This is a tax bottleneck that affects the transparency of the business environment and poses a potential risk of revenue loss for the state budget.
According to the Tax Department, the number of taxpayers currently under its management has reached 44.7 million. Of these, the production and business sector includes 1,041,277 enterprises, nearly 200,000 organizations, and approximately 3 million households and individual business owners.
Removing bottlenecks in business
Regarding tax debt management, to date, the tax authorities have issued notices of temporary travel bans to approximately 105,000 legal representatives of businesses and household business owners, with outstanding tax debts totaling nearly 61,000 billion VND; of which, about 65,000 cases involve individuals no longer operating at their registered addresses, with outstanding tax debts exceeding 6,900 billion VND. Following these notices, the tax authorities have recovered over 4,000 billion VND in tax debt from more than 13,000 taxpayers.
Notably, after receiving tax debt notices, approximately 7,100 individuals who were not operating at their registered addresses proactively contacted the tax authorities to fulfill their tax obligations, paying nearly 100 billion VND, and had their temporary travel bans lifted.
However, because there are no regulations specifying a minimum tax debt threshold for taxpayers who are no longer operating at their registered address, there have been some cases where people went to the airport but were denied exit despite owing very small amounts of tax, only a few tens of thousands of dong.
This is not an isolated case, as tax statistics show that over 50% of businesses and household businesses that are no longer operating at their registered address have tax debts of less than 1 million VND.
To ensure a balance between state management requirements and the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers, in the draft Decree guiding the Law on Tax Administration No. 108/2025/QH15, the Ministry of Finance proposes adding a tax debt threshold of VND 1 million or more for businesses, households, and individuals no longer operating at their registered address. These individuals will be temporarily prohibited from leaving the country if they fail to fulfill their tax obligations within 30 days of notification.
Besides adding a threshold for tax debt resulting in a travel ban, Mr. Mai Son, Deputy Head of the Tax Department, said that in the coming time, the Tax Department will continue to coordinate with the Immigration Department ( Ministry of Public Security ) to research and upgrade information technology applications to cancel temporary travel bans in real time immediately after taxpayers fulfill their obligations to the state budget.
On the way to the airport or at the border crossing, if a tax check reveals that a person owes taxes and their departure is temporarily suspended, they can immediately pay the outstanding amount. The tax software system will immediately record the information and connect it with relevant units to process the request, allowing the person to depart normally without affecting their travel plans.
In the context of the whole country accelerating digital transformation and improving the investment environment, allowing businesses and household businesses to cease operations without completing the procedures for terminating their tax identification numbers is a major bottleneck in tax management.
In response to this situation, the Tax Department is launching the campaign "Cleaning up tax identification numbers - Removing bottlenecks in business," which will run from now until the end of 2026, in coordination with local authorities, business registration agencies, customs, and the police.
The campaign aims to clean up and standardize tax data, thereby minimizing the number of taxpayers who are inactive but have not yet completed the procedures for terminating their tax identification numbers, and taxpayers who are not operating at their registered addresses.
Tax management from electronic invoice data warehouse
Speaking at the recent Cash Flow Tax Management Workshop, Deputy Head of the Tax Department Dang Ngoc Minh stated that many business activities are now conducted entirely in the digital environment, characterized by rapid, large-scale, and cross-border transactions.
Therefore, tax administration no longer relies on traditional methods based on tax declarations or counting customers and revenue at stores, but has shifted strongly towards data-driven management.
Notably, electronic invoices have become a large data repository recording almost all transactions in the economy . Tax authorities will use electronic invoice data as a basis for comparing and verifying taxpayers' cash flows, determining actual tax obligations, analyzing risks, and conducting audits if necessary.
When detecting signs of significant risk, unusual transactions, or suspected tax evasion or money laundering, banks will cooperate in providing information as required.
Using electronic invoice data, tax authorities will compare it with the flow of money from banks, payment intermediaries, and e-commerce platforms to determine the actual tax obligations of businesses, households, and individuals engaged in business activities, in order to detect risks and fraud.
Currently, the tax authorities have information on approximately 250 million bank accounts, of which about 200 million are individual accounts.
In the current shift towards tax management, the biggest obstacle preventing household businesses from being transparent about their cash flow is the reluctance to declare taxes and the habit of concealing revenue. However, the new tax management mechanism, along with market pressure, is forcing household businesses to change.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc, President of the Vietnam Tax Consulting Association, transaction data leaves a trace, allowing authorities to verify and determine the actual revenue of businesses and household businesses, thereby detecting and handling cases of fraud and concealment of revenue to evade taxes.
The process of transparency still faces many difficulties, especially in the food service sector, because small businesses are accustomed to cash transactions and do not issue invoices promptly, leading to many complications.
Similarly, businesses that purchase goods without invoices will face many difficulties in accounting for input costs, affecting their business dealings with partners.
Ms. Cúc also believes that the most important thing is to build trust so that business owners feel secure in declaring their taxes, avoiding the fear of being subject to back taxes or unfair penalties. When given full explanations and proper persuasion, many people are willing to fulfill their tax obligations.
Attempting to cheat or evade taxes is a very risky option for taxpayers because violations will eventually be detected with current management technology.
From the regulatory perspective, the goal is to establish a simple and easy-to-implement declaration process to facilitate the transition of household businesses to managing accounting records, invoices, and cash flow, thereby promoting transparency.
Source: https://htv.vn/lam-sach-du-lieu-de-quan-ly-no-thue-222260525073155043.htm
Comment (0)