Lang Son Customs: Applying many strong measures to collect tax debt

Lang Son Customs has directed professional units and border gate customs branches to focus on implementing measures to collect tax debts to ensure that the tax debt is reduced and not incurred in the last months of the year.

Lang Son Customs Department said that as of August 31, the total tax debt incurred in the management area was over VND186 billion. In particular, the group of debt which was waiting for consideration of debt exemption, reduction and cancellation of nearly VND182 billion; debt of sanctioning administrative violations of more than VND700 million (debt of organizations and individuals that have not yet complied with the decision on sanctioning administrative violations in the field of customs; the recoverable debt was nearly VND3.1 billion which was mainly due to penalties for late payment, tax assessment after consultation and post-clearance audit).

By the end of September 12, Lang Son Customs had recovered and processed VND984.3 million for debts incurred before January 1, 2021, and for debts incurred in 2021, the unit had recovered and processed over VND4.5 billion.

The total number of businesses owing tax at Huu Nghi Border Gate Customs Branch is about 200 enterprises with a total debt of more than VND108 billion. In particular, overdue debt incurred in 2021 was nearly VND8 billion. However, as of August 31, 2021, the total amount of debt recovered by the unit was only VND2.2 billion.

A representative of Huu Nghi Customs Branch said that most of the remaining tax debts were of businesses in a difficult situation. For example, the case of Do Thanh Motorcycle Joint Stock Company (now Duc Viet Motorcycle Joint Stock Company located in Binh Chanh District, HCM City) owed over VND3.6 billion from February 2, 2021. Although the unit sent documents as well as directly met with the enterprise, the enterprise gave many reasons to delay paying the debt.

Huu Nghi Customs sends a notice requesting competent authorities to coordinate in issuing a decision to suspend exit of the country for business owners and legal representatives of enterprises owing tax debts

Similarly, at Dong Dang International Railway Station Customs Branch, there are more than 20 businesses with overdue tax debts totaling more than VND40 billion. However, for nine months of 2021, the unit has actively applied recovery measures, so far, it has only recovered more than VND200 million.

Talking about this issue, a representative of Lang Son Customs Department said that, to maximize support for businesses, the Government had issued a tax grace policy.

Accordingly, when enterprises imported and exported goods with tariff rates, they could still apply for the tax grace period in 90 days as prescribed. However, many businesses that had exceeded the tax grace period, intentionally delayed and did not fulfill their tax payment obligations. This led to prolonged tax arrears and a low rate of tax recovery since the beginning of the year.

Therefore, Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department Nguyen Huu Vuong stated that the unit had directed branches and professional units to focus on reviewing all cases of enterprises with overdue tax debts, conducted a detailed assessment of each debt and the actual status of enterprises to develop a debt recovery plan for each enterprise.

At the same time, Lang Son Customs carried out coercive measures complying with the regulations to recover debts. In particular, recently, the customs branches with enterprises owing tax debt issued administrative decisions on tax administration, or sent documents to relevant authorities in the implementation of administrative coercive measures on tax in accordance with regulations, namely issuing a decision to suspend clearance procedures for enterprises that owed overdue tax.

At the same time, reporting to the General Department of Vietnam Customs to issue a document for local competent authorities where enterprises registered business for carrying out coercive measures by revoking business registration certificates of the enterprise owing overdue debt.

At the same time, to prevent loss of revenue and recover tax arrears from those businesses, another coercive measure that customs branches at the border gate have carried out is working with local competent authorities in the province in order to issue a decision to suspend the exit of the country for business owners and legal representatives of enterprises owing tax debts as prescribed.

Accordingly, since the beginning of June, at the request of Lang Son Customs, competent authorities of Lang Son province also issued a notice to suspend exit procedures for 76 cases of business owners who owed import and export duty.

According to Nguyen Huu Vuong, besides the above solutions, to urge debt recovery, customs units at the border gate have made a list of enterprises that owe overdue tax and reported to Lang Son Customs for notifying and coordinating with customs departments of provinces and cities throughout the sector to stop carrying out customs procedures for those enterprises at all border gates across the country.

In addition, Lang Son Customs has continued to send customs officers to localities where businesses owing tax debts have registered business offices to coordinate with local government and police for urging and requesting enterprises to sign commitments on setting deadlines for paying tax debts.