Anti-fraud of e-invoices changed from passive position to active one

	General Department of Taxation prevents fraud in use of e-invoices
	Prevent and handle sale of e-invoices on social networks
	Use of e-invoices generated from cash registers expanded

The tax sector actively controls e-invoices based on warning information and manages invoices based on risk analysis results. Photo: S.T

“Warning signs from two big areas”

Regarding the results of analyzing e-invoice data, detecting risks, and preventing fraud on e-invoices over the past time, the General Department of Taxation said that tax agencies have reviewed, compared, and detected deviations that need to be handled. According to the general direction of the General Department of Taxation, tax authorities are strengthening the work of comparing information between invoices and VAT declarations, ensuring that enterprises declare correctly and fully, without delaying the time to pay VAT. Along with that, the tax sector also controls e-invoice information according to early warning signs, helping to identify cases that need to be checked, reminded, take preventive measures early, or put on a list of enhanced monitoring and regular inspection. Through supporting functions, especially the stable operation of the database analysis system and electronic invoice management nationwide, promoting the application of big data analysis (big data) and artificial intelligence (AI) for tax management, and invoice management, have contributed to controlling and quickly detecting taxpayers with fraudulent invoices, helping the tax industry to issue a large list of taxpayers with the large list of invoices even though they newly do business; list of taxpayers with a sudden increase in revenue; taxpayers have the value of output goods and services that are too large compared to the value of input goods and services, etc. From there, the tax authority can choose the cases that need immediate inspection, or ask for an explanation. In addition, the tax authority applies risk analysis according to the evaluation criteria to identify high-risk taxpayers with many suspected signs of fraud when using invoices for inspection and examination.

With the above solution groups, the prevention of e-invoice fraud has achieved some initial results. Accordingly, through the comparison of data on VAT invoices and VAT declarations, in the last review, the number of additional tax declarations increased the most at Hanoi Tax Department and Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department. Specifically, the Hanoi Tax Department has a total of 454 enterprises with discrepancies in declarations and invoices, of which, 50 enterprises have been reviewed and adjusted to increase the tax amount by about VND 32.6 billion; 30 enterprises are in an inactive state at the registered address; 78 enterprises have notified and are waiting for explanation. For the Tax Department of Ho Chi Minh City, 1,048 enterprises were detected with discrepancies in declarations and invoices, of which, 88 enterprises have made additional and adjusted declarations of VND 35.2 billion; 111 Enterprises were called by the tax office to explain that they could not be contacted, the tax office verified the location and issued a transfer to the taxpayer to be inactive at the registered address; 237 enterprises are reviewing and comparing, etc.

Besides the solution of comparing data on VAT invoices and VAT declarations, solutions such as controlling e-invoices according to warning information, and managing invoices based on risk analysis results are also actively implemented by the tax industry. According to the General Department of Taxation, in the past time, the authorities have coordinated to detect 524 businesses selling illegal invoices and fake invoices. The General Department of Taxation requires the local tax department to notify and invite businesses related to these 524 enterprises to prove that the use of invoices is legal.

Increase sanctions, change management methods

Regarding solutions and measures to prevent e-invoice fraud in the coming time, the General Department of Taxation said that the Tax sector will strengthen the handling of misleading cases when comparing invoice data and tax declarations; implement control of e-invoices, prevent over-billing of invoices; Enhance invoice management based on risk analysis results. Accordingly, the Tax sector researches and adds a number of control functions, giving a list of taxpayers with signs of fraud risk or taxpayers related to suspected cases to help manage taxpayers or warn taxpayers; strengthen daily control to promptly detect doubts related to the use of invoices, promptly prevent suspected cases of issuing false invoices. At the same time, apply risk management in the management and use of invoices according to the set of criteria and procedures issued under Decision No. 78/QD-TCT and Decision No. 575/QD-TCT;

Regarding the solution to prevent the sale and purchase of e-invoices, recently, speaking at the Conference to review tax work in the first 6 months of the year and implement solutions for the last 6 months of the year, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, Director of Nghe An Tax Department, said that the sanctions on e-invoice trading were still light and not enough of a deterrent; the process of receiving and handling e-invoices of newly established enterprises is still risky; The treatment method for enterprises with a high risk of invoices is still inadequate, leading to inconsistent handling of taxpayers using invoices of this enterprise. The current method of invoice risk management follows the post-inspection method, which means that when an invoice transaction occurs, we will review, identify and handle it, so we are in a passive position, going behind the trading objects.

From the above situation, the leaders of Nghe An Tax Department proposed a number of recommendations such as there should be a punishment enough to deter the crime of buying and selling invoices, there should be a general agreement with local tax authorities on what to do for risky businesses before transferring warning information to relevant agencies. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Duc also proposed changing the risk management method from post-audit to pre-audit to have control of taxpayers from the very beginning, right from the time when taxpayers started using e-invoices.

The Tax Department of Ho Chi Minh City, where there are 491 businesses out of 524 businesses selling illegal invoices and fake invoices, is reviewing and tracing traces related to these 524 businesses. Information from the City Tax Department. Thu Duc (Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department) said, through the review, up to now, 2,997 businesses have incurred the purchase of invoices from 103 businesses on the list of 524 businesses selling illegal invoices and fake invoices according to the General Department of Taxation with a total of 27,548 invoices, total tax-exclusive value of over VND 2,901 billion.