The Tax Authority has provided insights into the situation concerning hundreds of thousands of suspended tax codes for businesses, which have not been terminated due to various reasons including tax debts, lack of documentation, and absence of legal representatives. Recently, the Tax Authority has accelerated its campaign to 'clean up tax codes and remove business obstacles.' As of September 8, the average rate of processing suspended tax codes in 34 localities reached 36%. Lai Châu had the highest rate at 74.8%, followed by Gia Lai at 66.6%, Hanoi at 62.5%, and Ninh Bình at 61.5%. However, Ho Chi Minh City only achieved 19.6%, despite handling the largest absolute number of cases, accounting for 26.1% of the total results nationwide.

Reasons for Suspended Tax Codes

Nguyễn Đức Huy, Deputy Head of Operations at the Tax Authority, explained that the accumulation of unresolved cases stems from multiple factors. Firstly, while market entry procedures have been simplified, the processes for withdrawing from the market, dissolving, and terminating tax codes remain complex and require numerous obligations to be fulfilled with tax authorities and business registration agencies. Businesses that have ceased operations may lack necessary tax filings, have outstanding fines or debts, or have unresolved obligations, making it difficult to complete the standard procedures.

Secondly, there is a limited understanding and compliance among taxpayers regarding the legal requirements for ceasing operations and dissolving businesses. Some businesses have stopped operations without notifying authorities, failed to submit complete tax documents, or have chosen to abandon their registered addresses, believing it to be simpler than completing dissolution procedures. Many have downsized their operations, relinquished premises, and lost access to accounting records, seals, or digital signatures, with some legal representatives being deceased or unreachable.

Thirdly, the Tax Authority's implementation of dissolution and termination processes in certain areas has been slow, with delays in auditing and confirming tax obligations. Additionally, resources allocated for processing these cases do not match the volume of outstanding files, and management of taxpayers identified as inactive at their registered addresses has not been consistently enforced.

Fourthly, discrepancies in historical data across management systems have led to issues with identifying, addressing, and finalizing the status of businesses. Huy noted that the coordination between tax authorities and business registration agencies has not been timely, particularly in verifying and recovering business registration certificates.

Addressing Tax Evasion

Huy emphasized that the situation of suspended tax codes is not solely due to taxpayer compliance but also reflects systemic issues and limitations in policy implementation. Therefore, it is essential to develop solutions for both addressing existing backlogs and preventing new cases from arising.

New regulations under the Tax Management Law and related decrees have established responsibilities for business owners and legal representatives to fulfill tax obligations before registering new businesses. The Tax Authority is working to refine internal processes, set clear deadlines, and responsibilities for tax verification and coordination with business registration agencies. They are also monitoring new occurrences, businesses that have resumed operations, and those that have terminated their tax codes.