What are the changes in tax refund procedures in Vietnam from 2025?

What are the changes in tax refund procedures in Vietnam from 2025?

Pursuant to Clauses 10, 11, and 13, Article 6 of the Law Amending the Law on Securities, Law on Accounting, Law on Independent Audit, Law on State Budget, Law on Management and Use of Public Property, Law on Tax Administration, Law on Personal Income Tax, Law on National Reserves, Law on Handling Administrative Violations 2024 (effective from January 1, 2025) stipulating amendments and supplements to certain provisions of the Law on Tax Administration regarding tax refund procedures as follows:

Amendments and supplements to certain provisions of the Law on Tax Administration

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10. Amend and supplement Point a, Clause 1, Article 72 as follows:

“a) The tax authority directly managing the taxpayer receives tax refund claims for cases eligible for tax refunds as prescribed by tax law; applies risk management, issues internal procedures, deploys information technology applications to classify tax refund claims that are eligible for refund before inspection or eligible for inspection before refund and processes tax refund claims as prescribed. The tax authority managing the revenue receives dossiers for excess tax payment refunds; in cases of refund for excess tax payments according to corporate income tax finalization, personal income tax finalization, the tax authority receives the corporate income tax finalization, personal income tax finalization dossiers of the taxpayer receiving the excess payment refund;”.

11. Amend and supplement Clause 1, Article 76 as follows:

“1. The General Director of the General Department of Taxation, the Director of the Tax Department, the Chief of the Tax Department, and the Chief of the Regional Tax Department decide on tax refunds for cases of tax refunds according to tax law.”.

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13. Repeal Clause 3, Article 75, and Clause 7, Article 124.

Thus, the Law Amending the Law on Securities, Law on Accounting, Law on Independent Audit, Law on State Budget, Law on Management and Use of Public Property, Law on Tax Administration, Law on Personal Income Tax, Law on National Reserves, Law on Handling Administrative Violations 2024 effective from January 1, 2025, has officially amended certain contents regarding tax refund procedures from 2025 as follows:

- Supplement regulations on receiving and responding to information on tax refund claims by applying risk management, issuing internal procedures, deploying information technology applications to classify tax refund claims eligible for refund before inspection or inspection before refund and processing tax refund claims as prescribed.

- Add authorities authorized to decide on tax refunds to include the Chief of the Tax Department and the Chief of the Regional Tax Department for tax refunds according to tax law, instead of only the General Director of the General Department of Taxation, or the Director of the Tax Department as before.

- Abolish the interest payable by the tax authority when delay in issuing the tax refund decision is implemented according to the provisions of the Law on State Compensation Liability 2017.

What are the changes in tax refund procedures in Vietnam from 2025? (Image from the Internet)

What are regulations on the time limit for processing tax refund claims in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Article 75 of the Law on Tax Administration 20199, the time limit for processing tax refund claims is regulated as follows:

- For dossiers eligible for refund before inspection, no later than 6 working days from the date the tax authority issues a notification on the acceptance of the dossier and the time limit for processing the tax refund claim, the tax authority must decide to refund the tax to the taxpayer or notify the transfer of the taxpayer's dossier to inspection before refund if it falls under the cases regulated in Clause 2, Article 73 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019 or notify no refund for the taxpayer if the dossier does not meet refund conditions.

In cases where the information declared in the tax refund claim differs from the information managed by the tax authority, the tax authority shall notify in writing for the taxpayer to explain and supplement information. The time for explanation and supplementing information is not counted in the time limit for processing the tax refund claim.

- For dossiers subject to inspection before refund, no later than 40 days from the date the tax authority issues a written notification on the acceptance of the dossier and the time limit for processing the tax refund claim, the tax authority must decide to refund the tax to the taxpayer or not if the dossier does not meet refund conditions.

Vietnam: What does a tax refund claim include?

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 71 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019 which stipulates the components of a tax refund claim as follows:

- A document requesting tax refund;

- Relevant documents related to the tax refund request.