Complaints on VAT Refund Timely Settled

 

According to the Ministry of Finance, 3,100 VAT refund applications were submitted to tax offices in the first two months of 2016 and most of them had been handled with VND13 trillion refunded, of which 52 per cent was refunded before audit and 48 per cent was refunded after audit. VAT refund was delayed to 287 requests because of improper tax refund documents.

 

An official from the General Department of Taxation requested tax authorities to bear individual responsibility for refund decision and settlement (as specified in Circular 127/2015/TT-BTC dated August 21, 2015). The General Department of Taxation only performs monitoring task in accordance with laws on tax refund.

 

Tax departments must update tax return declaration forms, requests and information relating to tax refund settlement for taxpayers (request for tax refund, audit form, confirmation to tax refund request; draft tax refund decisions to the tax management system (TMS, TTR); and send approved refund decisions to the mail address of the General Department of Taxation (HoanthueTCT@gdt.gov.vn).

 

The General Department also noted that intensified cannot affect the waiting time of enterprises. In case the General Department returns disqualified tax refund documents local tax departments will be responsible for adding and completing documents according to the law. In case the General Department replies monitoring results, local tax departments will refund VAT to taxpayers.

 

According to new guidelines in Official Dispatch 3357/BTC-TCT, the General Department of Taxation only supervises compliance to legal provisions on tax refund procedures. Local tax departments will be responsible for the accuracy of tax refunding, including beneficiaries, value and documents. Documents qualified for monitoring require six criteria.

 

The first notable point of the Ministry of Finance’s Official Document 3357/BTC-TCT is the eradication of the regulation that refund is not made if overdue tax is found. This means that taxpayers will be offset against their overdue tax according to the guidance in Article 59 of Circular 156/2013/TT-BTC on implementation of some articles of the Law on Tax Administration, Law on Amendments and Supplements to some articles of the Law on Tax Administration, and Decree 83/2013/ND-CP of the Government.

 

Where monitoring results notify that VAT refund records are eligible for refund, units responsible for handling tax refund documents shall be responsible for printing notifications of monitoring results of the General Department of Taxation from the e-mail address: HoanthueTCT@gdt.gov.vn. Monitoring results and all related documents will be submitted to tax department leaders for approval. Tax departments are responsible for tracking monitoring result notifications of the General Department of Taxation via post.

 

The General Department will upgrade information technology to support tax departments to enter required information for monitoring to the tax management system and deploy digital signatures to tax refund. The upgrading is expected to reduce the time for refund. This is also a solution of the tax sector to implement the Governmental Resolution 19 on enhancing national competitiveness.