Collecting nearly 900 billion in tax on imported cars as gifts

The Ministry of Finance has just reported to the Government the situation of car imports as gifts up to the end of September 2016.

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Lexus 570 - one of the popular car models used as gifts in Vietnam.

Accordingly, in the first 9 months of 2016, there were more than 1,070 cars imported into Vietnam as gifts. When importing these cars as gifts, businesses paid import tax, special consumption tax, and value added tax (VAT) with the amount of more than 1,500 billion VND.

According to statistics, the donated cars are all high-end, expensive cars with large engine capacity and subject to large fluctuations in special consumption tax rates after July 1, 2016, of which the most are Lexus 570 (5.7L engine), Lexus RX 350 (3.5L engine), Lexus RX 450 (3.0L), Toyota Land Cruiser (4.6L engine); Bentley Bentayga (6.0L); Rolls-Royce; Cadillac Escalade (6.2L); Jaguar; Land Rover Ranger Rover; Mercedes S550, Mercedes S500 Maybach (4.6L capacity)...

However, through the process of re-examining the customs value declaration and market selling price, the Ministry of Finance's agency has stepped in to re-determine the tax calculation of 781 suspect cars.

The results discovered that there was a situation of declaring the customs value of imported vehicles lower than the market price. The total amount of tax collected increased compared to the declaration of the enterprise to nearly 888 billion VND, of which import tax was 277.5 billion VND, special consumption tax was 481 billion VND and VAT was 128 billion VND.

Thus, the total tax that businesses must pay for the number of imported cars as gifts that businesses must pay increases from 1,577 billion VND to nearly 2,481 billion VND, of which import tax is 774 billion VND; special consumption tax is 1,346 billion VND and the remaining is VAT of nearly 360 billion VND.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the situation of donated cars pouring in at the end of 2015 and the first 6 months of 2016, so in mid-July 2016, the General Department of Customs issued a document requesting 5 Customs departments of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang and Ba Ria - Vung Tau to rectify the phenomenon of difference in declared value and customs value determination for many imported cars.

Accordingly, for the same car model, same year, same year of manufacture and same technical parameters, the declared value and customs determination at many Customs Departments have differed by hundreds of millions of VND. This causes loss of import tax and determination of special consumption tax, and at the same time makes it difficult to manage the above-mentioned car import activities.

According to Song Ha/vneconomy