Proposal to temporarily suspend exit from the country for individuals with tax debts of 10 million VND or more

The Ministry of Finance has just proposed that individuals and business owners who owe taxes for more than 120 days with an amount of VND10 million or more will have their exit from the country temporarily suspended.

Proposal to temporarily suspend exit from the country for individuals with tax debts of 10 million VND or more. Photo: Nguyen Truong.

According to the 2019 Tax Administration Law and Decree 126/2020, tax and customs authorities are authorized to decide to temporarily suspend exit for individuals and business representatives who have not fulfilled their tax obligations. The new proposal requires individuals and business owners who owe taxes for more than 120 days with an amount of VND 10 million or more to be temporarily suspended from exit. For business and cooperative representatives, this measure applies when the unit owes overdue taxes for more than 120 days with an amount of VND 100 million or more. The new draft of the Ministry of Finance aims to supplement clear regulations, ensure tax debt collection and reduce the situation of long-term arrears. In particular, for taxpayers who are no longer operating at the registered business address, the temporary suspension of exit will be applied immediately regardless of the debt threshold. The tax authority will notify the temporary suspension of exit via electronic means. If it cannot be sent, the notice will be posted on the tax industry's information portal. After 30 days from the date of notification, if the taxpayer has not fulfilled his/her obligations, the tax authority will send a document to the immigration authority to implement the decision to temporarily suspend exit. Statistics from the General Department of Taxation show that since the beginning of the year, more than 6,500 cases of temporary suspension of exit due to tax debts have been reported, a three-fold increase compared to last year. As a result, the tax authority has recovered VND 1,341 billion from 2,116 individuals and businesses. A representative of the Ministry of Finance said that many countries such as China, Malaysia, and the US have also applied similar policies to recover tax debts. In Vietnam, the increased application of temporary suspension of exit from the end of 2023 has encouraged many individuals and businesses to voluntarily pay long-standing tax debts. According to calculations, if the debt threshold applied is from VND 100 million for individuals and business owners and from VND 1 billion for businesses, the whole country will have about 40,000 individuals subject to temporary suspension of exit. However, the Ministry of Finance believes that lowering the threshold to VND10 million will increase the efficiency of tax debt collection, while avoiding major impacts on the business environment and supporting the development of budget revenue. Currently, tax debt enforcement measures, including temporary suspension of exit, are applied to debts overdue for more than 90 days. This decision can be looked up on the tax industry's website or via the Etax application on the phone. The Ministry of Finance emphasizes that the application of the new time and amount thresholds aims to increase taxpayer compliance, minimize the situation of debt arrears, thereby contributing to ensuring state budget revenue. Source: https://laodong.vn/kinh-doanh/de-xuat-tam-hoan-xuat-canh-voi-ca-nhan-no-thue-tu-10-trieu-dong-1431836.ldo