The Ministry of Finance has proposed new measures to enhance tax administration transparency, including publicizing information about business owners who abandon their registered addresses. This proposal is part of the draft decree guiding the 2025 Tax Administration Law, which has been submitted to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal.

Under the proposed regulations, tax agencies would gain the authority to publicize information concerning taxpayers who fail to explain invoice-related risks after receiving warnings. The tax agency's management system will record and send direct warnings to invoice buyers. This aims to protect buyers' legitimate rights and interests, limiting damages arising from using invoices from high-risk taxpayers.

The Ministry also proposes publicizing information of taxpayers who have ceased business, to align with regulations in the Enterprise Law. For enterprises and household businesses that abandon their registered business addresses, tax agencies may publicize information about the company owner and legal representative. The published data will include full names and partial identification information. To ensure privacy rights, the Ministry proposes concealing or hiding a portion of personal identification numbers. According to the drafting agency, this solution aims to balance the demand for transparency in tax administration with the protection of citizens' personal data.

Cash transaction at a bank. Photo: Giang Huy

According to the Ministry of Finance, many enterprises and household businesses have been established recently but are inactive, or evade declaration and tax payment. There are even cases where enterprises and household businesses abandon their business addresses without notifying management agencies. Competent agencies have also recorded many cases of individuals whose information was stolen or falsified to establish businesses. The Tax Administration Law stipulates the responsibilities of business owners, legal representatives, and related individuals in fulfilling financial obligations. The drafting agency believes that publicizing the identities of these individuals helps increase management effectiveness and provides a legal basis to inform them about unfulfilled tax obligations.

This draft decree retains the provision allowing tax agencies to publicize information for individuals who evade or delay tax payments, or fail to comply with tax inspection and examination decisions.

Providing feedback on the draft decree, the Vietnam Tax Consultants' Association requested clarification on the criteria for determining the level of violation that necessitates publicizing taxpayer information. For example, which actions or administrative penalty levels would fall under the scope of information disclosure by tax agencies. The Association believes that information about business owners and household businesses should only be publicized if they abandon their address and show signs of tax evasion or affect the rights and interests of other organizations and individuals. The Tax Consultants' Association also suggested that the drafting agency assess the impact of concealing partial identification information, as this could reduce the warning value of the publicized information.

However, according to the Ministry of Finance, the current Law on Handling Administrative Violations stipulates that competent agencies must publicize sanction decisions, including those in the field of tax administration. But this law does not currently specify behavioral thresholds or specific fine amounts. Therefore, the Ministry retains the plan proposed in the draft.

Data from the Ministry of Finance shows that there are currently nearly one million cases nationwide with tax debt but no longer operating at their registered addresses. Among these, about 496,000 cases have debts under one million VND.

Regarding exit bans for taxpayers who abandon their business addresses, the Ministry also proposes applying this measure only when the debt is one million VND or more. According to the Tax Department, the minimum debt threshold of one million VND is more lenient than current regulations, which do not specify a concrete amount. This aims to exclude very small debts arising from technical errors or delayed data updates. The tax agency stated that taxpayers would not face an immediate exit ban upon incurring debt. The exit ban measure would only be applied when taxpayers abandon their registered business address, are notified by the tax agency, but fail to fulfill their tax obligations within a 30-day period.

Notifications regarding exit bans will be sent via the electronic tax transaction accounts of the taxpayer or related individuals and posted on the tax agency's electronic information portal. According to the Tax Department, this regulation helps citizens proactively address their tax obligations before making exit plans. The tax agency reported that approximately 7,100 taxpayers have proactively fulfilled their financial obligations to have their exit bans lifted.

Phuong Dung