The Ministry of Finance is currently drafting a decree to guide the implementation of the Tax Management Law, which is expected to take effect from 1/7.

An earlier draft of the decree included a provision requiring banks, e-wallets, payment intermediaries, and international card organizations to provide user payment account information to tax authorities. These entities were also expected to cooperate when unusual transactions related to tax obligations were detected.

However, in the latest draft sent to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal, the Ministry of Finance removed this provision after considering feedback from various stakeholders.

According to input from the State Bank of Vietnam, requiring banks and payment organizations to provide such information could conflict with customer data privacy regulations. The State Bank indicated that under current rules, banks are only permitted to disclose information with customer consent or upon request from a state agency.

Furthermore, the Tax Management Law 2025 does not specifically outline the responsibilities of credit institutions, payment service providers, and payment intermediaries in supplying information to tax authorities.

Moreover, payment laws do not mandate that payment service providers identify or collect information about goods and services customers purchase or use for statistical purposes or to provide to tax authorities.

Current payment systems process millions of transactions daily. The State Bank of Vietnam stated that requiring banks to automatically identify foreign providers "not yet registered, declared, or paid taxes" is not feasible.

A customer's transaction at a bank. *Photo: Quynh Tran*

Before the new Tax Management Law was promulgated in late 2025, tax authorities could request bank account data, including transaction details, balances, and transaction figures, from banks. This was done under Decree 126/2020 and the Tax Management Law 2019, upon the request of the head of the tax agency, for the purpose of auditing and verifying tax obligations. Tax authorities were responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of taxpayer account information they accessed and stored.

Quynh Trang