Many challenges to combat tax loss in e-commerce

Forming a department to purchase goods on e-commerce platforms

Responding to Thanh Nien, Mr. Au Anh Tuan, Director of the Customs Management and Supervision Department, General Department of Customs ( Ministry of Finance ), said that in reality, the management agency is currently facing a number of problems regarding customs records, specialized management policies as well as difficulties in preventing and combating smuggling and illegal transportation of goods across the border.

Alibaba's website also has a Vietnamese interface.

Typically, buyers do not submit or present documents related to the value of exported and imported goods to customs authorities when carrying out customs procedures to determine the customs value according to the actual purchase price and calculate taxes on exported and imported goods (because buyers often pay via debit cards, e-wallets, etc.).

In addition, the Director of the Customs Supervision and Management Department also mentioned the aspect that the number of low-value shipments is increasing rapidly, but the customs authority does not have a basis to classify goods into groups, or provide information about goods in advance to apply modern technical solutions in carrying out customs procedures, inspection, and customs supervision according to the principle of risk management.

"In reality, a group has been formed to purchase goods on e-commerce platforms and commercial websites and transport these goods to Vietnam through unofficial channels. This makes it difficult to fight against commercial fraud," said Mr. Au Anh Tuan.

From the perspective of the market management agency, Mr. Nguyen Duc Le, Deputy Director of the Department of Market Management (General Department of Market Management - Ministry of Industry and Trade ), shared that there are still many phenomena of production, business and trade of counterfeit goods, poor quality goods, copyright-infringing goods as well as goods of unknown origin on e-commerce platforms.

The e-commerce environment helps buyers and sellers get closer together, regardless of geographical distance or time. This ease has led to a situation where organizations and individuals with illegal intentions seek to profit from the production and trading of counterfeit, poor quality, and unknown origin goods on e-commerce platforms in recent times.

"In the past two years, we have handled nearly 5,000 violations on e-commerce platforms as well as on social networks, with fines of nearly VND50 billion worth of goods. Of which, the amount of confiscated goods was nearly VND30 billion and the amount of goods forced to be destroyed was over VND20 billion," Mr. Le informed, saying that although the involvement of the authorities has made many efforts, it has not yet achieved the expected results.

Increased coordination in tax administration

Mr. Le added that recently, the Prime Minister approved the Project on anti-counterfeiting and consumer protection in e-commerce until 2025. The Ministry of Industry and Trade, with its leading role and the coordination of relevant ministries and branches, will contribute to making the e-commerce environment cleaner, gradually eliminating and eventually completely eliminating the trading of counterfeit goods, poor quality goods, goods that infringe intellectual property rights, as well as goods of unknown origin on e-commerce platforms.

In the "picture" of e-commerce business, besides issues related to quality and origin of goods, one of the issues that receives much attention is the fear of tax loss. Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Huyen, Deputy Director of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that the Ministry of Finance is the agency assigned by the Government to manage the tax sector in general, including tax management in e-commerce.

Affirming that "there is indeed a situation of tax loss in e-commerce", the leader of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy pointed out that the first reason is that the legal regulations on tax collection in e-commerce are still in the process of being completed. In addition, "current e-commerce transactions are mainly COD transactions (payment upon receipt - PV) using cash; there is no timely mechanism for sharing data as well as information of relevant management agencies" are also the reasons mentioned by Ms. Huyen in the difficulty of preventing tax loss in e-commerce.

With the role of industry management in e-commerce, according to Ms. Huyen, in recent times, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has closely coordinated with the General Department of Taxation (Ministry of Finance) in strengthening tax management for e-commerce. Specifically, this is to build and perfect the law in the field of e-commerce; have a mechanism for sharing information data through an agreement signed between the two ministries.

"In the coming time, we will continue to proactively build a database on e-commerce and will also have exchanges to continue exchanging databases and information between the two sides in tax management in e-commerce. In addition, we recommend that the Ministry of Finance continue to apply digital technology in tax management with e-commerce, as well as promote the role of the Electronic Information Portal and provide e-commerce services abroad," Ms. Huyen said.

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