Suspected of a new trick for tax evasion

	New tax fraud through gifts
	Thousands of enterprises no longer engage in import-export, many of them evade tax

The information on the operation of Minh Triet Trading and Petrochemical One Member Limited Liability Company. Photo: T.B

The representatives of the Post Clearance-Audit Branch (under Hai Phong Customs Department) said that in 2018, the Department drastically took measures on information analysis and anti-tax losses through taxable valuation. By using specialized measures, Customs officers of Post Clearance-Audit Team No.1 detected new tricks for Tax fraud through transfer pricing, thereby, the Branch set up a scheme on post-clearance audit to prevent and combat tax losses for the State budget.

One of the new tricks suspected by the Branch is that the hire of newly established companies for Custom declaration by the goods owners, after these goods owners engaged in the import and export activities, if they realize the risk of being detected by the Customs, they will stop their operation and hire another company. The other cases, they simultaneously or rotationally use companies engaged in import and export activities to avoid the inspection by the Customs. When the violations are detected by the Customs, they stopped their business operation and disappeared from their business address to evade tax.

On the basis of the collected information, the Post-Clearance Audit Branch inspected a number of companies with the signs of naming on the Customs declarations to import for the domestic enterprises and declare the low price of goods for tax fraud.

Typically, the case of Minh Triet Trading and Petrochemical One Member Limited Liability Company (Tax code: 2802427495, address: Group 13, Zone 5, Bac Son Ward, Bim Son Town, Thanh Hoa province) and Bien Bac Trading and Export-Import Limited Liability Company (Tax code: 0201631534, address: No. 7B, 1st floor, Lot 5 An Duong, An Duong ward, Le Chan district, Hai Phong city).

“When implementing specialized measures, we detected that both companies imported the same item from the same Chinese partner. After the Customs clearance, these companies immediately sold goods and issued invoices for a company that is located in Nam Dinh,” – a Customs officer who directly inspects these companies said.

Notably, Minh Triet Trading and Petrochemical One Member Limited Liability Company and Bien Bac Trading and Export-Import Limited Liability Company operate as Customs brokers, but when they open import declaration, they directly import under the regime of importing for business.

Thousands of enterprises no longer engage in import-export, many of them evade tax VCN - Providing information to the Ministry of Planning and Investment to jointly manage enterprises, the Ministry ...

“Thus, we suspected that these companies are not goods owners, the actual goods owner is the company in Nam Dinh. Because they are not goods owners, so they do not know about price and nature of goods and almost declare under the direction. Because the declared price by these companies is not only lower than that of the same item imported by other enterprises, it is also lower than the product cost,"- the leader of the Post-clearance Audit Team No. 1 added.

Also, the leader of the Post-clearance Audit Team said that if the suspicions are true, the company in Nam Dinh is sophisticated. This company deliberated to implement tax fraud but it did not directly carry out Customs procedures and hired another company to closely conduct sale contracts and payment for the hire via banks.

However, Minh Triet Trading and Petrochemical One Member Limited Liability Company and Bien Bac Trading and Export-Import Limited Liability Company directly carried out Customs procedures (not implement the Customs declaration service), so they still must be responsible before the law for their violations for imported consignments detected by the Customs.

After finalizing the dossier, the Customs issued decision on imposing taxes of nearly VND 2.2 billion and sanctioning for tax late payment of nearly VND 143 million for the DIY PHYTALATE plasticizer for PVC and PVC resin imported by Minh Triet Trading and Petrochemical One Member Limited Liability Company.

Bien Bac Trading and Export-Import Limited Liability Company, Hai Phong Customs Department imposed VND 1,228 billion of taxes and sanctioned VND 58 million for late payment for plasticizer for rubber and plastic with the main content that is DOP (DIOCTYL PHTHALATE type B2).

Currently, Hai Phong Customs Department has repeatedly urged for tax payment, but these companies have not yet implemented tax payment. Facing the delay by these companies, Hai Phong Customs Department has coordinated with the Investigating Police Agency (Ministry of Public Security) and used specialized measures to request the 2 companies to pay taxes in accordance with regulations. Especially, when competent authorities implement the specialized measures for inspection, the Minh Triet Trading and Petrochemical One Member Limited Liability Company has stopped their operation, and the Bien Bac Trading and Export-Import Limited Liability Company has suspended its operation.

The information we searched in the General Department of Taxation’s system shows that the operation status of the two companies is consistent with the information provided by Hai Phong Post Clearance Audit Branch.