MoF examines ways to restructure tax debt
The Ministry of
Finance has proposed to freeze and extend tax debt repayment terms for
ailing businesses which would be able to commit to paying tax in the
future.
The proposal was made against a backdrop of
skyrocketing tax debts as enterprises have toiled in the face of an
economic downturn.
The ministry's report showed that by
the end of this year's second quarter, tax debt collection had faced
significant obstacles.
Over 25,000 firms were discovered
to have a total tax debt of 4.4 trillion VND (209.5 million USD).
Meanwhile, only 32 percent of last year's tax debts were collected by
December 2012.
In addition, the large number of companies
trying to avoid paying tax debts was making collection extremely
difficult, according to the report.
Vu Vinh Phu, former
director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, said enterprises
had been asked to report reasons for their tax slow repayment to
authorities.
Phu said real estate firms accounted for a
large portion of the tax debt list and authorities should carefully
check whether the debts were due to frozen property market or simple
negligence.
He added that businesses would have to explain
reasons for slow tax payments or they would face bankruptcy to avoid
becoming antecedent for others.
Sharing these thoughts,
lawyer Bui Dinh Ung said State management agencies should carry out
check-ups at businesses to impose penalties on tax cheats.
Another
lawyer Tran Dinh Trien added that enterprises would be allowed to
restructure production to facilitate their tax obligations.
Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung said the ministry had asked its Taxation Department to restructure tax debt for certain cases.
Head
of the department Bui Van Nam said authorities had calculated and
researched plans to clear unrecoverable tax debts and tax penalties due
to late payment would be wiped clean.
Debts incurred after
the beginning of July this year would incur a late payment charge of
0.05 percent per day for the outstanding tax from the payment deadline
up to 90 days over. From day 91 onwards, a 0.07 percent rate would be
applied each day thereafter, he revealed.-VNA