Notes on automatic personal income tax refund

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Reporter: Could you please tell me what a taxpayer must do to automatically get a personal income tax refund? Do they also have to submit a final settlement dossier?

Mr. Ngoc Van Tu: In order to promote the application of information technology (IT) in tax management, simplify procedures, support taxpayers to reduce procedure processing time and contribute to reducing the workload of tax authorities, on January 24, 2025, the General Department of Taxation issued the "Automatic personal income tax refund process" according to Decision No. 108/QD-TCT of the General Director of the General Department of Taxation (Decision 108).

Accordingly, the settlement of personal income tax refunds according to the new process will be implemented from the 2024 personal income tax settlement period. In order for taxpayers' personal income tax refund dossiers to be processed automatically, conveniently, accurately and effectively, the General Department of Taxation encourages taxpayers to use the "Suggested personal income tax settlement declaration" function and link and register bank account numbers (name and verified) on electronic tax applications such as: eTax Mobile application; electronic tax application for individuals (iCanhan) to submit personal income tax refund dossiers. A notable point is the "Suggested personal income tax settlement declaration" function - this is a function researched, built and developed by the General Department of Taxation to provide maximum support to taxpayers who are individuals directly settling personal income tax.

Accordingly, from the declaration database of income-paying organizations, tax registration data, overview data on tax obligations, debts of taxpayers nationwide, the system automatically synthesizes data and pre-fills the indicators on the taxpayer's personal income tax finalization declaration. Taxpayers use the eTax Mobile application, the iCanhan application of the General Department of Taxation to check the information on the "Suggested personal income tax finalization declaration" automatically generated by the system. Specifically:

Firstly , in case the taxpayer agrees with the suggested information on the suggested Personal Income Tax Finalization Declaration, the taxpayer confirms and submits the finalization dossier on the application.

Second , in case the taxpayer does not agree with the suggested information on the suggested Personal Income Tax Finalization Declaration, the taxpayer shall correct the information in the corresponding indicators, supplement the reasons for the difference and submit the finalization dossier with supporting documents. After receiving the taxpayer's personal income tax refund dossier, the tax industry's IT application system will continue to classify the dossiers that are eligible for automatic processing, specifically the conditions include: the taxpayer's dossier has the full amount of personal income tax paid to the State budget; the dossier has indicators that match the aggregated data according to the tax management database and has the tax amount proposed for refund less than or equal to the aggregated data according to the tax management database; the taxpayer's account information for receiving the refund is verified and linked to the tax management database.

PV : Is the automatic personal income tax refund process different in terms of procedures and processing time for tax refund applications, sir?

Mr. Ngoc Van Tu: The automatic personal income tax refund process issued with Decision 108 is built on the basis of using IT systems and database systems to automate processing steps, reduce the time for processing records, reduce the number of tax refund records that must be manually processed by tax officials on the basis of legal regulations, while ensuring the prevention of risks related to personal income tax. During the tax refund processing process, tax officials only focus on processing records that require additional information and explanations from taxpayers. Accordingly, after taxpayers submit personal income tax refund records, the system automatically receives and classifies records based on the comparison of conditions according to the process. In particular, taxpayers need to note the following points:

Firstly, in case the dossier is classified by the system as eligible for automatic processing, the system automatically creates a Tax Refund Decision (or a Decision on Refund and Offset of State Budget Revenue) and an Order to Refund the State Budget Revenue (or an Order to Refund and Offset of State Budget Revenue) for the Head of the tax authority to electronically sign. After the Head of the tax authority electronically signs, the system automatically transfers the Refund Order to the State Treasury to transfer the refund to the taxpayer's account. Thus, for personal income tax refund dossiers eligible for automatic processing, there is only one step that requires the Head of the tax authority to electronically sign and issue a Tax Refund Decision (or a Decision on Refund and Offset of State Budget Revenue) and an Order to Refund the State Budget Revenue (or an Order to Refund and Offset of State Budget Revenue) according to the law, all data processing steps have been automatically performed by the system.

Second , in case the dossier has data that does not meet the conditions for automatic processing, based on the classification results of the system and support tools, the dossier processing department will carry out the processing steps within 03 working days from the date of receiving the dossier. Depending on each specific dossier, the system supports the processing department to issue a Tax Refund Decision and transfer the Refund Order to the State Treasury (in case the taxpayer has fully explained and supplemented the information); or issue a Notice of non-refund or a Notice requesting explanation and supplementing the information and send it to the taxpayer.

Reporter: Sir, what will the tax authority do to ensure the most convenience for taxpayers?

Mr. Ngoc Van Tu: To ensure the most convenience for taxpayers, in the past time, the General Department of Taxation has urgently researched, developed and issued the Automatic Personal Income Tax Refund Process attached to Decision 108. At the same time, the "Suggested Personal Income Tax Finalization Declaration" function was built on the eTax Mobile and iCanhan applications to facilitate taxpayers in performing their tax finalization obligations and requesting personal income tax refunds more simply and easily.

A situation that individual taxpayers should pay attention to may occur in practice, which is the case where enterprises use individual information (Name, Tax Code, ID Card Number) to declare and calculate salary and wage expenses when determining corporate income tax obligations while there is no actual income payment to the individual, which may affect the individual's personal income tax settlement obligation. Regarding this situation, the General Department of Taxation has predicted that problems will arise to deploy the upgrade of eTax Mobile and iCanhan applications, thereby supporting individuals to send feedback electronically to tax authorities about their misdeclared income or false income declaration.

Accordingly, when taxpayers send feedback via eTax Mobile or iCanhan, the system will automatically send feedback information to the email address of the enterprise being reported, and at the same time send it to the tax authority managing the enterprise and the tax authority processing the dossier for the taxpayer. Based on the information provided by the taxpayer, the tax authority will promptly take measures to check, verify the information and take strict measures to handle enterprises that use the information of individuals to declare and calculate expenses while not actually paying income to the individual. Currently, the General Department of Taxation is continuing to accelerate the progress of upgrading IT applications to meet the Automatic Personal Income Tax Refund Process issued with Decision No. 108/QD-TCT to best serve taxpayers in the 2024 personal income tax settlement period.

PV: Thank you!

Quang Thieu (performed)

Source: https://baoyenbai.com.vn/12/348064/Nhung-luu-y-tr111ng-thuc-hien-hoan-thue-thu-nhap-ca-nhan-tu-dong.aspx