temporary suspension of exit with a tax debt of VND 50,665 billion, and collected VND 1,844 billion from 2,873 taxpayers whose exit was temporarily suspended.

In 2023, the tax authority announced temporary suspension of exit for 2,411 cases with a total tax debt of VND 6,719 billion.