The delay in VAT refunds is partly due to human factors.

At the regular press conference of the third quarter of 2023 of the Ministry of Finance , Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi clarified the issue surrounding the delay in VAT refunds, causing difficulties for businesses when they need capital to reinvest in business and production.

Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said that tax authorities must verify carefully before refunding VAT to avoid taking advantage of loopholes to appropriate State tax money.

However, the situation of delayed VAT refunds is still prolonged, leading to difficulties for businesses, especially in the current difficult economic context. Therefore, tax authorities need to soon have a quick and convenient solution for businesses with refunded taxes to avoid this situation.

The Deputy Minister of Finance raised two issues that need to be resolved soon: applying information technology and strengthening public discipline of tax officials.

Along with that, it is necessary to consider what problems need to be solved and certainly this task is regular and continuous, especially in the current difficult period for businesses. The sooner it is solved, the less difficulties businesses will face.

Providing more information on this issue, Mr. Mai Son - Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation explained that the tax authority must verify, investigate and classify the records of enterprises before refunding VAT. This process helps detect and suspect some enterprises with signs of tax evasion, so the tax refund may take place more slowly.

“However, the delay in VAT refunds for businesses is partly due to human factors. Specifically, tax authorities still do it manually, which affects the process of classifying documents and refunding taxes,” Mr. Son explained.

Faced with this situation, the General Department of Taxation has set up a working group to resolve, inventory, and trace the origin if violations are detected. In addition, the General Department of Taxation has compiled opinions to send to the Ministry of Finance to propose a number of solutions to amend a number of regulations related to tax refunds.

“In the process, we determined to build an automatic integrated tax refund criterion and complete it in the fourth quarter of 2023, focusing on applying AI and classifying tax filings for businesses right from the start,” Mr. Mai Son emphasized .