Nearly 43,000 online sellers are inspected for tax declaration and payment

Recently, many organizations and individuals selling online have been inspected and charged with tax arrears due to not declaring and paying taxes. This review was launched by the tax industry in the context of increasing management of e-commerce, from transactions on platforms to online business and livestreaming.

According to information from the General Department of Taxation, in the first 6 months of the year, this agency reviewed and inspected nearly 43,000 businesses and individuals regarding tax declaration and payment. This group paid nearly VND9,980 billion, an increase of about VND3,480 billion compared to the same period. The tax agency also handled 4,560 cases of violations, collecting and imposing fines of nearly VND300 billion.

Tax registration is when the seller declares to the management agency identification information (full name, age, occupation, address...) to distinguish them from other payers. After registration, they will be given a tax code and start doing business. Normally, those who have not registered for tax will have to pay penalties, such as late business registration, late declaration, late tax payment. Of which, the first two errors are about 15 million VND.

The tax payable is calculated by the management agency based on total revenue, VAT rate of goods, services and personal income for each business sector. For example, individuals distributing and supplying goods will have a tax payable of 1.5% of revenue. Then, they calculate a late payment penalty of 0.03% per day.

There are 3.1 million households and individuals doing business nationwide, of which a significant proportion of online sellers have not registered, declared and paid taxes. To tighten management, one of the solutions implemented by the tax sector is to connect and share data with ministries and branches. Currently, this agency has recorded over 663,000 connections to the population database of the Ministry of Public Security. They also shared information with the Ministry of Industry and Trade about 929 e-commerce platforms, comparing data of 53,000 traders from 383 platforms, including many platforms with large market shares such as Shopee, Lazada, Sendo, Voso, Tiki...

In Hanoi, the rate of checking and matching citizen identification information and tax codes reached over 99.8%. Thereby, the tax authority identified hundreds of e-commerce platform owners and thousands of individuals doing business online. The capital's 6-month revenue from the e-commerce sector reached over 10,000 billion VND, of which personal tax (including livestream) increased by 79%.

Regarding the banking sector, the Ministry of Finance has information from 144 million payment accounts, an increase of more than 20 million accounts compared to the end of April. Of these, about 10 million are organizational accounts and 134 million are individual accounts at 96 banks.