What are bases for determining tax violations with criminal signs in Vietnam?

What are bases for determining tax violations with criminal signs in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 9 of the Regulation on transferring tax case report, dossiers of petitions for prosecution for tax-related violations with criminal signs to the investigating agencies promulgated together with Decision 489/QD-TCT in 2022. Grounds for determining tax violations with criminal signs are as follows:

1. Through the tax administration, on the basis of the collected dossiers, the tax authorities shall base themselves on:

- Regulations on tax evasion in the Law on Tax Administration.

- Regulations on crimes in the Penal Code such as: Tax evasion as prescribed in Article 200 of the Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13 (amended and supplemented at Point a, Clause 47, Article 1 of the Law) amending and supplementing the Penal Code in 2017); Illegally printing, issuing, trading in invoices and receipts for state budget payment as prescribed in Article 203 of the Penal Code 2015 and violating regulations on preservation and management of invoices and documents collection and payment to the state budget according to the provisions of Article 204 of the 2015 Penal Code.

- Combine relevant information and records such as:

+ Enterprises have transactions with subjects related to cases being investigated and tried.

+ Suspicious banking transactions from the Banking Supervision Agency to the Tax Authority; suspicious transactions collected by the Tax Authority and detected during tax administration.

+ Information from international tax authorities, complaints and denunciations.

+ Information through initial verification about tax refund, business leaving business address...

2. Based on the assessment that the tax violation has criminal signs (Clause 1 of this Article), the tax authority compiles a dossier to propose the investigation agency to promptly prosecute.

What is transfer of case files showing signs of tax crimes to petition for criminal prosecution in Vietnam?

According to Article 10 of the Regulation on transferring tax case report, dossiers of petitions for prosecution for tax-related violations with criminal signs to the investigating agencies promulgated together with Decision 489/QD-TCT in 2022 stipulating transfer of case files showing signs of tax crimes to petition for criminal prosecution as follows:

1. Cases of transferring dossiers of petition for prosecution

a) In case of tax inspection or tax inspection, and detecting acts of tax evasion with criminal signs, within 05 working days from the date of detecting signs of crime, the person making the inspection and examination decision must transfer the case file and the written recommendation for prosecution to the Investigation Agency for consideration and prosecution of the criminal case.

b) When considering a violation case to decide to sanction an administrative violation, if it is found that the violation shows signs of a crime, the person with sanctioning competence must immediately transfer the violation case file to the criminal procedure-conducting agency.

c) In the course of executing decisions on sanctioning administrative violations, if violations are detected with criminal signs but the statute of limitations for penal liability examination has not expired, the person who has issued a decision to sanction an administrative violation must issue a decision to suspend the execution of that decision and within 3 days from the date of suspension, must transfer the violation case file to the criminal procedure-conducting agency; in case the sanctioning decision has been completely executed, the person who has issued the decision to sanction an administrative violation must transfer the violation case file to the criminal procedure-conducting agency.

2. The transfer of dossiers of violations showing signs of crime for criminal prosecution must be notified in writing to the violators and immediately notified in writing to the competent procuracies.

3. Depending on the specific case, the documents will be handed over directly or by post. In case of direct handover, the parties must make a delivery record (form No. 15/QTTR issued together with Decision No. 1404/QD-TCT dated July 28, 2015 of the General Director of Taxation).

What is application for petition to initiate a criminal case for tax violations in Vietnam? 

In Article 11 of the Regulation on transferring tax case report, dossiers of petitions for prosecution for tax-related violations with criminal signs to the investigating agencies promulgated together with Decision 489/QD-TCT in 2022 stipulates application for petition to initiate a criminal case for tax violations as follows:

The dossier set includes the necessary documents and records related to the detection of tax evasion with criminal signs, specifically as follows:

- A written request to the Investigating Authority to consider and prosecute a criminal case, clearly stating the signs of the crime, the subject of law-breaking acts, and the consequences of damage caused by violations of the law, time and place of violations of the law (form 02 attached).

- Decision on transferring files of administrative violations with criminal signs for criminal prosecution (according to form No. 08 issued together with Decree 125/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 of the Government on sanctioning of administrative violations on taxes and invoices).

- Decision on inspection and examination; minutes on verification of the incident (if any) of law violations made by the inspection team, inspection team, and civil servants assigned to perform specialized inspection and examination tasks; reports and explanations of inspected and examined subjects; other relevant information and documents.

- Report of the head of the inspection team, the head of the inspection team on the violations of the law by the inspected and examined subjects showing signs of crime. In case the inspection or examination has ended and the person who issued the inspection and examination decision has a proposal to prosecute, the dossier must contain an extract of the written conclusion of the inspection and examination of the law violation case proposed by the Tax Office to prosecute.

- Other records and documents related to each specific case.

Best regards!