Shall a livestreaming seller who commits any acts of tax evasion face a penalty of imprisonment in Vietnam?

Shall a livestreaming seller who commits any acts of tax evasion face a penalty of imprisonment in Vietnam?

Based on Article 200 of the Criminal Code 2015 (amended and supplemented by points a, b, clause 47, Article 1 of the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code 2017) which regulates tax evasion as follows:

Tax Evasion Crime

1. Any person who commits one of the following acts to evade taxes with an amount from 100,000,000 VND to under 300,000,000 VND or under 100,000,000 VND but has been administratively sanctioned for tax evasion acts or has been convicted of this crime or one of the crimes specified in Articles 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 202, 250, 251, 253, 254, 304, 305, 306, 309, and 311 of this Code, has not had their criminal record expunged and continues to violate, shall be fined from 100,000,000 VND to 500,000,000 VND or subject to imprisonment from 03 months to 01 year:

a) Failing to submit a taxpayer registration dossier; failing to submit a tax declaration dossier; submitting a tax declaration dossier after 90 days from the expiry date for submitting the tax declaration dossier or the extension period for submitting the tax declaration dossier as prescribed by law;

b) Failing to record in the accounting book the revenue related to determining the payable tax amount;

c) Failing to issue invoices when selling goods or services or recording the value on sales invoices below the actual payment value of the sold goods, services;

d) Using illegal invoices or documents to account for input goods or materials in activities incurring tax obligations to reduce the payable tax amount or increase the tax-free, tax-reduced amount or increase the deductible tax amount, refundable tax amount;

dd) Using other illegal documents or materials to improperly determine the payable tax amount, refundable tax amount;

e) Declaring incorrectly with the actual exported, imported goods without supplementing the tax declaration dossier after the goods have been cleared, if not falling into cases specified in Article 188 and Article 189 of this Code;

g) Intentionally failing to declare or incorrectly declaring taxes regarding exported, imported goods, if not falling into cases specified in Article 188 and Article 189 of this Code;

h) Colluding with senders to import goods, if not falling into cases specified in Article 188 and Article 189 of this Code;

i) Using goods subject to tax exemption, tax-free consideration without declaring the change of purpose use to the tax authority.

2. If the crime is committed in one of the following cases, the offender shall be fined from 500,000,000 VND to 1,500,000,000 VND or imprisoned from 01 year to 03 years:

a) Organized crime;

b) Tax evasion amounting from 300,000,000 VND to under 1,000,000,000 VND;

c) Taking advantage of one's position or authority;

d) Committing the crime 02 times or more;

dd) Dangerous recidivism.

3. If the crime of tax evasion involves an amount of 1,000,000,000 VND or more, fines of 1,500,000,000 VND to 4,500,000,000 VND or imprisonment from 02 years to 07 years shall apply:

4. The offender may also be fined from 20,000,000 VND to 100,000,000 VND, banned from holding certain positions, practicing certain professions or conducting certain jobs from 01 year to 05 years, or have part or all of their property confiscated.

5. Commercial legal entities committing the crime specified in this Article shall be penalized as follows:

a) Committing one of the acts specified in clause 1 of this Article to evade taxes with an amount from 200,000,000 VND to under 300,000,000 VND or from 100,000,000 VND to under 200,000,000 VND but have been administratively sanctioned for tax evasion acts or have been convicted of this crime or one of the crimes specified in Articles 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195 and 196 of this Code, and have not had their criminal record expunged and continue to violate, shall be fined from 300,000,000 VND to 1,000,000,000 VND;

b) Committing the crime in one of the cases specified in points a, b, d, and đ, clause 2 of this Article, shall be fined from 1,000,000,000 VND to 3,000,000,000 VND;

c) Committing the crime in the case specified in clause 3 of this Article, shall be fined from 3,000,000,000 VND to 10,000,000,000 VND or have their activities suspended for a term from 06 months to 03 years;

d) Committing the crime in the case specified in Article 79 of this Code, shall be permanently suspended from activities;

dd) Commercial legal entities may also be fined from 50,000,000 VND to 200,000,000 VND, banned from trading, operating in certain fields or mobilizing capital from 01 year to 03 years.

Thus, tax evasion during livestreaming sales can result in imprisonment.

Shall a livestreaming seller who commits any acts of tax evasion face a penalty of imprisonment in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

What are responsibilities of livestreaming sellers on e-commerce platforms in Vietnam?

According to Article 37 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP regarding the responsibilities of sellers on e-commerce trading platforms.

- Provide complete and accurate information as prescribed in Article 29 of this Decree to traders, organizations providing e-commerce trading platform services when registering to use the services.

- Provide complete information about goods and services as prescribed from Articles 30 to 34 of this Decree when selling goods or providing services on e-commerce trading platforms.

- Ensure the accuracy and truthfulness of information about goods and services provided on e-commerce trading platforms.

- Implement regulations in Section 2, Chapter 2 of this Decree when applying online ordering functions on e-commerce trading platforms.

- Provide information about their business situation when requested by competent state agencies to serve e-commerce statistics activities.

- Comply with the provisions of the law on payments, advertising, promotions, protection of intellectual property rights, protection of consumer rights, and other relevant legal provisions when selling goods or providing services on e-commerce trading platforms.

- Fulfill tax obligations in accordance with the law.

Vietnam: Do tax evaders have their information publicly disclosed?

Based on clause 1, Article 100 of the Tax Administration Law 2019, it is stipulated:

Public disclosure of taxpayer information

1. Tax authorities are allowed to publicly disclose taxpayer information in the following cases:

a) Tax evasion, delaying tax payments, and other collections due to the state budget; owing taxes and other collections due to the state budget;

b) Violating tax law affecting the tax obligations and rights of other organizations and individuals;

c) Failing to comply with requests from tax authorities according to legal provisions.

...

Thus, in the case of tax evasion, tax authorities may publicly disclose the taxpayer's information.