Deputy Minister of Finance talks about bird's nest enterprises issuing invoices of 30,000 billion VND

At the regular Government press conference in July on the afternoon of August 5, the press raised questions about the slow refund of value-added tax (VAT), where one of the reasons businesses reported was the difficulty in proving the origin of goods.

"How much tax has the business not yet received and which agency is responsible for the late tax refund?" the press asked.

In response, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said that in VAT refunds, there are currently methods of checking before refunding and refunding first, checking after. In both cases, there are regulations on completion date, calculated from the time the enterprise submits complete documents according to the provisions of law.

“For pre-check refund, the tax refund period is 6 days, for pre-check refund, it is 40 days. This is a legal regulation to complete tax,” said Mr. Chi.

According to the Deputy Minister of Finance, in 2022, tax authorities refunded over VND 150,000 billion with over 20,774 tax refund decisions. In the first 7 months of 2023, tax authorities nationwide refunded over VND 70,356 billion with 9,800 tax refund decisions.

In tax refund cases, according to classification, nearly 80% belong to the group of pre-refund, post-audit, the remaining 20% belong to the group of pre-audit, post-refund.

“Who is responsible for the delay in tax refunds? Determining the responsibility for the delay on the part of the tax authority, or the people or businesses, must consider the specific case and records, from which the cause can be determined. But from the management agency's perspective, it must be reviewed, monitored and improved so that no one can say it is delayed anymore,” said Mr. Chi.

Finance - Banking - Deputy Minister of Finance talks about bird's nest enterprises issuing invoices of 30,000 billion VND — Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi answered at the press conference.

According to Mr. Chi, first of all, it is necessary to review legal regulations, implementation procedures and methods, to see if there is anything that can be improved or shortened, while ensuring the requirements of speed, accuracy, risk prevention and anti-fraud.

Regarding specific solutions, the tax industry will prioritize the application of AI in tax management, is building big data on businesses, and proactively screening risky businesses first, meaning businesses must check first and refund later.

“There are businesses that only sell bird’s nests, but issue invoices with revenue of over 30,000 billion VND. We have to check because we have analysis and data. If it is clearly legal and reasonable, they will get a tax refund very quickly,” Mr. Chi gave an example.

The leaders of the Ministry of Finance also affirmed that they will enhance discipline and strictly handle cases that cause difficulties for businesses, while also resolutely handling tax refund fraud.

In information released a few days ago, the Ministry of Finance said it has strongly directed tax authorities at all levels to resolve VAT refunds.

In particular, the Directors of the Provincial and Municipal Tax Departments are required to take full responsibility for the management of VAT refunds in their localities, not to let them linger for a long time, causing frustration for people and businesses. For the tax amounts that have been inspected and verified, promptly resolve tax refunds for taxpayers.

In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the inspection and post-refund examination of tax refund decisions subject to pre-refund and post-refund examination to promptly detect the use of illegal invoices or illegal use of invoices, profiteering in tax refunds to misappropriate the State budget, and strictly handle them according to the provisions of law.

On the business side, the Ministry of Finance requires raising awareness of strictly complying with legal policies on tax and invoices, and fully fulfilling obligations to the State budget. Say no to acts of illegally using invoices or using illegal invoices in requesting VAT refunds.

Enterprises need to be proactive in preparing tax refund application documents, reviewing and collecting input invoices, payment documents, customs declarations, and export contracts before submitting tax refund application documents to the tax authority. Avoid documents that do not meet the procedures, affecting the progress of receiving and processing by the tax authority .

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