What are procedures for declaring environmental protection tax in Vietnam?

Which entities are subject to environmental protection tax in Vietnam?

According to Article 3 of the 2010 Environmental Protection Tax Law, the subjects to environmental protection tax are regulated as follows:

- Gasoline, oil, grease, including:

+ Gasoline, except ethanol;
+ Jet fuel;
+ Diesel oil;
+ Kerosene;
+ Fuel oil;
+ Lubricating oil;
+ Lubricating grease.

- Coal, including:

+ Brown coal;
+ Anthracite coal;
+ Fat coal;
+ Other coal.

- Hydro-chloro-fluoro-carbon solution (HCFC).

- Plastic bags subject to tax.

- Herbicides of restricted use type.

- Termiticides of restricted use type.

- Forest product preservatives of restricted use type.

- Grain warehouse disinfectants of restricted use type.

- In circumstances where it is deemed necessary to add other taxed objects appropriate to each period, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly shall consider and stipulate.

What are procedures for declaring environmental protection tax in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

What are the procedures for declaring environmental protection tax in Vietnam?

According to Subsection 21, Section 2 of the administrative procedures promulgated in Decision 1462/QD-BTC 2022, the procedures for declaring environmental protection tax are as follows:

Step 1: The taxpayer prepares data, prepares the declaration form, and submits it to the tax authority no later than the 20th of the month following the month in which the taxable activities occur. To be specific:

- The taxpayer submits the environmental protection tax declaration dossier at the place of production of taxable goods, the place of production, and business of coal, except for environmental protection tax of petroleum business (regulated at point a, clause 4, Article 11 of Decree 126/2020/ND-CP), environmental protection tax of coal exploitation and domestic consumption (regulated at point b, clause 4, Article 11 of Decree 126/2020/ND-CP).

- For petroleum business activities:

+ Head traders who directly import, produce, or blend petroleum submit the tax declaration dossier to the tax authority directly managing the volume of petroleum directly exported or sold, including internal consumption, exchange for other goods, entrusted import returns, and sales to other organizations or individuals, excluding the volume of petroleum exported and entrusted for import by other head traders, as stipulated by the Enterprise Law.
+ Subsidiaries regulated by the Enterprise Law of the head trader or dependent units of the subsidiaries, dependent units of the head trader submit the tax declaration dossier to the tax authority directly managing the volume of petroleum exported, sold to organizations, individuals not falling under the subsidiaries regulated by the Enterprise Law of the head trader and the dependent unit of the subsidiary.
+ Head traders or subsidiaries regulated by the Enterprise Law of the head trader with dependent units operating in different provinces or centrally governed cities from where the head trader or subsidiary headquarters are located, when the dependent unit does not independently account for environmental protection tax, the head traders or subsidiaries submit the environmental protection tax declaration directly to the managing tax authority; calculate and allocate the tax obligation to each locality where the dependent unit is located according to the regulations of the Ministry of Finance.

- For coal exploitation and domestic consumption:

Enterprises exploiting and consuming coal domestically through management forms and handing over to subsidiaries or dependent units for extraction, processing, and consumption must have the consuming unit declare the tax for the entire payable environmental protection tax amount for the extracted coal subject to tax and submit the tax declaration dossier to the directly managing tax authority attached to the Table of Determination of the payable tax amount for each locality where the coal mining company is headquartered following the regulations of the Ministry of Finance.

Step 2: The tax authority accepts:

- The managing tax authority accepts the tax declaration dossier and notifies the acceptance of the tax declaration dossier; if the dossier is illegal, incomplete, or not in conformity with the stipulated form, the taxpayer will be informed within 3 working days from the date of receipt of the dossier.

- When receiving dossiers via the General Department of Taxation's electronic portal, the tax authority handles and resolves the dossier through the electronic data processing system of the tax authority:

+ The General Department of Taxation's electronic portal sends a notice of receipt of the taxpayer's submitted dossier or a reason for not accepting the dossier to the taxpayer via the electronic portal chosen by the taxpayer to create and send the dossier (the General Department of Taxation's electronic portal or the authorized state agency's electronic portal or T-VAN service organization) no later than 15 minutes after receiving the taxpayer's electronic tax declaration.
+ The tax authority reviews and handles the taxpayer's tax declaration dossier according to the Tax Administration Law and guiding documents, sending a notice of acceptance/non-acceptance of the dossier to the electronic portal chosen by the taxpayer to create and submit the dossier no later than 1 working day from the date of the receipt notice of the electronic tax declaration dossier.

When can environmental protection tax be refunded?

According to Article 11 of the 2010 Environmental Protection Tax Law, the cases eligible for tax refund include:

- Imported goods stored in bonded warehouses at the port under customs supervision and re-exported abroad;

- Imported goods delivered and sold to foreign countries through an agency in Vietnam; gasoline and oil sold to vehicles of foreign firms on routes via Vietnamese ports or Vietnamese vehicles on international transport routes in accordance with the law;

- Goods temporarily imported for re-export under temporary import, re-export business;

- Imported goods re-exported abroad by the importer;

- Goods temporarily imported to participate in fairs, exhibitions, product introductions under the law when re-exported abroad.