“Proposed Travel Ban for Individuals and Business Owners with Outstanding Tax Debts”

The Ministry of Finance has proposed to expand the scope of exit bans to include tax debtors who are legal representatives of cooperatives and household businesses, as well as individual business owners. This is in addition to the existing ban on individuals who are legal representatives of enterprises.

According to the current Law on Tax Administration, Vietnamese citizens emigrating abroad and foreigners exiting Vietnam must fulfill their tax obligations before leaving the country. However, the exit ban is currently only applied to individuals who are legal representatives of enterprises, which is inconsistent with reality.

The Ministry of Finance has suggested that the exit ban should be imposed on both individual taxpayers and legal representatives of tax-paying organizations to improve the effectiveness of tax debt enforcement and ensure timely collection of taxes for the state budget, thereby promoting economic growth.

There are approximately 5.5 million household businesses in Vietnam, of which 3.5 million have been assigned tax codes, according to the Ministry of Finance. In the first half of the year, the General Department of Taxation issued over 16,900 exit ban notifications for tax debts totaling VND 24.1 trillion. Through this measure, the tax industry recovered nearly VND 920 billion from 1,482 debtors, accounting for 30% of the total tax recovered through enforcement measures (VND 2.7 trillion) during the same period.

In addition to exit bans, the tax industry employs various enforcement measures such as asset seizure, third-party collection, and tax invoice and business license revocation for recalcitrant cases. In the first six months of the year, the tax authorities issued 174,500 tax enforcement decisions, with 87% involving decisions to enforce collection by deduction or freezing of accounts, and the remaining 13% involving tax collection through tax invoices, business certificates, and asset seizure.

Cases of Exit Ban Related to Tax Obligations

According to the Government’s Decree No. 126/2020 detailing a number of articles of the Law on Tax Administration, the following cases shall be subject to exit ban (Clause 1, Article 21):

a) Individuals or individuals who are legal representatives of taxpayers who are enterprises and are subject to administrative decisions on tax management enforcement but have not fulfilled their tax obligations.

b) Vietnamese citizens emigrating abroad who have not fulfilled their tax obligations.

c) Overseas Vietnamese citizens who have not fulfilled their tax obligations before exiting Vietnam.

d) Foreigners who have not fulfilled their tax obligations before exiting Vietnam.

How to Check for Exit Ban and Tax Debt Status

To check if you are subject to an exit ban due to tax debt, individuals can visit the website of the General Department of Taxation (https://www.gdt.gov.vn/wps/portal) and follow these steps:

Step 1: On the homepage, navigate to the “Public Services” section in the top right corner. Select “Public Disclosure of Tax Enforcement”, then choose “Notification on Exit”.

Step 2: Check exit information: Enter your tax code and click “Search”. The system will display information about whether you are banned from exiting the country due to tax debt.

How to Check Tax Obligations

Checking on the Website of the General Department of Taxation

Step 1: Log in to your registered account. If you don’t have an account, you can register using your tax code and citizen identification number.

Step 2: Select the “Search” tab and then choose “Search for Tax Obligations”.

The system will display two sections:

Section I – Amounts to be paid, paid, remaining to be paid, overpaid, exempted, written off, refunded, refunded, and remaining to be refunded.

Section II – Amounts remaining to be paid, overpaid, and remaining to be refunded as recorded in the tax administration application system.

At this step, you can check information such as the amount of tax paid (refunded) and the amount of tax to be paid…

Checking on the eTax Mobile Application

Step 1: Log in to your registered account. If you don’t have an account, you can register using your tax code and citizen identification number.

Step 2: Select “Search for Tax Obligations”, then choose “All Tax Obligations” and proceed to search.

The system will display two sections:

Section I: Amounts to be paid, paid, remaining to be paid, overpaid, exempted, written off, refunded, refunded, and remaining to be refunded.

Section II: Amounts remaining to be paid, overpaid, and remaining to be refunded as recorded in the tax administration application system.

At this step, you can click on the “View Details” button to check if you are eligible for a tax refund or if you need to pay additional taxes, and the specific amounts for both sections.