Experts and representatives of the business community suggest that the Ministry of Finance should consider carefully. The tax debt threshold is too low, causing great difficulties for people and businesses.
The Ministry of Finance is seeking comments on a draft decree detailing the threshold. tax debt and tax debt period in case of temporary suspension of exit.
It is expected that 380,000 individuals will be temporarily suspended from leaving the country.
Responding to Tuoi Tre, a representative of the General Department of Taxation said that the current draft decree sets a tax debt threshold for temporary suspension of exit for business individuals and business household owners with overdue tax debt of 10 million VND or more for more than 120 days.
Enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions (hereinafter referred to as enterprises) with overdue tax debts of VND 100 million or more for more than 120 days will have their exit from the country temporarily suspended.
To avoid surprises for individuals about being temporarily suspended from leaving the country due to tax debts, the tax authority will notify the temporary suspension of departure electronically. taxpayer
In case the notice cannot be sent electronically, the tax authority will notify on the tax authority's website.
After 30 days from the date of announcement of application of this measure, if the enterprise or individual has not paid tax, the tax authority will send a document on temporary suspension of exit to the immigration authority to implement this measure.
If this option is applied, the Ministry of Finance estimates that the whole country will have about 380,000 individuals subject to temporary suspension of exit.
Regarding the collection of overdue tax debts, the General Department of Taxation emphasized that in reality, there are many cases of delayed debt collection, even though they are able to pay but do not pay, and only pay taxes when they are temporarily suspended from leaving the country.
Setting a high debt threshold will let in cases of procrastination. Therefore, the debt threshold must be appropriate to ensure debt collection, avoiding long-term debt that is difficult to collect. At the same time, a debt period of 120 days is reasonable for applying the measure of temporary suspension of exit.
In the draft decree submission, the Ministry of Finance explained that according to current regulations, for taxpayers with overdue tax debts of more than 120 days, tax authorities usually take measures to urge taxpayers to pay such as sending debt notices to taxpayers (three notice periods), applying coercive measures (withdrawing money from accounts/freezing accounts/deducting salaries, income/stopping customs procedures), publicizing information...
In addition, debt groups with a debt period of 120 days or more have also been classified into separate debt monitoring groups and ensured to meet the application. tax management so that tax authorities can implement it as soon as the decree is issued.
Tax debt threshold is too low
However, contributing comments to the draft decree guiding the Law on Tax Administration on the threshold for temporary suspension of exit, the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has just proposed that the Ministry of Finance raise the threshold for tax debt that is subject to temporary suspension of exit to VND1 billion for businesses and VND200 million for individuals.
Because many businesses reflect that the tax debt threshold to apply the temporary exit suspension measure proposed by the Ministry of Finance of 10 million VND for individuals and 100 million VND for businesses is too low.
To achieve the goal of debt collection, VCCI recommends prioritizing the application of measures to withdraw money from bank accounts, before considering measures to restrict people's right to travel.
And the limitation exit ban should only be used in particularly serious cases with large tax debts.
If the exit suspension measure is applied on a large scale, it could negatively impact production and business activities, cause general economic damage and reduce long-term budget revenue.
Sharing this view, speaking with Tuoi Tre, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tu, a tax expert, said that the exit suspension measure should only be applied to a maximum of 10% of people with tax debts to ensure a stable business environment.
Agreeing with the tax debt level of 200 million VND for individuals to be delayed from leaving the country, the Ministry of Finance should carefully consider the appropriate tax debt threshold for businesses.
Mr. Tu suggested that regulations should be made according to the size of the enterprise. For micro, small and medium enterprises, the tax debt threshold is 500 million - 1 billion VND, then the legal representative will be temporarily suspended from leaving the country.
As for large enterprises, those with debts of over 3-5 billion VND, and large economic groups with tax debts of tens of billions of VND or more, will be temporarily suspended from leaving the country. Regarding the tax debt period, according to Mr. Tu, the 120-day limit is too short, so it should be extended to 180 days so that enterprises can manage their business and trade to pay off their debts.
Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc recommended that the Ministry of Finance should study the application of exit suspension for legal representatives of enterprises.
In reality, there are many cases where the legal representative of a business is just an employee hired to run it.
So according to the draft decree, they are subject to the measure of delaying their exit when the enterprise owes taxes, even though they do not actually have the right to decide on the company's finances.
If this content is applied, it will affect and cause damage to the individual representative and also create unfairness in law enforcement in the style of "the tangerine makes the orange suffer".
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance should study the tax debt threshold according to the size of the enterprise. For example, small and medium enterprises or large enterprises should have different levels.
If only one level is set, it will cause difficulties for business operations, especially small businesses.
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