The Government recently issued Decree 252, which details several articles of the amended Law on Tax Administration. This decree outlines cases where individuals face temporary exit suspensions due to tax debt.

Effective 1/7, individuals, household business owners, and company representatives who abandon their registered addresses will face an exit ban if they fail to reactivate their tax identification number within 120 days of receiving notification from tax authorities.

This policy, which removes the minimum tax debt threshold for exit suspensions for businesses and household businesses that abandon their registered operating addresses, has been in effect since 2/2025, guided by Decree 49.

The Ministry of Finance had previously proposed a minimum debt threshold of 1 million VND for those abandoning business addresses. This was intended to prevent exit bans for minor debts resulting from technical errors or delayed data updates. At the time, tax authorities reported that nearly 1 million taxpayers nationwide were no longer operating at their registered addresses; however, approximately 496,000 of these cases involved debts below 1 million VND.

Border security forces at Huu Nghi border gate, 2020. *Photo: Giang Huy*

Beyond cases of abandoned addresses, Decree 252 also retains existing conditions for exit suspension. These include individual business owners and household business owners with debts of 50 million VND or more, or company and cooperative representatives with debts of 500 million VND or more, both overdue for over 120 days. Individuals departing to settle abroad who still have outstanding tax obligations are also subject to these restrictions.

Additionally, the regulatory body has included beneficial owners of businesses among those who may face temporary exit suspension. This applies if the business is subject to enforced tax debt collection, with an outstanding debt of 500 million VND or more, overdue for 120 days.

For these cases, tax authorities will issue a 30-day warning notice to affected taxpayers. Should the obligations remain unfulfilled after this period, the tax authorities will forward the case to immigration management for the imposition of an exit ban.

Data from the Tax Department reveals that over 105,000 taxpayers have been notified of temporary exit suspensions, with total debts exceeding 61,000 billion VND. Approximately 60,000 of these cases involve taxpayers no longer operating at their registered addresses, accounting for about 6,900 billion VND in total debt.

Tax authorities have reported the recovery of over 4,000 billion VND from approximately 13,000 individuals subject to temporary exit suspensions. For the specific group that abandoned their business addresses, more than 100 billion VND has been collected from around 7,100 cases.

Phuong Dung