Newsletter

Tax Policy 

Tax audit process

On 14 July 2023, the General Department of Taxation issued Decision No. 970/QD-TCT on the tax audit process as follows:

The decision to regulate the tax audit process including tax audit at the tax office and at the taxpayer’s (enterprise) headquarters will be effective from 14 July 2023.

Accordingly, the selection of enterprises for audit at the tax office is prioritized in the order of high risk and combined with the consideration of selecting enterprises that have not been inspected for more than 5 years (refer to point 1.2 of Section II of this Decision).

Similarly, the selection of enterprises to be included in the audit plan at the enterprise’s headquarters is based on the results of risk ranking from high to low and combined with consideration and selection of enterprises that have not been inspected for more than 5 years (refer to point 1.2 Section III).

In the following cases, the tax authority has a right to make an unscheduled tax audit at the head office of the enterprise without making a plan (refer to point 1.3, Section III):

– Tax audit according to the denunciation;

– Tax audit under the direction of the Head of tax authority

– Tax audit at the request of the enterprise (dividing, splitting, merging, consolidating, converting the type of enterprise, dissolution, termination of operation, equitization, invalidation of tax identification number, relocation of business leads to a change in the tax authority);

– Tax audit before tax refund;

– Tax audit as proposed after checking at the tax office;

– Other unexpected tax audit cases.

Section IV of this process has regulations on methods of electronic transactions between tax audit team and enterprises.

This Decision comes into force from the signature date.

This Decision replaces Decision No. 746/QD-TCT dated 20 April 2015 and Decision No. 1215/QD-TCT dated 3 September 2020.

Corporate income tax (“CIT”) 

Service expenses for calculating and declaring personal income tax (PIT) on behalf of individuals and purchasing healthcare membership cards for individuals

On 18 July 2023, Hanoi Tax Department issued Official Letter No. 51950/CTHN-TTHT guiding as follows: In case a company determines the expenses for declaration and calculation of PIT on behalf of individuals and purchasing healthcare membership cards for individuals who are foreign employees working at the company as a benefit from salaries and wages, such expenses are considered as deductible expenses for CIT purposes.  At the same time, these expenses must satisfy the conditions specified in Clause 1, Article 4 of Circular No. 96/2015/TT-BTC and defined in one of the following documents: Labor contract; Collective labor agreement; Financial regulations of the company and not in the cases of non-deductible expenses when determining taxable income specified in Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular No. 96/2015/TT-BTC dated 22 June 2015 issued by the Ministry of Finance.

Salary payment to an e-wallet with sufficient legal documents

On 17 July 2023, Hanoi Tax Department issued Official Letter No. 51356/CTHN-TTHT on valid documents when paying income to employees via e-wallets as follows: In case a company intends to pay income to the employee via e-wallet, the payment must have sufficient legal documents as prescribed by law and satisfy the provisions of Clause 1. Article 4 of Circular No. 96/2015/TT-BTC and not fall into the cases of paying salaries, wages, and other payables to employees that are not deductible specified in Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular No. 96/2015/TT-BTC, it will be deductible when calculating taxable income for CIT purposes.