Ho Chi Minh City Customs: Satisfactorily resolving problems for Japanese businesses

Customs officers of the Investment Goods Management Sub-Department guide procedures for FDI enterprises. Photo: T.H

Guidance on taxable value

Answering questions from some businesses about customs taxable value, a representative of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said that the principle of determining the taxable value for imported goods according to the GATT Valuation Agreement has been included in the provisions on customs value for imported goods in Article 6 of Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015 of the Minister of Finance regulating customs value for exported and imported goods, which has been amended and supplemented in Circular No. 60/2019/TT-BTC dated August 30, 2019 of the Minister of Finance.

Accordingly, the customs value of imported goods determined by this method is the transaction value of imported goods; The transaction value of imported goods is the actual price that the buyer has paid or will pay to the seller to purchase and import the goods after being adjusted according to the provisions of Articles 13, 14 and 15 of this Circular; the actual price paid or will be paid for imported goods is the total amount that the buyer has paid or will be paid, in the form of direct payment or indirect payment to the seller to purchase the imported goods.

The transaction value is applied if it satisfies all the conditions specified in Clause 4, Article 6 of Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC, amended and supplemented according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 1 of Circular 60/2019/TT-BTC.

Some enterprises have recommended that the Customs authority speed up the processing of import-export tax refund procedures. Responding to this issue, the representative of the Import-Export Tax Department, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said that the tax refund dossiers of enterprises are classified as "files subject to pre-refund inspection and files subject to pre-refund" according to the provisions of Article 73 of the Law on Tax Administration and Article 22 of Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP. The time limit for processing tax refund dossiers is specified in Article 75 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019.

Accordingly, the time limit for processing tax refund dossiers: for dossiers subject to pre-refund, no later than 6 working days from the date the tax authority notifies the acceptance of the dossier and the time limit for processing the tax refund dossier, the tax authority must decide to refund the tax to the taxpayer or notify the transfer of the taxpayer's dossier to pre-refund inspection if it falls under the case specified in Clause 2, Article 73 of this Law or notify the taxpayer of no tax refund if the dossier does not meet the conditions for tax refund.

In case the information declared on the tax refund dossier is different from the management information of the tax authority, the tax authority shall notify in writing the taxpayer to explain and supplement the information. The time for explanation and supplement of information shall not be counted in the time limit for processing the tax refund dossier.

For dossiers subject to pre-refund inspection, no later than 40 days from the date the tax authority issues a written notice of acceptance of the dossier and the time limit for processing the tax refund dossier, the tax authority must decide to refund the tax to the taxpayer or not to refund the tax to the taxpayer if the dossier does not meet the conditions for tax refund.”

The tax refund procedure is guided by the Ministry of Finance in Article 12 of Circular No. 06/2021/TT-BTC dated January 22, 2021 of the Minister of Finance guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Tax Administration dated June 13, 2019 on tax administration for exported and imported goods. The tax refund procedure is clearly stipulated by the General Department of Customs in Decision No. 3394/QD-TCHQ dated December 31, 2021 of the Director General of the General Department of Customs promulgating the Procedures for tax exemption, tax reduction, tax refund, tax non-collection, handling of tax, late payment, and overpaid fines for exported and imported goods (Articles 16 to 22).

Waste treatment process of export processing enterprises

Some export processing enterprises have reported difficulties in handling damaged raw materials, waste, scrap, waste products, machinery, equipment, etc.

Responding to the difficulties of some export processing enterprises (EPEs) regarding the waste treatment process during the production process, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department instructed: Procedures for handling scrap and waste products of EPEs are implemented according to the provisions in Clause 4, Article 75 of Circular No. 38/2025/TT-BTC dated March 25, 2015, amended and supplemented by Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BTC dated April 20, 2018 of the Ministry of Finance.

Specifically, for scrap and waste products allowed to be sold in the domestic market: Customs procedures are implemented according to the provisions of Chapter II of this Circular, accordingly, the export processing enterprise carries out export procedures and the domestic enterprise opens the customs declaration of imported goods according to the corresponding type; For scrap and waste products allowed to be exported abroad: The export processing enterprise carries out export procedures according to the provisions of Chapter II of this Circular.

Procedures for destruction of raw materials, supplies, scrap and waste products of the export processing enterprise: Implement according to the provisions of Point d, Clause 3, Article 64 of Circular No. 38/2025/TT-BTC. Accordingly, organizations and individuals shall send a document to the Customs Sub-Department where raw materials and supplies are imported with a plan for the initial destruction and destruction of raw materials, supplies, machinery, equipment, scrap and waste products, clearly stating the form and location of destruction. Organizations and individuals are responsible for carrying out the destruction according to the provisions of the law on environmental protection.

Procedures for waste treatment of the EPE shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of Clause 7, Article 75 of Circular No. 38/2025/TT-BTC: The EPE shall handle waste in accordance with the provisions of the law on environmental protection. The EPE shall be responsible for keeping detailed records and presenting them to the Customs authority during inspection.

In addition, in response to enterprises' difficulties regarding procedures for molds produced outside the territory of Vietnam and then supplied to a third country for the production of components, Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department provides guidance, based on Clause 2, Article 3 of Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018 of the Government regulating the right to freedom of export and import business as follows: Economic organizations with foreign investment capital, branches of foreign traders in Vietnam when conducting export and import activities within the scope of this Decree must implement Vietnam's commitments in international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member, the List of goods and roadmap announced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and at the same time implement the provisions of this Decree and other relevant legal provisions.

Thus, according to the above regulations, for economic organizations with foreign investment capital, they are only allowed to temporarily import and re-export goods according to the provisions of Article 15 of this Decree, and are not allowed to conduct temporary import and re-export business activities.

Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department has answered and provided specific instructions to Japanese enterprises before and during the conference.