Vietnam: How many rules for tax audits and tax inspections are there?

Vietnam: How many rules for tax audits and tax inspections are there?

According to Article 107 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019, there are five rules for tax audits and tax inspections, including:

- Application of risk management in tax administration and information technology application in tax inspection and tax audit.

- Compliance with the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration 2019, other relevant legal regulations, and inspection forms, procedures, processes, and tax inspection files as stipulated by the Minister of Finance.

- Not obstructing the normal activities of taxpayers.

- When conducting tax inspection, tax audit at the taxpayer's headquarters, the head of the tax administration agency must issue a decision on inspection, audit.

- The tax inspection, tax audit is carried out to evaluate the completeness, accuracy, and honesty of the content of documents, information, and files that the taxpayer has declared, submitted, and presented to the tax administration agency; to assess the taxpayer's compliance with tax law and other relevant legal regulations to process tax according to legal provisions.

Vietnam: How many rules for tax audits and tax inspections are there? (Image from the Internet)

Guidance on re-inspection in tax inspection in Vietnam?

Article 120 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019 stipulates the re-inspection in tax inspection activities as follows:

- Authority to decide on re-inspection of a concluded case that has indications of legal violations is prescribed as follows:

+ The Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Finance decides on re-inspection of a case concluded by the Director General within the scope and authority of state management of the Ministry of Finance when assigned by the Minister of Finance;

+ The Director General decides on re-inspection of a case concluded by a Director under the General Department;

+ The Director decides on re-inspection of a case concluded by a Chief of a Sub-department under the Department;

+ The re-inspection decision includes the contents as stipulated in Article 114 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019. No later than 3 working days from the date of signing the re-inspection decision, the person making the re-inspection decision must send the re-inspection decision to the audit subject. The re-inspection decision must be announced no later than 15 days from the date of signing and must be recorded in the minutes by the audit team.

- The re-inspection is conducted when there is one of the following grounds:

+ There are serious violations in the procedures and processes during the audit;

+ There is a mistake in the application of law when concluding the audit;

+ The contents of the audit conclusion do not match the evidence collected during the audit or have a high-risk indication according to risk assessment criteria through risk analysis;

+ The decision-maker of the audit, head of the audit team, or audit team member deliberately falsifies the case file or intentionally concludes unlawfully;

+ There are serious indications of legal violations by the audit subject not fully detected through the audit.

- The time limit for re-inspection, re-inspection duration is prescribed as follows:

+ The time limit for re-inspection is 2 years from the conclusion date of the audit;

+ The re-inspection duration is implemented under the provisions of Article 115 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019.

- When proceeding with a re-inspection, the person making the audit decision, head of the audit team, and audit team members perform duties and rights as stipulated in Article 116 and Article 117 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019.

- The conclusion of the re-inspection and the disclosure of the re-inspection conclusion are as follows:

+ The re-inspection conclusion is implemented under the provisions of Article 119 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019. The contents of the re-inspection conclusion must clearly determine the nature and extent of the violation, causes, responsibility of the agency, organization, and individual conducting the audit, audit conclusion, and recommendations for handling measures.

Within 15 days from the signing date of the re-inspection conclusion, the person making the re-inspection decision must send the re-inspection conclusion to the head of the state management agency at the same level and the upper-level state inspection agency;

+ The disclosure of the re-inspection conclusion is implemented under the provisions of law on inspection.

Vietnam: When is the tax inspection conclusion issued?

Article 119 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019 stipulates the conclusion of tax inspection as follows:

- Within 15 days from receiving the tax inspection result report except where the content of the audit conclusion must await the expert conclusion of a competent agency or organization, the person making the tax inspection decision must issue a written tax inspection conclusion. The tax inspection conclusion must include the following main contents:

+ Assessment of the implementation of tax law by the audit subject within the tax inspection content;

+ Conclusion on the audited content;

+ Clearly determine the nature and extent of the violation, causes, responsibility of the agencies, organizations, and individuals committing violations;

+ Handle within authority or recommend that competent persons handle administrative violations according to legal regulations.

- In the process of issuing the conclusion document, handling decisions, the decision-maker of the audit has the right to request the head of the audit team, audit team members to report, request the audit subject to explain to clarify additional necessary issues for making a conclusion, handling decision.