'Hot' confrontation from businesses, what did the General Department of Taxation boss say?

Faced with confrontations, exchanges and tax refund requests from businesses, the leaders of the General Department of Taxation requested that departments, affiliated units, businesses and taxpayers discuss frankly, clarify the causes of difficulties in tax regulations and policies and in tax management work of tax authorities; and propose clear and feasible solutions...

On September 27, in Ho Chi Minh City, the General Department of Taxation held a dialogue conference with taxpayers in 5 southern provinces and cities, to listen to and resolve difficulties, obstacles and recommendations of the people. business (DN) in implementing tax laws and policies.

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More than 300 enterprises and taxpayers from 5 southern provinces and cities including Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Long An came to dialogue with the General Department of Taxation. In particular, the issue tax refund Value added tax (VAT) is of interest to many businesses.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong - Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fococev Joint Stock Company, District 1 - said that the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department collects VAT and does not VAT refund for the company. Specifically, the company was charged with VAT refunds and late payment fees from the tax refund period of January 2017 to October 2018 and May 2020, with VAT refunds totaling VND36.7 billion. From November 2018 to May 2020, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department announced that it was not refunded and not deducted, which was VND127 billion.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong - Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fococev Joint Stock Company - asked a question at the dialogue.

According to Mr. Phuong, the police agency has verified that there is no basis to determine signs of illegal export of goods to China. Cheat embezzlement of tax refunds from Fococev Company.

Fococev Company sues, People's Court HCMC canceled the tax refund recovery decisions, forcing the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department to refund the recovered tax from Fococev Company and resolve the VAT refund for Fococev Company. According to Mr. Phuong, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department only partially implemented the judgment to pay 36 billion, and has not yet refunded 700 million in late payment fees.

"Fococev Company sympathizes with the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department's responsibility in tax refund inspection, but does not agree with the arising of illegal procedures," said Mr. Phuong.

Responding to Fococev Company, Ms. Le Thi Duyen Hai - Director of the Tax Declaration and Accounting Department of the General Department of Taxation - said that Fococev is one of the enterprises exporting cassava flour. This enterprise has transactions with Chinese enterprises. Through working between the Chinese tax authorities and the Vietnamese tax authorities, it was determined that in the contract between Fococev and Chinese enterprises, there were a number of enterprises that were not established and operated according to the provisions of law; or at the time of the transaction with Fococev, these enterprises did not exist or stopped operating at the registered address... Therefore, during the implementation process, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department was very concerned about applying VAT.

To refund VAT of exporting enterprises, there are 4 conditions: There is an export contract between Vietnamese enterprises and foreign enterprises; payment documents via bank; VAT invoice; customs declaration confirming exported goods…

The Fococev issue has been resolved by the Ho Chi Minh City Court, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department has refunded 36 billion VND to the company, leaving only 700 million VND remaining and will be refunded. "Once the reconciliation is complete and accurate, and there are no procedural issues, Ho Chi Minh City needs to promptly pay the late payment fee to the Fococev company," said Ms. Hai.

Regarding the amount of 127 billion VND, according to Ms. Hai, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City has declared the tax refund notice of the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department null and void on September 6. However, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department has not yet received the official verdict of the court.

SAIGON PTS Co., Ltd. sent 6 questions related to VAT and tax refund. The content related to the export company's related proportion and tax refund requires suppliers to settle before the export company can refund the tax.

This company wonders about cases where export enterprises have to wait for verification, and how the pending amount is resolved in cases where they have to wait for verification. In addition, the company also wonders about the issue of working with companies specializing in buying and selling invoices. At the time of the transaction, the partner company still operates transparently (has not been discovered to be buying and selling invoices), but later when the tax refund period comes, the company closes down, causing the enterprise's invoices to be fined and excluded, so what should the company do?

More than 300 enterprises from 5 southern provinces and cities had a dialogue with the General Department of Taxation in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ms. Pham Thi Minh Hien - Deputy Director of the Policy Department, General Department of Taxation - said that in case an enterprise declares a product that has been processed into another product but the product production process is not sufficient to determine, the Tax Department is responsible for reporting to the General Department of Taxation to coordinate with ministries and state management agencies. From there, based on the enterprise's export product production process, it will be determined whether the exported product is a resource or mineral that has not been processed into another product or has been processed into another product according to the provisions of law. Enterprises are requested to provide specific documents and clearly state the tax authority that is processing the enterprise's tax refund dossier for clarification.

Regarding the issue of the company's partner being an invoice trading company, the representative of the General Department of Taxation said that, in terms of the nature of the two-way trading activity, the tax authority will question the time when the two companies issue invoices to each other. If the tax authority uses the electronic invoice system to check, the tax authority will question whether this trading is real or not for handling. At the same time, the upcoming revised VAT Law will consider these cases as prohibited.

No avoidance

At the conference, Mr. Nguyen Nam Binh - Director of the Tax Department HCMC - said that in the first 8 months of this year, the tax sector of Ho Chi Minh City collected more than 259,900 billion VND in budget revenue, equal to 73.9% of the whole year and increased by 20.5% over the same period in 2023; revenue from production business In the first 8 months of 2024, it reached more than 150,000 billion VND, equal to 74.6% of the annual estimate, up 16.5% over the same period. In which, all economic sectors had growth, specifically the FDI sector increased by 12.2%, the non-state sector increased by 21.4%, the central state-owned enterprise sector increased by 16%, and the local state-owned enterprise sector increased by 2.9%.

Businesses learn about tax issues at the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department.

According to Mr. Binh, the dialogue conference with 5 southern provinces and cities is an opportunity for the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department in particular and the General Department of Taxation in general to listen to the opinions of businesses and taxpayers on issues related to the implementation of tax laws and policies, tax reform and administrative procedures. Thereby helping the industry tax Resolutely handle difficulties and problems within authority in accordance with functions and legal regulations.

At the conference, Mr. Mai Son - Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation - said that in the past time, facing the negative impact of the epidemic, natural disasters and the impact of international economic and political issues on the socio-economic development of the country and the production and business activities of enterprises, the General Department of Taxation has advised the Ministry of Finance to research, propose to competent authorities and issue under its authority solutions on taxes, fees and charges to support people and enterprises with great support value and many unprecedented solutions. The total amount of exemptions, reductions and extensions in the first 9 months of 2024 is about 102,676 billion VND.

Mr. Mai Son also requested that the departments and units of the General Department of Taxation and the Tax Departments of provinces and cities, together with enterprises and taxpayers, discuss frankly and clarify the causes of difficulties in tax regulations and policies and in tax management work of tax authorities... He requested that the Tax Departments respond and provide clear and feasible solutions... to create satisfaction and high consensus for enterprises and taxpayers attending the conference.

The dialogue conference focused on the contents of invoices, documents; value-added tax policy (including tax refund); corporate income tax (including contractor tax); personal income tax; incentives, exemptions, and land revenues...

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