General Department of Taxation prevents fraud in use of e-invoices

	Violation of e-invoices will be strictly handled
	A series of measures to strengthen the management and supervision of the issuance and use of e-invoices
	Tax revenue is estimated at VND 426,922 billion in the first quarter

Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh Acting Director General of the General Department of Taxation chaired the conference

Acts of profiteering in e-invoices are increasingly sophisticated

According to the General Department of Taxation, from November 21, 2021, the e-invoice system was officially launched. The e-invoice implementation has an important meaning in helping businesses reduce printing costs and compliance costs, thereby helping enterprises to manage tax invoices more effectively. In particular, the implementation of the e-invoice system also has significance to build big data - the key to digital transformation not only for tax authorities but also for businesses and the economy.

There have been 851,372 enterprises, organizations and 65,576 business households and individuals using e-invoices on the e-invoice system according to Decree No. 123/2020/ND- CP, reaching 100%.

As of April 15, 2023, the tax authority received and processed more than 3,581 billion e-invoices, including more than 1,039 billion invoices with codes and more than 2,542 billion invoices without codes; 12,864 businesses and individuals registered to use e-invoices with the tax authority's code generated from the cash register.

However, in addition to the achieved results, some enterprises, organizations and individuals deliberately take advantage of e-invoices for short-selling and trading invoices for profiteering, and breaking the law to appropriate tax money from the state budget.

A number of cases have been prosecuted by the police agency, such as cases in Phu Tho, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh and Ninh Binh. The acts and tricks of enterprises are very sophisticated, the violation scope occurs nationwide, and the time from the establishment to the abandonment of the business location is short.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh, Acting Director General of the General Department of Taxation, said that fraud and trading in e-invoice is happening and tax authorities have to bear the consequences of invoice supply and demand in the market.

Therefore, the tax sector has always sought ways to repel and eliminate e-invoice fraud. Many officers offered ideas, measures and plans to handle this issue well such as Quang Ninh Tax Department, Thanh Hoa Tax Department, Binh Dinh Tax Department. Mr. Mai Xuan Thanh said these are the experiences that need to be shared and applied in the whole tax sector.

Monitoring taxpayers

At the conference, speaking about fraudulent acts of e-invoices, Mr. Vu Manh Cuong, Director of the Inspection and Audit Department (General Department of Taxation) said that the subjects often use fake identity cards/citizen identity cards or hire someone to act as legal representatives (uninformed people, wounded soldiers), establish a chain of intermediary businesses or buy businesses, then change director or legal representative.

These subjects register for tax, register to use e-invoices online; open a bank account and register for payment via Internet Banking, then establish a network of intermediaries to exploit information of businesses on the website to contact and illegally sell e-invoices. In addition, legalizing sold invoices, for items that need to have documents to prove their origin such as soil, sand, gravel, wood, petrol, food, etc, the subjects use fake seals of competent agencies (provincial People's Committees, departments, registration, inspection and notary agencies), to make documents proving the origin of goods recorded on blank invoices to send to invoice buyers.

To prevent the illegal use of invoices, Mr. Vu Manh Cuong said, on the basis of a set of indicators to assess and identify taxpayers who have signs of risk in the management and use of invoices, the tax authority has listed taxpayers at risk, reviewed local tax management and focused on high-risk taxpayers such as taxpayers who make tax payment much lower than their average payment for business lines, or have a sudden increase in revenue, have no assets, and use a large number of invoices, etc; verified the actual operation of taxpayers; conducted inspections at tax offices to develop inspection and audit plans to avoid the omission of high-risk enterprises and enterprises that have not been inspected and audited for many years.

Moreover, proposing recommendations and solutions to prevent taxpayers from cheating in using e-invoices through business and tax registration, the representative of the Tax Declaration and Accounting Department (General Department of Taxation) said that the unit has worked with the Ministry of Finance. Planning and Investment to implement tax registration procedures and business registration procedures under the one-stop-shop mechanism.

Regarding regulations on the establishment of new enterprises, the General Department of Taxation has provided information on individuals who establish enterprises and managers of violating enterprises to the Business Registration Management Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment) to update the list of warnings on the National Portal on Enterprise Registration.

Therefore, upon receipt of the application, the Business Registration Management Department shall guide the local business registration authorities to examine and review the cases of law violations provided by the General Department of Taxation to request enterprises to report and explain before carrying out administrative procedures for enterprise registration as prescribed in Article 216 of the Law on Enterprises.

At the conference, Ms. Nguyen Thu Tra, Head of the Risk Management Board (General Department of Taxation), said that with the increasing number of businesses, the strict control and management of risky enterprises and enterprises at risk of invoice fraud becomes more difficult.

Therefore, the General Department of Taxation has issued Decision No. 78/QD-TCT dated February 2, 2023, on the set of indicators to assess and identify taxpayers with signs of risk in invoice management. To implement the set of indicators comprehensively at tax authorities at all levels, the General Department of Taxation has studied and developed a process to guide online risk control in the management and use of invoices by applying information technology, which is projected to be issued in April 2023.