HCM City Customs: Applying several solutions to recover bad debt

Several dossiers of tax debt at HCM City Customs Department. Photo: T.H

Suspending two directors in one house from leaving the country

Two individuals are legal representatives of two businesses living at the same address, which have just been suspended from leaving the country by the Customs authority. Accordingly, Investment Customs Department (HCM City Customs Department) issued a notification of temporary suspension of leaving the country for Truong Hieu (was born on September 24, 1965; place of permanent residence registration: 217 Dong Den, Ward 11, Tan Binh District, HCM City from March 24, 2023). Truong Hieu is the Director of Thanh Tai Commercial Investment Joint Stock Company (tax code: 0302867536; Address: 23 Ca Van Thinh, Ward 11, Tan Binh District, HCM City).

The reason for the suspension is that Truong Hieu is the legal representative of the company in the case of being forced to execute an administrative decision on tax administration due to failing to fulfil tax obligation under the Coercive Decision No. 2033/QD-HQĐT dated 24/8/2015; Decision No. 469/QD-DT dated 3/3/2023 of the Investment Customs Branch, with an amount of over VND 12.1 billion. Notably, this amount does not include the monetary penalties for late payment from the time of arising tax debt to the time of making tax payment by the taxpayer as prescribed.

Previously, on March 10, 2023, the Investment Customs Branch also issued a decision on enforcement by stopping customs procedures for exported and imported goods of Thanh Tai Commercial Investment Joint Stock Company. The reason is that this enterprise did not comply with the Working Minute No. 240/QLT/BB-HC11 dated October 10, 2012, of the Customs office when working with Thanh Tai Commercial Investment Joint Stock Company on tax debt; Notification No. 313/TB-DT dated February 14, 2023, of Investment Customs Branch about tax and late payment interest, with the coercive amount of over VND 12.1 billion.

According to the reporter's research, besides being a legal representative for Thanh Tai Commercial Investment Joint Stock Company, Truong Hieu also represented several businesses.

Also at the above residence address, Nguyen Thi Nam, Director of Thanh Tai Long An Production – Commercial Service - Construction Joint Stock Company (tax code: 1100732249; address: Long Dinh Industrial Cluster, Long Dinh Commune, Can Duoc district, Long An Province) has just been suspended from leaving the country by Investment Customs Branch.

Nguyen Thi Nam was born on December 7, 1968; she and Truong Hieu registered their permanent residence at 217 Dong Den, Ward 11, Tan Binh District, HCM City. The reason for the suspension is that Nguyen Thi Nam is the legal representative of the company in the case of being forced to execute an administrative decision on tax administration due to failing to fulfil tax obligation under Coercive Decision No. 2028/QD-HQĐT dated 24/8/2015, Decision No. 2491/QD-HQDT dated August 28, 2017; Decision No. 387/QD-DT dated 21/2/2023 of Investment Customs Branch, with a tax debt of nearly VND 4.9 billion (excluding the monetary penalties for late payment from the time of arising tax debt to the time of making tax payment by the taxpayer as prescribed).

Avoiding arising new debt

In 2023, HCM City Customs Department was assigned by the General Department of Vietnam Customs to collect over VND 805 billion in tax debt. To handle and recover debts effectively, HCM City Customs Department has been applying many strong solutions to enforce effective debt recovery. Accordingly, besides applying the coercive measure of temporary suspension of leaving the country for legal representative of the tax debtor, the customs branch also applied other measures. For example, stopping customs procedures for importing and exporting goods; deducting money from the account.

Head of Tax Management Team - Saigon Port Area 1 Customs Branch Ly Seng Nguon said that from August 2022 until now, the unit had applied coercive measures for more than 180 enterprises owing tax debt. In particular, the measure of suspending from leaving the country for legal representatives of enterprises is quite effective; many cases have been paid to the State budget after the announcement of the suspension, with tax collections of more than VND 6 billion.

To effectively handle tax debts, in 2023, HCM City Customs Department will continue to promote the review of accurate debt classification and develop specific and detailed plans for the branches to implement measures of tax debt collection and settlement. In addition, HCM City Customs Department has focused on reviewing and cancelling tax debts for irrevocable debts following the regulations. For example, from the beginning of 2023 to February 28, 2023, HCM City Customs Department advised HCM City People's Committee to issue 22 decisions to cancel irrevocable debts over VND 6.3 billion.

To strengthen the handling of tax debt, the Import-Export Duty Department strives to coordinate with the branches to focus on reviewing, classifying, recovering and handling tax debts arising before January 1, 2023, in four groups: Groups of bad debts, groups of tax debt relief, groups of debts that are pending and groups of recoverable debts, at the same time, applying appropriate solutions per the provisions of law for each debt group and strengthening the collection and handling of tax debts for declarations arising in 2022 and previous years. Therefore, take appropriate handling measures; drastically handle, coerce, and collect tax debt, reduce tax arrears, avoiding the situation of debt as of December 31, 2023 is higher than that of December 31, 2022.