Resolution No. 94/2019/QH14 tax debt relief and cancellation of late payment fines for insolvent taxpayers

RESOLUTION

On freezing of tax arrears and write-off of late-payment fines and interests for taxpayers that are no longer able to pay these amounts to the state budget^[1]

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

Pursuant to Law No. 57/2014/QH13 on the Organization of the National Assembly;

Pursuant to Law No. 80/2015/QH13 on the Promulgation of Legal Documents;

RESOLVES:

Article 1.Scope of regulation

This Resolution prescribes the freezing of tax arrears and write-off of late-payment fines and interests (below referred to as debt settlement) for taxpayers that are no longer able to pay these amounts to the state budget, including taxes, late-payment fines and interests, and fines for tax- and customs-related administrative violations arising before the effective date of Law No. 38/2019/QH14 on Tax Administration.

Article 2.Subjects of application

1. Taxpayers owing taxes and eligible for freezing of tax arrears and write-off of late-payment fines and interests specified in Article 4 of this Resolution.

2. Tax administration offices, tax administration officers, and persons competent to settle debts prescribed in this Resolution.

3. Related agencies, organizations and individuals.

Article 3.Principles of debt settlement

1. To ensure that debt settlement is conductedintra viresin compliance with law for eligible subjects; to comply with regulations on conditions, dossiers, process, and procedures and ensure the discharge of responsibilities of related individuals in accordance with law.

2. To ensure publicity and transparency; to ensure inspection, examination and oversight by competent agencies, organizations and individuals and supervision by the people.

3.  To remove difficulties for taxpayers; to prevent, stop and strictly handle the abuse of policies for self-seeking purposes or intentional delay of tax payment.

4. In case a competent agency or a tax administration office detects that the freezing or write-off of debts contravenes the law or a taxpayer that has its/his/her debts written off resumes production and business activities or sets up a new production and business establishment, except the subjects referred to in Clauses 6 and 7, Article 4 of this Resolution, it shall cancel the decision on freezing or write-off of debts and remit the written-off debt amount (if any) to the state budget.

Article 4.Subjects eligible for debt settlement

Subjects eligible for debt settlement are taxpayers owing taxes, late-payment fines and interests arising before July 1, 2020, that fall into the following cases and are no longer able to pay these amounts to the state budget:

1. Taxpayers are dead or declared by court as dead, missing or having lost their civil act capacity.

2. Taxpayers have sent their dissolution decisions to tax administration offices and business registration agencies to carry out dissolution procedures and business registration agencies have made an announcement on the taxpayers’ undergoing dissolution procedures in the national business registration information system but the taxpayers have not yet completed dissolution procedures.

3. Taxpayers have filed a request for opening of bankruptcy procedures or persons with related rights and obligations have filed a request for opening of bankruptcy procedures in accordance with the law on bankruptcy.

4. Taxpayers no longer conduct business operation at the addresses registered with business registration agencies and tax administration offices have, in coordination with commune-level People’s Committees of the localities where exist the taxpayers’ head offices or contact addresses, checked and verified information on taxpayers’ non-presence at the addresses registered as business locations or contact addresses registered with tax administration offices.       

5. Tax administration offices have requested in writing competent agencies to revoke, or competent agencies have, at the request of tax administration offices, revoked taxpayers’ business registration certificates, enterprise registration certificates, cooperative registration certificates, business household registration certificates, establishment and operation licenses or practice licenses.

6. Taxpayers suffer material damage due to natural disasters, catastrophes, epidemics, fires, or accidents.

7. Taxpayers, including also those being subcontractors to contracts signed with project owners under which they will receive payments directly from project owners, supply goods or services for which payments are made from the state budget but have not yet received the payments.

Article 5.Debt settlement measures

1. To freeze tax arrears from July 1, 2020, for the subjects referred to in Clauses 1  thru 5, Article 4 of this Resolution.

Conditions for freezing of tax arrears applicable to each subject must comply with Clause 2 of this Article.

2. To write-off late-payment fines and interests owed before July 1, 2020, for the subjects referred to in Clauses 1 thru 5, Article 4 of this Resolution, provided that the following conditions are met:

a/ For a taxpayer referred to in Clause 1, Article 4 of this Resolution: there must be a death certificate or death notice or a court ruling declaring the taxpayer as dead, missing or having lost civil act capacity or a substitute of the death notice in accordance with law;

b/ For a taxpayer referred to in Clause 2, Article 4 of this Resolution: there must be a dissolution decision or an announcement of the concerned business registration agency on the taxpayer’s undergoing dissolution procedures in the national business registration information system;

c/ For a taxpayer referred to in Clause 3, Article 4 of this Resolution: the taxpayer has filed a request for opening of bankruptcy procedures or a court has issued a notice of acceptance of the request for opening of bankruptcy procedures;

d/ For a taxpayer referred to in Clause 4 or 5, Article 4 of this Resolution: the taxpayer no longer conducts production or business activities and the tax administration office and commune-level People’s Committee of the locality where exists the taxpayer’s head office or contact address have made a record certifying the taxpayer’s non-presence at the address registered as business location or contact address or the tax administration office has requested in writing a competent agency to revoke, or a competent agency has, at the request of the tax administration office, issued a decision on revocation of, the taxpayer’s business registration certificate, enterprise registration certificate, cooperative registration certificate, business household registration certificate, establishment and operation license or practice license.

