People and businesses carry out tax procedures at the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department - Photo: TTD
According to Decree 126, the procedure to cancel the decision to temporarily suspend exit from the country can only be issued "no later than 24 hours" from the time the person completes their tax obligations. That is, even if they pay immediately, the person still has to pack their bags and go home because the plane has already taken off.
Most people who fly only arrive at the airport three hours before departure. They only find out they owe taxes when they check in their luggage and go through exit procedures. There is not enough time for the tax authorities to decide to cancel the temporary exit suspension! Meanwhile, the law stipulates that the person who decides to postpone the exit is also the person who cancels the temporary exit suspension. This is really stressful!
If following this procedure, the process of sanctioning tax debtors cannot help those who have just fulfilled their tax obligations to exit the country and continue their journey. People and businesses complain about this. And even more dissatisfied is that the amount of tax debt is not too large, the reason for tax debt is often "objective", so they do not accept the temporary suspension of exit. The damage caused by the temporary suspension of exit is too large compared to the amount of tax owed.
How to solve this, especially for those who owe small amounts of money and can pay immediately? Recently, a leader of the Department of Debt Management and Tax Debt Enforcement said that the law must be amended. The law only regulates general tax debts, does not quantify the amount of tax debt, meaning that "debt of one dong" is also subject to sanctions.
Now in reality, people and businesses reflect that this sanction measure is not flexible, "all fish in the same boat" (regardless of debt amount, people on business trips or permanent residence, Vietnamese people residing abroad when leaving the country...), there is no open direction for those who have overcome.
Waiting until the law is amended, I am afraid that the complaints will increase, losing the educational meaning of tax obligations because in addition to warning people and businesses to comply with tax obligations, there must also be educational and persuasive effects, and it cannot be fined or sanctioned "to teach them a lesson". Therefore, it is necessary to be flexible and have a soft solution for the story of tax debt sanctions.
In this spirit, the proposal to pay tax debts at the airport if the debt is small, say under 200 million, is a good solution. But for this solution to be implemented, there clearly needs to be procedural flexibility, for example, people who owe 200 million or less have paid taxes right at the airport and of course the temporary exit ban is no longer effective, they continue their journey.
If we insist on the principle of "whoever ties the knot must untie the knot", meaning the person who signs the decision to temporarily suspend exit is also the person who signs the cancellation or does not authorize another unit to collect tax debts, then taxpayers in general and those who owe taxes for objective reasons in particular will not be convinced.
1,844 billion VND
That is the amount of tax collected from the temporary exit suspension measure, calculated from the end of 2023 to September 2024. In the first nine months of 2024, the tax authority issued 23,747 notices of temporary exit suspension with a total tax debt of VND 50,665 billion.
Research and propose tax debt threshold for temporary suspension of exit
Regarding the concerns of many taxpayers about being temporarily suspended from leaving the country due to tax debts, the General Department of Taxation said that during the implementation process, the tax sector has received feedback from businesses and taxpayers about the shortcomings in implementing this measure.
From this practice, the General Department of Taxation believes that considering which entity is actually responsible for the debt, whether it is the legal representative or the owner or shareholder... is a matter that needs to be considered and researched.
The General Department of Taxation said that it will review the regulations on subjects subject to temporary suspension of exit in the Law on Tax Administration and Decree No. 126 and related legal regulations to ensure fairness as well as support for taxpayers in difficulty to maintain production and business activities.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nop-no-thue-va-24-gio-tiep-theo-20241019084429508.htm
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