On October 24, 2022, the Head of the General Department of Customs issued Decision No. 2317/QD-TCHQ (“Decision 2317”) on the management of tax debt and other receipts for exported and imported goods. Decision 2317 replaces Decision No. 1503/QD-TCHQ (“Decision 1503”) dated May 18, 2018 and has the following notable contents:

Supplementation of debt classification criteria

Pursuant to Article 3.1 of Decision 2317: “Tax debt is tax and other state budget receipts collected by tax administration agencies but have yet been paid by taxpayers within the time limit as per regulations”.

Previously, in Decision 1503, tax debt was classified into 03 groups: receivable debts, bad debts and pending debts. Decision 2317 has added 01 more debt group, which is Charge-Off debt. This addition is consistent with Article 83 of the 2019 Law on Tax Administration.

Charge-Off debts under Decision 2317 include:

• Charge-Off debt under the Law on Tax Administration: the debt amount of taxpayers that has been charged off according to Article 83 of the Law on Tax Administration;
• Charge-Off debt according to Resolution No. 94/2019/QH14: the debt amount of taxpayers that has been charged off in accordance with the Government's Resolution No. 94/2019/QH14 dated November 26, 2019 on tax debt charge-Off, debt forgiveness of late payment interest and late payment interest for taxpayers who are no longer able to pay the state budget.

Supplementation of a bad debt case

Decision 2317 has added a new case of bad debts: “Debts of taxpayers that are considered dead, missing, or have lost their civil act capacity without having requested to be charged off, or having debt forgiveness request dossiers”.

Supplementation of the specific order for each type of coercive measures of administrative decisions on tax administration

Decision 1503 and Decision 2317 both provide measures to enforce administrative decisions on tax administration. However, in Decision 2317, the General Department of Customs has added detailed regulations on the implementation process for each coercive measure. Specifically:

• Forms of transferring enforcement decisions to organizations and individuals: could be electronically, in person, by registered mail or posted at the head office of the enterprise/residence of the individual.

In case of direct transfer but the subject refuse to receive, the decision is considered to have been delivered when it is certified by the local government where the organization or individual has its registered address.

In case of delivery by post but the decesion is returned for the third time because the subject refuse to receive, the decision is considered to have been delivered from the 10th day after the above events occur.

• The wage deduction rate of wages, salaries or income for an individual in a coercive measure by deduction of wages, income shall not be less than 10% and not exceed 30% of the total monthly salary and allowance of the individual. For other incomes, the deduction rate shall be based on the actual income, but must not exceed 50% of the total income.
• Coercive decisions will be published on the websites of the Customs Department and the General Department of Customs.

Decision 2317 took effect from its signature date.