Warning about "theft" of personal income tax codes

Responding at a meeting on tax settlement, Mr. Nguyen Van Phung, Director of the Large Enterprise Tax Department, General Department of Taxation, admitted that the phenomenon of taking advantage of other people's tax codes to falsely declare expenses has existed for a long time and is still happening.

"In many cases, taxpayers lost their ID cards or their tax identification numbers were leaked, and other businesses took advantage of them, used them to pad their salary and wage payment documents, and then included them in the business's expense declaration, so they were unfairly taxed," said a representative of the General Department of Taxation.

Taxpayers may be "wrongly" taxed due to losing their ID cards or tax codes. Illustration photo: KT.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Phung, many individuals and organizations use other people's names to declare expenses on wages and salaries, to avoid and evade taxes. Therefore, taxpayers when given a code must be careful and keep it secret, if it is revealed or lost, it will be extremely troublesome.

Mr. Phung said that currently, just by going to tncnonline.com.vn, typing in anyone's ID card or passport number, one can know that person's tax code, so if one accidentally drops their documents, the tax code will be easily known by others.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phung, Director of the Large Enterprise Tax Department, General Department of Taxation. Photo: KT

Therefore, the representative of the General Department of Taxation recommends that taxpayers with tax codes must "keep them carefully and not reveal them" to prevent others from taking advantage of them. At the same time, it is recommended that when people discover that they are being charged personal income tax for amounts they have not received, they should immediately report it to the tax offices. The tax authority will receive information from the individual and will follow the tax code of the enterprise to summon that enterprise and apply tax management measures to handle it.

Businesses that "steal" people's tax codes will be charged corporate income tax related to the false declaration, and victims will be refunded the wrongly collected personal income tax.

"The tax industry strongly opposes this fraud and will resolutely handle it together with law enforcement agencies. We have a document directing local tax departments. The tax agency will receive information from individuals who report it. If there is a report, the business will be summoned and the fraudulent behavior will be handled," Mr. Phung affirmed.

Regarding the fact that some individuals receive tax collection notices more than a year after the finalization season, a representative of the General Department of Taxation said that there are individuals who do not remember all of their income. If the income is subject to finalization, the tax authority will collect it. There are also cases where businesses pay late declared income, so the data is only sent to the tax authority in June, July, or even the following year, so the tax authority has to recalculate to notify additional payment./.