Is it permissible for individuals in Vietnam to cancel their tax indentification number?

How many tax identification numbers are issued for an individual in Vietnam?

Based on Clause 2, Article 30 of the Tax Administration Law 2019 stipulating the issuance of tax identification numbers:

Subjects of taxpayer registration and issuance of tax identification numbers

1. Taxpayers must carry out taxpayer registration and be issued a tax identification number by the tax authority before starting production, business activities, or incurring obligations to the state budget. Subjects of taxpayer registration include:

a) Enterprises, organizations, and individuals carrying out taxpayer registration through a single window mechanism in conjunction with business registration, cooperative registration, or business registration as per the Enterprise Law and other relevant legal regulations;

b) Organizations and individuals not falling under the case prescribed in Point a of this Clause will carry out taxpayer registration directly with the tax authority as stipulated by the Minister of Finance.

2. The structure of tax identification numbers is prescribed as follows:

a) A 10-digit tax identification number is used for enterprises, organizations with legal entity status; household representatives, business households, and other individuals;

b) A 13-digit tax identification number and other characters are used for dependent units and other subjects;

c) The Minister of Finance provides detailed regulations for this Clause.

3. The issuance of tax identification numbers is prescribed as follows:

a) Enterprises, economic organizations, and other organizations are issued a single tax identification number to use throughout their operational period from taxpayer registration until the termination of the tax identification number's validity. Taxpayers with branches, representative offices, or dependent units directly performing tax obligations are issued a dependent tax identification number. In cases where enterprises, organizations, branches, representative offices, or dependent units carry out taxpayer registration through a single window mechanism together with business registration, cooperative registration, or business registration, the number recorded on the business registration certificate, cooperative registration certificate, or business registration certificate concurrently serves as the tax identification number;

b) Individuals are issued a single tax identification number to use throughout their lifetime. Dependents of the individual are issued a tax identification number for personal income tax reduction purposes for the taxpayer. The tax identification number issued for dependents simultaneously serves as the individual's tax identification number when the dependent incurs obligations to the state budget;

c) Enterprises, organizations, and individuals responsible for tax deduction and payment on behalf of others are issued a tax identification number for such purposes to fulfill tax declaration and payment on behalf of taxpayers;

d) Issued tax identification numbers cannot be reused to issue to another taxpayer;

dd) Tax identification numbers of enterprises, economic organizations, and other organizations remain unchanged after the transformation of business forms, sale, donation, inheritance;

e) Tax identification numbers issued to households, household businesses, and individual businesses are the tax identification numbers issued to individual representatives of the household, household businesses, and individual businesses.

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Therefore, each individual is issued one tax identification number, which is the unique number used throughout the individual's lifetime.

Is it permissible for individuals in Vietnam to cancel their tax indentification number? (Image from Internet)

Is it permissible for individuals in Vietnam to cancel their tax indentification number?

According to Clause 2, Article 39 of the Tax Administration Law 2019, for taxpayers who have registered directly with the tax authority, the validity term (cancellation of the tax identification number) is terminated in the following cases:

- Termination of business activities, no further tax obligations for non-business organizations;

- Revocation of the business registration certificate or an equivalent license;

- Division, merger, consolidation;

- Notification by the tax authority that the taxpayer is not operating at the registered address;

- Death, missing, loss of civil act capacity as prescribed by law;

- When a foreign contractor completes the contract;

- Contractors and investors participating in petroleum contracts when the contract ends or the entire entitlement under the petroleum contract is transferred.

From when can the tax identification number in Vietnam be used after being restored?

According to Clause 3, Article 40 of the Tax Administration Law 2019:

Restoration of tax identification numbers

1. Taxpayers who registered together with business registration, cooperative registration, or business registration, if their legal status is restored as stipulated by the law on business registration, cooperative registration, business registration, will simultaneously have their tax identification numbers restored.

2. Taxpayers who registered directly with the tax authority must submit a dossier requesting the restoration of the tax identification number to the directly managing tax authority in the following cases:

a) A competent authority issues a document canceling the document revoking the business registration certificate or equivalent license;

b) When there is a demand to continue business activities after having submitted the dossier to terminate the validity of the tax identification number to the tax authority, but the tax authority has yet to issue a notice terminating the validity of the tax identification number;

c) When the tax authority issues a notice that the taxpayer is not operating at the registered address but has not yet revoked the license and the tax identification number's validity has not yet been terminated.

3. The tax identification number is resumed for use in economic transactions from the effective date of the decision on the restoration of the legal status by the business registration authority or the date the tax authority announces the restoration of the tax identification number.

4. The dossier requesting the restoration of the tax identification number includes:

a) A written request for the restoration of the tax identification number;

b) Other related documents.

The tax identification number is resumed for use in economic transactions from the effective date of the decision on the restoration of the legal status by the business registration authority or the date the tax authority announces the restoration of the tax identification number.