Customs officers inspect fruits imported from China at the Tan Thanh border gate in the northern province of Lang Son (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - A numberof enterprises have taken advantage of technology used for tax collection toavoid paying taxes.
The Law on Value Added Tax (VAT) regulates that unprocessed, orpreliminarily processed, agricultural, forestry and aquatic products importedfrom foreign countries are not subject to VAT. However, if these importedproducts are sold to individuals and small business vendors in the country,they are subject to a VAT rate of 5 percent.
In recent years, customs agencies have applied technology in taxcollection, which allows enterprises to use email and digital signatures forcustoms and tax declarations online, as well as allowing them to write, printinvoices and pay taxes by themselves without requiring submission of lists ofgoods purchased and sold during each tax period.
A number of enterprises have taken advantage of these methods,importing unprocessed agricultural, forestry and aquatic products from Chinaand selling them to local business vendors and individuals without paying taxesto local tax agencies, the Hai quan (Customs) newspaperreported.
The process of founding fake companies to import goods and evadetaxes is no longer trivial but practised on a wide scale, according to thereport.
Thirty-four out of 93 enterprises that imported goods through theTan Thanh border gate last year were found to not have declared 1.15 trillionVND (50.7 million USD) worth of imported goods that were sold to locals,according to the customs agency of the northern province of Lang Son.
Tax payment fraud worth 53 billion VND (2.3 million USD) wasdiscovered in eight enterprises. Twenty-nine other enterprises listed an amountof goods – which was sold to locals, hence subject to 5 percent VAT – as havingthe same or higher value than the amount of goods they imported.
In particular, the Lang Son Agriculture, Forestry and FisheryImport-Export Co. Ltd., was found to have avoided paying 23 billion VND (1million USD) in tax. The company’s director, whose name was included in theinvoices, was found to not be involved in directing the company.
The Truong Son Trading Co. Ltd., registered in the coastal QuangNinh province’s Hong Thai Dong commune, was found to have avoided paying 12.4billion VND (545,600 USD) in tax. The commune’s authorities said such a companynever existed.-VNA
VNA
