Proposal to cancel tax debt

(Baonghean.vn) - On August 11, the General Department of Taxation informed about debt cancellation, tax debt cancellation, late payment, and fines for taxpayers. This is an important content in the draft Resolution on a number of tax solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles, and promote business development of the Ministry of Finance.

Accordingly, the General Department of Taxation said that it has proposed to cancel tax debts, late payment fees, and fines for enterprises and organizations that were actually dissolved, bankrupt, or ceased business before January 1, 2014; and to freeze tax debts, late payment fees, and fines for enterprises and organizations that were actually dissolved, bankrupt, or ceased business during the period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015.

At the same time, erase tax debts, late payment fees, and fines of business households and individuals who ceased business before January 1, 2014, and freeze tax debts, late payment fees, and fines of business households and individuals who ceased business during the period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015.

The General Department of Taxation proposes to erase tax debts, late payment fees, and fines for businesses and organizations that have actually dissolved, gone bankrupt, or stopped doing business (Illustration photo)

Explaining the reason for the proposal to cancel tax debts, the General Department of Taxation said that the proposal and selection of subjects for debt cancellation and tax debt settlement to remove difficulties for businesses and individuals is based on the summary and assessment of the implementation of tax debt cancellation in the past time and the practical situation. The tax authority has carefully reviewed the subjects to propose in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration.

The reality of tax debt settlement in recent times shows that the legal regulations on tax debt cancellation for the three cases mentioned above have not covered all business situations and have not handled the existence of irrecoverable tax debts; especially in the period when the economy had many adverse fluctuations from December 31, 2013 and before.

Specifically, many taxpayers provide goods and services that are paid by the state budget or have sources from the state budget but have not been paid, so they do not have a source to pay on time. In these cases, late payment fees are still charged. This leads to unfairness between businesses and the state when businesses owe taxes and are charged late payment fees, but the state budget does not charge interest when businesses are late in paying.

Or many taxpayers have lost business, many cases have fallen into a state of insolvency, had to stop operations or even dissolve, go bankrupt but did not follow the correct procedures for dissolution, bankruptcy. The tax debt that arose before the time of insolvency, dissolution, bankruptcy (although the Tax Authority has applied all the coercive measures as prescribed but has not been collected) is charged late payment at the rate of 0.05%/day (18.3%/year) continuously increasing while the taxpayer has stopped production, business activities, or has dissolved, gone bankrupt.

Confiscation of assets of tax-debt enterprises in Vinh City (Illustration photo)

According to Mr. Bui Van Nam - General Director of the General Department of Taxation, there is no such thing as debt cancellation and tax debt forgiveness only targeting state-owned enterprises, not affecting enterprises, not ensuring fairness. Because, all subjects of debt cancellation and debt forgiveness this time are treated equally, according to the principle of ensuring equality between economic sectors; ensuring the principle of non-discrimination, in accordance with international practices and international commitments that Vietnam has signed and participated in. Accordingly, subjects of debt cancellation and debt forgiveness include all enterprises of all economic sectors: state-owned enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises, non-state enterprises, individual business households, not just state-owned enterprises.

Red River