Tax debt overdue for 90 days will be suspended from exit

The tax industry requires temporary suspension of exit from the country for people with overdue tax debts that are being enforced, especially businesses that are not operating at the registered address.

In an official dispatch sent to localities, the General Department of Taxation requested provincial and municipal tax authorities to immediately apply coercive measures and publicize information on tax debtors over 90 days old. These measures can be considered for simultaneous application to increase the effectiveness of tax management.

Along with that, this agency proposed to temporarily suspend exit for those with overdue tax debts that are subject to enforcement, especially businesses that are not operating at the registered address. The decision to temporarily suspend exit can be looked up on the tax industry's website and the etax and etaxmobile applications. The tax agency will regularly review to promptly extend or cancel this decision.

The measures of temporary suspension of exit applied by tax and customs authorities have tended to increase recently. Figures from the General Department of Taxation show that since the beginning of the year, over 6,500 cases of temporary suspension of exit due to tax debts have been suspended, 3 times higher than last year. Authorities have collected 1,341 billion VND from 2,116 taxpayers whose exit was suspended.

Departure suspension is one of the debt enforcement measures applied by the tax sector to cases of procrastination, signs of asset dissipation, and absconding. According to the 2019 Tax Administration Law and Decree 126/2020, heads of tax and customs agencies have the right to decide to suspend exit of individuals and business representatives who have not fulfilled their tax obligations. Current regulations do not specify a specific debt threshold for consideration and application of this enforcement measure, i.e. overdue tax debt 1 coin must be forcibly recovered.

At a press conference last week, Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation, affirmed that the law does not specify whether the tax debt is small or large. Therefore, taxpayers with a debt of more than 90 days will be forced to pay, regardless of the value of the debt.

"These are measures provided by the State and required by tax authorities to ensure budget revenues. Suspension of exit is just one of many coercive measures against tax-debt-ridden enterprises," said Mr. Minh. However, he also affirmed that tax authorities consider appropriate coercive measures for each specific case.

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