What is the purpose of tax audit concerning tax dossiers at the tax authorities’ premises in Vietnam?

What are the rules for tax audits in Vietnam?

According to Article 107 of the 2019 Tax Administration Law, the rules for tax audits are stipulated as follows:

- Apply risk management in tax administration and information technology applications in tax audit and tax audit.

- Comply with the provisions of this Law, other related legal regulations, inspection forms, procedures, order, and tax audit dossiers as regulated by the Minister of Finance.

- Do not obstruct the normal activities of taxpayers.

- When conducting tax audits or audits at a taxpayer's office, the head of the tax authorities must issue a decision on inspection or audit.

- tax audits and audits aim to assess the completeness, accuracy, and honesty of the contents of documents, information, and files that the taxpayer has declared, submitted, presented to the tax administration; evaluate the compliance with tax laws and other related legal regulations by the taxpayer to handle tax issues according to legal provisions.

What is the purpose of tax audit concerning tax dossiers at the tax authorities’ premises in Vietnam?

According to Clause 1, Article 109 of the 2019 Tax Administration Law, the purpose of tax audit at the tax authorities’ premise concerning tax dossiers is specified as follows:

- tax audit at the tax authorities’ premise aims to evaluate the completeness and accuracy of the information and documents in the tax dossier, and the taxpayer's compliance with tax laws. Tax officials assigned to conduct tax audits based on the tax risk level of the classified tax dossier from the information technology database or as assigned by the head of the tax agency shall analyze the tax dossier according to the tax risk level to propose an inspection plan at the tax agency or handle it according to Clause 2, Article 109 of the 2019 Tax Administration Law.

- tax audit at the customs office is conducted to check, compare, and contrast the contents of the tax dossier with related information, documents, foreign trade laws, and the actual inspection results of goods in necessary cases for export and import goods. Post-customs clearance checks at the customs office are conducted according to customs laws.

What is the purpose of tax audit concerning tax dossiers at the tax authorities’ premises in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

What are procedures for tax audit at the tax authorities’ premises in Vietnam?

According to Article 71 of Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC, the procedure for tax audit at the tax authorities’ premises is as follows:

Step 1: Classify tax dossiers:

Tax dossiers are classified into three risk levels: low risk, medium risk, high risk.

Step 2: The tax agency proposes to plan a tax dossier inspection at the tax office or handle according to Clause 3, Clause 4, Article 71 of Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC for high-risk dossiers.

Step 3: Inspect tax dossiers

- The tax agency conducts the inspection, comparison, analysis of tax dossiers with inaccurate declarations, deficient declarations, or those needing clarification regarding tax payable, tax exemption amount, tax reduction amount, tax refund amount, the deductible tax amount carried forward to the next period. The tax agency issues a notice (first time) using form 01/KTT requesting the taxpayer to explain and provide additional information or documents.

- Within 10 working days from the date the tax agency issues a notice requesting an explanation or additional information and documents, the taxpayer must provide an explanation and additional information or documents. This explanation and additional information or documents can be provided directly at the tax agency or via written form (paper or electronically).

- If the taxpayer explains directly at the tax agency, the tax agency drafts a Work Minutes using form 02/KTT issued with Annex 1 of Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC.

Step 4: Handle inspection results

- If the taxpayer explains and provides additional information/documents (first or second time) that prove the declared tax amount is correct, the tax dossier is accepted; the explanation and additional information documents are stored with the tax dossier.

- If the taxpayer explains and provides additional information/documents but does not have sufficient grounds to prove the tax declaration's accuracy or clarifying further details is needed, the tax agency issues a notice (second time) using form 03/KTT, allowing the taxpayer to continue explaining, provide more documents, or voluntarily declare an additional tax return, with the taxpayer being responsible for the additional declaration. The deadline for explanation, document submission, or tax return addition is 10 working days from the tax agency's notice. The tax agency may request explanations and additional document submissions from the taxpayer no more than twice for each inspection at the tax agency's office.

- After the deadline according to the tax agency's second notice, if the taxpayer does not explain, provide additional documents, does not declare an additional tax return, or the explanation/added tax return does not prove the declared tax amount's correctness, the tax agency determines the payable tax amount if sufficient grounds exist; in case of insufficient grounds to determine the tax amount, the tax agency issues a decision to inspect at the taxpayer’s office or uses it as a basis to plan an audit/inspection according to risk management principles.

- If, after the taxpayer's explanation or additional information (second time), the tax agency has enough grounds to determine a tax administrative violation, the tax agency drafts an administrative violation record and handles the situation according to regulations.