3. To write-off late-payment fines and interests owed before July 1, 2020, for the subjects referred to in Clause 6, Article 4 of this Resolution, provided that the following conditions are meet:

a/ A competent agency has issued a document certifying that the taxpayers encounter with natural disasters, catastrophes, epidemics, fires, or accidents and the time and locations of the events;

b/ The taxpayers have not yet enjoyed settlement of late-payment interests since the effective date of the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of Law No. 21/2012/QH13 on Tax Administration;

c/ The taxpayers have made a document valuating the material damage and bearing the certification of independent audit organizations, price appraisal agencies or insurance agencies;

d/ The written-off late-payment fine and interest amounts shall be calculated based on the amounts of uncollectible tax arrears arising due to natural disasters, catastrophes, epidemics, fires, or accidents and must not exceed the value of damaged property and goods after the compensation and insurance amounts (if any) are deducted.

4. To write off late-payment fines and interests owed before July 1, 2020, for the subjects referred to in Clause 7, Article 4 of this Resolution, provided that the following conditions are met:

a/ State budget-using units have issued a document certifying that the taxpayers have not yet received payment, clearly stating the unpaid amounts and the period of late payment;

b/ The taxpayers have signed economic contracts with state budget-using units and records of pre-acceptance tests of state budget-funded works or work items or goods or services provision invoices; particularly, subcontractors must be specified in contracts or contract annexes and receive payments directly from the state budget-using units but have not yet received the payments;

c/ The to be-written-off late-payment fine and interest amount shall be calculated based on the amount of tax arrears which must not exceed the money amount not yet received from the state budget and the written-off money amount generated for the period of late payment.

5. The settlement of debts other than those to be settled under this Article must comply with Law No. 38/2019/QH14 on Tax Administration.

Article 6.Competence, dossiers and procedures for settling debts

1. Heads of tax administration offices directly managing taxpayers shall decide on freezing of tax arrears.

2. The competence to write off late-payment fines and interests for enterprises and organizations is prescribed as follows:

a/ The Prime Minister shall decide to write off late-payment fines and interests of VND 15 billion or higher;

b/ The Minister of Finance shall decide to write off late-payment fines and interests of between VND 10 billion and under VND 15 billion;

c/ The General Director of Taxation and General Director of Customs shall decide to write off late-payment fines and interests of between VND5 billion to under VND 10 billion;

d/  Chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees shall decide to write off late-payment fines and interests of under VND5 billion.

3. Chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees shall decide to write off late-payment fines and interests for individuals, business individuals, households and business households.

4. The Minister of Finance shall prescribe dossiers and procedures for settling debts.

Article 7.Responsibilities of related agencies and organizations

1.  The Ministry of Finance shall:

a/ Guide dossiers and procedures for debt settlement under Clause 4, Article 6 of this Resolution;

b/ Direct and guide tax administration offices to settle debts under regulations;

c/ Summarize and report on debt settlement to the Government for the latter to report thereon to the National Assembly.

2. Provincial-level People’s Committees shall:

a/ Direct People’s Committees of lower levels and specialized agencies of provincial-level People’s Committees to coordinate with tax administration offices in certifying and settling debts and conducting specialized inspection and inspection of the implementation of this Resolution;

b/ Report on annual debt settlement results to People’s Councils of the same level upon the presentation of final local budget accounts to the People’s Councils for approval.

3. Tax administration offices shall:

a/ Inspect and identify entities owing taxes and determine their tax arrears, late-payment fines and interests; receive and make dossiers for debt settlement according to their competence or submit such dossiers to competent authorities for debt settlement in accordance with this Resolution;

b/ Inspect ad examine debt settlement to ensure publicity, transparency, eligibility of beneficiaries and avoidance of budget loss;

c/ Publicize decisions on freezing of tax arrears and written off of late-payment fines and interests on their websites.

4. Business registration agencies shall:

a/ Provide tax administration offices with information on taxpayers subject to dissolution decisions;

b/ Coordinate with tax administration offices in revoking business registration certificates, enterprise registration certificates, cooperative registration certificates or business household registration certificates of taxpayers that no longer conduct business or production activities;

c/ Provide tax administration offices with decisions on or notices of revocation of business registration certificates, enterprise registration certificates, cooperative registration certificates or business household registration certificates of taxpayers that no longer conduct business or production activities.

5. Public security agencies of the localities where exist taxpayers’ business locations or contact addresses registered with tax administration offices shall:

a/ Coordinate with tax administration offices in reviewing dossiers of taxpayers that are dead or declared by court as dead, missing or having lost their civil act capacity or have left their places of residence;

b/ Coordinate with tax administration offices in verifying information on taxpayers that no longer operate at the addresses registered as business locations or contact addresses registered with tax administration offices.

6. Credit institutions shall provide information on taxpayers’ accounts and their account balance at the request of tax administration offices.

7. At the request of tax administration offices, competent courts accepting the request for opening of bankruptcy procedures shall:

a/ Provide tax administration offices with information on taxpayers that have filed a request for opening of bankruptcy procedures or on persons with related rights and obligations who have filed a request for opening of bankruptcy procedures;

b/ Provide tax administration offices with information on bankruptcy of taxpayers that are undergoing bankruptcy procedures.

8. State audit offices shall conduct audit of debt settlement by tax administration offices in accordance with this Resolution and the law on state audit.

Article 8.Implementation provisions

1. This Resolution takes effect on July 1, 2020, and shall be implemented for 3 years since its effective date.

2. The Government shall organize the implementation of this Resolution and report on annual debt settlement results to the National Assembly upon presenting final state budget accounts to the National Assembly for approval and report on this Resolution’s implementation results.

3. The National Assembly Standing Committee, Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Ethnic Council and Committees of the National Assembly, delegations of National Assembly deputies, National Assembly deputies, and People’s Councils at all levels shall oversee the implementation of this Resolution in accordance with law.

This Resolution was passed on November 26, 2019, by the XIV^thNational Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its 8^thsession.-

Chairwoman of the National Assembly
NGUYEN THI KIM NGAN