Accelerate tax refunds

In the first 10 months of 2023, tax authorities issued 15,025 tax refund decisions, corresponding to a tax refund of 112,873 billion VND. Photo: ST

Issued 15,025 tax refund decisions

According to the General Department of Taxation, as of October 31, 2023, the Tax agency has issued 15,025 tax refund decisions, corresponding to the tax refund amount of VND 112,873 billion, equal to 60.7% of the estimate approved by the National Assembly. Of which, 82.9%, are for exports, 16.7% are for investment projects, and other cases account for 0.4%.

According to Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation Mai Son, in spite of outstanding changes the progress of tax refund settlement, there needs to be a review of the implementation of the tax refund fund. For problematic dossiers, there should be specific reports to management agencies at all levels, while accelerating the assessment of risk factors and preparing resources to classify tax refund dossiers automatically.

In recent times, pursuant the direction of the Government, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Finance on continuing to speed up the settlement of VAT refund applications, nearly 80% of tax refund applications have been classified by the Tax Department as subject to tax refund in advance, inspection later. However, there are still delays in some localities, especially in the inspection and verification of VAT refund applications of some export enterprises.

To speed up tax refunds for businesses, the General Department of Taxation recently issued an official dispatch implementing the Minister of Finance's direction on VAT refunds. Accordingly, the General Department of Taxation requested the Directors of Tax Departments of provinces and cities to promote the implementation of directions to urge VAT refund work of the Minister of Finance and Director General of the General Department of Taxation. The Tax Authority receives and classifies VAT refund applications in accordance with regulations. For constant tax requests within a period of 2 years, since the time of being handled for tax evasion, if the Tax authorities find no violated signs and incorrect declarations leading to a lack of due tax, or an increase in the refundable tax specified in Article 142 of the Law on Tax Administration, or an act of tax evasion specified in Article 143 of the Law on Tax Administration in their first request, the taxpayer's tax refund dossier will not be subject to pre-refund inspection in the later one.

For documents classified for inspection before tax refund, the Tax authority shall comply with the regulations on tax inspection in Article 110, Article 112, Article 115 of the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14, stipulated in Law on Inspection No. 11/2022/QH15, tax inspection process, tax audit process. If taxpayers purchase goods and services from the suppliers subject to tax evasion, the tax agency must apply professional measures to have a basis for resolving tax refund in accordance with the provisions of Article 34 and Article 35 of Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC. At the same time, direct functional departments to strengthen VAT refund management, focusing on inspection and examination after tax refund to promptly detect and strictly handle such illegal acts in VAT refund; Proactively coordinate with authorities to prevent abuse of VAT refund policies to appropriate the state budget. In case of detecting signs of criminal violation, it is necessary to transfer the case to the police agency for handling according to the provisions of law. Assign the internal inspection department to analyze and map out specialized topics to inspect the performance of in charge tax departments/branches, providing that no further administrative procedures are prolonged or arise for taxpayers, and ensure that VAT refunds settlements are processed promptly and in accordance with the law.

Urgently and completely handle outstanding tax refund applications

In particular, the General Department of Taxation requests to urgently resolve and completely handle outstanding tax refund application dossiers, especially dossiers with long processing times for recent problematic export products. In case of insufficient legal basic shortage, a notice will be issued regarding cases not being eligible for tax refund/unable to get tax refund according to form 04/TB-HT issued with Circular No. 80/2021/TT-BTC, ensuring the deadline for processing tax refund documents as prescribed in Article 75 of the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14. In case the taxpayer does not agree with the decision of the Tax authority, he or she has the right to make a complaint or initiate a lawsuit according to the law on tax administration.

At the same time, it is required to promote propaganda on legal policies, VAT refund procedures as well as laws on electronic invoices via many forms to each enterprise and taxpayer in the management area, gradually raising awareness of compliance with electronic invoices and VAT refund laws. Secondly, promote dialogue and work directly with associations and businesses to deal with VAT refund procedures. Thirdly, capture, remove, and promptly report to competent authorities to handle obstacles according to authority and legal regulations, facilitate businesses in VAT refund implementation, and support production and business. .

Regarding this issue, Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh, Director General of the General Department of Taxation requested the Department of Inspection and Examination (General Department of Taxation) to classify each group of taxpayers to speed up the process of tax refund; Allocating refund funds to each department and each branch, associated with the responsibilities of each unit's leader. In addition, it is necessary to promote the application of new technology in quality management and administration of each inspection and examination.

Recently, the General Department of Taxation issued Decision 1388/QD-TCT regulating the application of risk management in classifying VAT refund dossiers and selecting taxpayers to develop post-refund inspection and audit plans including a set of criteria indicators and implementation instructions. In the last 2 months, the Tax sector focused on budget collection, while ensuring the progress of tax refunds, removing difficulties for tax refunds but still in the spirit of strictness and compliance with the law.