Vietnam Seeking To Collect More Tax Debts This Year

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

22 August 2019

Vietnamese tax officials are undertaking a nationwide push to collect tax debts, with the General Department of Taxation stating that arrears at the end of July 2019 were down 5.7 percent on last year.

This represents an increase in collected taxes for the state of VND5 trillion (USD215m).

It reported that tax debts of 90 days or over account for 53 percent of all tax debts, and are worth VND44.15 trillion.

According to the agency, federal tax officials have been sent to local authorities to encourage them to chase outstanding taxes. 54 tax agencies' processes were reviewed, of a total of 63 in Vietnam. They have been urged to dedicate resources to bring tax debts down to the lowest level possible by the end of the year.

The initiative comes shortly after the passage of new legislation to reform tax administration in Vietnam. The National Assembly passed legislation in June 2019 that will be effective from July 2020.

The legislation will enhance the collection powers of the tax authorities and will give the State Bank greater oversight over the provision of information to tax agencies on bank transactions. The law will also crack down on companies that do not comply with transfer pricing rules and will tighten the reporting requirements for transfer pricing transactions.

The legislation also amended tax compliance deadlines.

Please enter your email address to join the Tax-News.com mailing list. View previous newsletters.

To manage your mailing list preferences, please click here »