To strengthen discipline for officials involved in management and use of invoices in Vietnam

To strengthen discipline for officials involved in management and use of invoices in Vietnam (Internet image)

On June 24, 2024, the General Department of Taxation (Hanoi, Vietnam) issued Official Dispatch 2698/TCT-TCCB regarding the continuing to strengthen discipline and discipline enforcement; clearly defining and strictly handling the responsibilities of leaders and officials involved in management and use of invoice.

To strengthen discipline for officials involved in management and use of invoices in Vietnam

As outlined, to continue enhancing discipline in the management and use of invoices, and to clearly define and strictly handle the responsibilities of organizations and individuals involved when incidents of violations in invoice management and usage occur, the General Department of Taxation (Hanoi, Vietnam) requires the Departments of Taxation in provinces and centrally-governed cities, and the Department of Large Enterprises Taxation to:

- Continue to direct the widespread dissemination and thorough understanding of legal regulations, sectoral regulations, and directives on the management and use of invoices; regulations on risk management, evaluation, and identification of taxpayers with risk signals in invoice management; regulations on the responsibilities and duties of the heads, deputy heads according to the Law on Public Officials and applicable officials charged with directly managing taxpayers and officials tasked with risk management within the unit in the supervision and management of taxpayers' compliance with invoice regulations.

- Emphasize the responsibilities of the heads; individualize the responsibilities of each person in handling general work and specifically in the management and use of invoices. Implement the assignment of taxpayer management duties to each civil servant based on the principle that each taxpayer is managed by only one civil servant, who bears primary responsibility for their assigned duties. Concurrently, assign clear responsibilities and tasks to departments and officials responsible for risk management within the unit, outline procedures for coordination among departments to timely warn of risks to directly managing departments, which forms the basis for clearly delineating responsibilities when violations occur.

- Direct the strict implementation of risk management regulations in invoice management, intensify reviews of taxpayers' invoice usage according to electronic invoice management processes, processes for tax code-generated electronic invoices from POS systems, and apply risk management processes to assess and identify taxpayers with risk signals in the management and use of invoices to timely detect taxpayers with signs of violations in invoice management and usage, and deploy measures to control, inspect, and timely identify violations, taking preventive and serious measures against taxpayer violations and related officials (if any) according to regulations.

- Direct the review and advise the competent authorities on measures to enhance the application of information technology in risk analysis operations, evaluation, tax return classification, etc., especially in matters related to invoice management; propose amendments, supplements, and perfect regulations regarding the management and use of invoices to rectify deficiencies and omissions in procedures; timely prevent violations in the management and use of invoices by taxpayers.

- Direct increased communication efforts, direct support regarding tax law policies, and electronic invoices for newly established businesses registering to use electronic invoices so that taxpayers use invoices in accordance with regulations, improve their sense of voluntary compliance, and correctly implement tax and invoice law policies.

- Instruct affiliated and subordinate units to ensure that each civil servant strictly implements taxpayer management work, closely monitoring production and business activities of taxpayers; verifying locations and activities of taxpayers to assess risk levels from the time of registering for electronic invoice usage, thereby minimizing the risk of invoice-related issues.

- Direct supervisors within related Departments/Divisions/Teams to strengthen the inspection and monitoring of officials in the execution of their duties; continuously prompt and supervise officials in charge of taxpayer management to fully and correctly implement the management of taxpayers with invoice-related risks according to tax and invoice laws, current tax management processes, invoice management processes, and electronic invoice risk management processes.

In cases where units or officials fail to fully and timely implement measures as prescribed, resulting in high invoice risk rates within the unit, with many detected civil servant violations, in addition to reviewing and assessing the responsibilities of related organizations and individuals according to regulations, the units must have appropriate measures against the related organizations and individuals during the assessment, rating, recognition of collective or individual commendations (such as lowering evaluation and rating levels; not awarding commendations, etc.); considering the removal from planning for officials with faults or violations according to regulations; or not considering promotions, reappointments, etc., for those with flaws or violations; or reallocating officials with flaws or violations to other departments that do not directly interact with taxpayers, etc.

- When violations occur in invoice management and usage by taxpayers (through investigation, prosecution, trial, inspection, internal audit; complaint and denunciation handling; media reports, etc.), direct internal audit departments and relevant specialized departments to review, clarify the acts, the extent of violations, and the responsibilities of each leader and involved civil servant; based on this, implement the review and rigorous handling of violating individuals who do not comply or improperly comply with regulations, especially those who abet taxpayer violations, etc., according to legal, sectoral regulations, and public official management decentralization, focusing on reviewing, assessing, and clarifying responsibilities of the following individuals:

• Responsibility of the civil servant directly assigned to manage taxpayers (officials of the tax inspection and audit department; the ward tax management department, etc.); responsibility of the civil servant tasked with unit risk management (if regulations are violated, timely risk warnings are not issued to directly managing departments, etc.).

• Responsibility of direct responsible leaders of Departments/Divisions/Teams (responsibility for direct violations; responsibility of the head, joint responsibility when violations occur in the unit during their management period, etc.). If the directly responsible leader of Departments/Divisions/Teams is a deputy manager, the direct responsibility, responsibility of the head, joint responsibility of the higher manager must be further considered according to Articles 8, 9, 10, 18, 19, 20 of the Law on Public Officials; Article 6 of Decree 112/2020/ND-CP dated September 18, 2020, as amended and supplemented by Decree 71/2023/ND-CP dated September 20, 2023, of the Government and other related regulations.

• Depending on the content, nature, and extent of the violation, report to the competent authority to consider the responsibility for direct violations, responsibility of the head, joint responsibility of higher managers according to their duties and Law on Public Officials; Decree 112/2020/ND-CP dated September 18, 2020, government amended and supplemented by Decree 71/2023/ND-CP dated September 20, 2023, and other related regulations.

- The identification of acts, the degree of violations, processes, procedures, and forms of disciplinary handling shall be implemented in compliance with Decree 112/2020/ND-CP dated September 18, 2020, as amended and supplemented by Decree 71/2023/ND-CP dated September 20, 2023, and other related regulations.

For detailed information, refer to Official Dispatch 2698/TCT-TCCB dated June 24, 2024.

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE