Vietnam's Tax Department confirmed that some tax officials had asked taxpayers to sign a document refusing payment of overpaid tax so that files could be closed. The department ordered an end to the practice.
The instruction was set out in a letter from the Tax Department, under the Ministry of Finance, to tax departments in provinces and cities, the Large Enterprise Tax Department and the E-commerce Tax Department.
The department said taxpayers had been asked to sign away overpaid amounts, causing public frustration.
Tax departments in provinces and cities, local tax offices and responsible officials must guide taxpayers through the documents needed to receive a tax refund or offset the amount against tax obligations in line with the law.
Officials are prohibited from suggesting that taxpayers refuse a refund or an offset, pressuring them to do so, or demanding that they sign such a refusal.
Under Circular No. 90 of 2026, when a taxpayer closes a tax identification number, the tax authority must guide the taxpayer to complete tax obligations, offset the overpayment against those obligations or process a refund of the overpaid tax under tax administration regulations.
Speaking to Thanh Niên, Le Van Tuan, director of Keytas Accounting and Tax Co., Ltd., said that receiving overpaid tax is currently difficult in practice and can take a long time. In some cases, taxpayers agree to sign a refusal so that the matter can be settled.
He said simpler procedures and shorter processing times were needed so taxpayers could receive overpaid amounts more quickly.
This could be done because tax authorities already have most of the data needed to determine a taxpayer's obligations. This includes real-time data from electronic purchase and sales invoices sent directly to the tax authority's system.
"Using the available data, the tax system can estimate the amount of tax overpaid by a business and assess whether its refund request is valid. That would simplify the procedure and shorten processing time," Tuan said.
Faster tax number closures for businesses not operating at their registered address
The Tax Department also issued guidance on processing tax identification number closure applications from taxpayers with status 06, meaning they are not operating at their registered address.
When a taxpayer with status 06 submits an application to close its tax identification number, the directly responsible tax authority must, within one working day of receiving a complete application, change the tax identification number of the taxpayer and its dependent units in the tax registration system to status 06, reason 03: "The taxpayer is not operating at its registered address and has filed documents to terminate the tax identification number."
The tax authority will not issue Form No. 17/TB-ĐKT, a notice that the taxpayer has stopped operating and is completing the tax identification number termination procedure, when a taxpayer with status 06 submits a closure application using Form No. 24-ĐKKT.
Sources: Thanh Niên
