Công văn 448/BTC-TCT

To: Provincial Departments of Taxation

The Ministry of Finance has received the Complaint No. 04/CV-2013-KN dated September 12, 2013 of Dona Standard Vietnam LLC. and the Petition No. 042/CV dated September 24, 2013 of BK Vina LLC. about penalties for the taxpayer’s failure to declare and pay foreign contractor tax on behalf of an overseas company that does business in Vietnam in the form of domestic export-import and earns income in Vietnam under a contract between the foreign party and Vietnamese companies before the Circular No. 60/2012/TT-BTC dated April 12, 2012 takes effect. Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Finance hereby provides the following instructions:

If the taxpayer has not declared and paid foreign contractor tax on behalf of an overseas company that does business in Vietnam in the form of domestic export-import and earns income in Vietnam under a contract between the foreign party and Vietnamese companies before the Circular No. 60/2012/TT-BTC dated April 12, 2012, which provide guidelines for fulfillment of tax liabilities of foreign entities that do business in Vietnam or earn income in Vietnam, takes effect, this is considered an external cause due to insufficient instructions in the documents issued by the Ministry of Finance before the Circular No. 60/2012/TT-BTC is promulgated. In this case, the tax authority will only collect the tax arrears without imposing penalties for tax offences if:

- The taxpayer makes a declaration or adjusts the declaration and pay the tax arrears before the tax authority announces a decision to carry out an inspection at the taxpayer’s premises. or

- When this Dispatch is issued, the tax authority has made a conclusive inspection record or minutes of a meeting with the taxpayer to re-determine tax liabilities, and the taxpayer has paid the tax arrears before the deadline written on the tax authority’s notice.

The taxpayer will incur a fine for late payment of tax if the taxpayer fails to follow the tax authority’s notice. The time to start calculating the fine for late payment of tax is the deadline for paying tax on the tax notice of the tax authority.

Provincial Departments of Taxation must follow the aforesaid instructions of the Ministry of Finance./.