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Tax evasion a daily affair for retailers nationwide
A shop on Bui Thi Xuan Street in Ho Chi Minh City sells a Sony Vaio laptop for VND20.6 million (US$1,158) without a value added tax (VAT) invoice.
Customers who demand the invoice will have to pay an extra 5 percent above the offered price.
It’s not only electronics, the trading of many products and services ignores the mandatory invoice. This is a practice that is rife in the retail market.
Businesses are required by law to issue a VAT invoice for sales of all products and services valued VND100,000 ($5.62) or more.
However, many sellers evade taxation by skipping this step and offering lower prices in order to attract more buyers, issuing the invoice only on demand by customers.
Some sellers fail to issue the invoice even on demand, while many others ask customers to return several days after the purchase because they are not geared to issue VAT invoices.
A Thanh Nien reporter paid VND300,000 ($17) for a top-up card at a shop of the Thegioididong electronics chain on Quang Trung Street in HCMC’s Go Vap District and was told they only sold the cards without VAT invoices.
A woman who bought clothes from a shop at Big C Thang Long in Hanoi was told to pay 10 percent extra for the invoice, which could only be collected three days later.
Many customers are accustomed to buying products and services without the VAT invoice.
Nguyen Thi Hoa from HCMC’s Tan Phu District said she had received a VAT invoice only once when buying an LCD television recently, so she could check the date of purchase in case she needs to get it repaired within its warranty period.
Meanwhile, it may take several days or weeks before buyers could get an invoice for their purchases.
Another HCMC resident said he often meets guests at a Highlands Coffee shop in District 1 and has to collect the invoice to get refunds from his company. However, he is usually asked to get the invoice a week later, and now, the delay has gone up to two weeks.
“Highlands Coffee is a big brand, so I don’t know why it still finds it difficult to issue an invoice for customers,” he said.
A resident from Hanoi invited some business guests to a restaurant on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street recently. She carefully checked with the restaurant to make sure they could issue the VAT invoice.
But after eating, she was told to leave her information and return three days later to get the invoice. But she had to return to Hanoi the same day.
The director of a private company in Hanoi said, “All companies find a way to evade taxation and that’s common.”
“It’s crazy to have to issue invoices for all products and services sold,” he added.
Disappointed farmers
The trading without invoices has unexpected impacts on a government policy that offers farmers interest free loans to buy farming equipment and low-interest loans on other purchases.
To ensure the effectiveness of the policy, farmers are required to present the invoice for equipment purchased.
However, many refuse to access these loans because they could buy the equipment without invoices at cheaper prices and the interest subsidy is rendered useless.
Kieu Manh Minh, Director of Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s Tien Giang Branch, said no one has applied for the interest free loan yet, and one of the problems is the invoice requirement.
When buying equipment with invoices, farmers have to pay an extra 10 percent and this amount would sometimes offset the interest subsidy, he said.
He said the branch had submitted documents to the State Bank seeking solutions for this issue.
Truong Van Bay, Chairman of My Thanh Cooperative in Tien Giang Province’s Cai Lay District, said farmers need support to buy farming equipment and/or repair their houses. However, he said, farmers will have no benefit from the loans because the invoice would increase their costs.
“A harvester costs around VND19 million ($1,068) but farmers have to pay an additional VND1-2 million ($56-112) to get the invoice for documentation for the loans,” he said.
Nguyen Van Luon, a farmer from Bac Lieu Province in the Mekong Delta said his hopes about obtaining interest free loans were dashed on learning about the invoice regulation.
Luon was looking to make additional investments in his shrimp farm, but having to pay 3 to 10 percent extra for shrimp feed and other materials dissuaded him from taking advantage of the preferential loan facility.
thanhnien
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