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Debt freezing and remission for taxpayers will always ensure fairness and transparency under the supervision of society. Photo:

Strict procedure

The tax sector has begun to handle tax debt in accordance with Resolution No. 94/2019 / QH14 on freezing tax arrears, writing off late payment penalties and late payment interest for taxpayers no longer able to pay tax for the State budget. Circular 69/2020 / TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of Resolution 94 of the National Assembly on tax debt settlement was issued with clear and complete debt handling process and procedures. This circular provides for the delineation of tax arrears, remission of late payment fines, late payment interest (which is understood as not erasing the original debt). The frozen tax amounts excluding land use levies, land rents and water surface rents are paid in a lump sum. Debt freezing means unpaid tax arrears, fines for late payment, late payment interest of taxpayers and no charge for the late payment of tax arrears.

To minimisethe negative in the implementation process, to avoid loss of State budget, Resolution No. 94 and Circular No. 69 specify the principles of debt write-off, authority to write off tax debts, and conditions to handle debts, responsibilities of agencies involved in performance of official duties. In particular, the principle of debt settlement must ensure compliance with the law, the right subjects, right authority and ensure conditions for the dossiers, processes, procedures and responsibilities of related individuals under regulations of the law; publiciseand transparently handle debt, ensure the inspection and supervision of competent agencies and people's supervision. The handling of debts also aims to facilitate the removal of difficulties for taxpayers, but the misuse of the policy must be prevented to make personal profits and deliberately delay and pay tax debts.

According to many tax experts, the elimination of tax debt is strictly controlled, and there is no way the business will only declare the closure of the tax debt. Specifically, the case has been cleared of fines for late payment, if the competent authority, the tax administration agency found the write-off of debt is not in compliance with the regulations or the taxpayer (being an organization or individual business) that have been written off when returning to production or established a new production or business establishment, they must cancel the decision on write-off or freezing (if any) and remit to the budget the frozen debt.

"As a rule, once the business owner isknownthatthis enterprise was cleared of the tax debt, but then establishes a new enterprise, the owner of the business will be immediately prosecuted. In addition, an enterprise that is in difficult circumstances can completely suspend operations, submit an application for dissolution, or even have a decision to revoke the registration certificate of business, but after that, it is still possible to return to normal operation.If it returns to operation, then the status of the taxpayer still exists and will not fall into the case of tax debt clearing. Circular 69 and Resolution 94 already have such provisions and contingencies,"said Lawyer Ha Huy Phong, Director of Inteco Limited Law Company (Hanoi Bar Association).

Strengthen self-monitoring mechanism in the community

According to the General Department of Taxation, handling of debts must be tight, the right subjects and meet conditions prescribed in dossiers and procedures related to many taxpayers who have died, gone missing or lost their operating capacity of micro-civil, dissolution orbankruptcy.This raises the requirement that the implementation, leadership, coordination of agencies, departments and agencies must be led by local authorities. Therefore, the role of local administrations is particularly important. Under provisions of Circular 69, the roles of the People's Committees of communes, districts and provinces are defined for the verification of operational status of taxpayers.

Especially, in the process of handling tax debt, within threeworking days at the latest from the date of issuance, the decision on debt freezing/remission must be entered into the tax management application to monitor and send copies to the departments. The relevant accounting and adjustment of late payment interest, late payment fines (if any). This is also maximum time to complete posting the decision on debt freezing, debt remission within 30 days on the website of the tax department, or the customs office; or higher level is the portal of General Department of Taxation, General Department of Customs.

According to economist Dinh Trong Thinh, Senior Lecturer of the Academy of Finance, disclosure of taxpayers' information on freezing and debt elimination is essential and important, showing fairness and transparency in handling tax debt. Previously, when the problem of debt freezing and tax debt elimination was raised, there were many concerns about cases where enterprises took advantage of this policy to evade their obligations to the State budget, even people fear there will be "brackets" between tax authorities and businesses to profit policy. However, the Ministry of Finance has very clear and specific regulations on disclosing information related to entities entitled to tax debt settlement. The business community as well as citizens can easily monitor, supervise as well as evaluate the fairness of each decision.

"When the decision on deletion of the late payment fines of Company A has just been issued and is publicisedto the people, the information related to the address, tax identification number and cleared amount of money is clear. If the enterprise also works well, it is not difficult for people and businesses in that area to discover and report to the tax authorities or local authorities as well as reflect to the press agencies,"Thinh said.

A leader of the Tax Department also told a Customs Newspaper reporter that for every decision related to the handling of tax debt, the tax office will have to be very careful and scrutinisedfrom book records to the situation. Basedon this, there will be a report sent to General Department of Taxation, Provincial People's Committee. Debt freezing and remission for taxpayers will always ensure fairness and transparency under the supervision of society.