Four months elapsed, but Q.P and her husband in Hanoi could not fulfil necessary procedures to get a tax refund worth VND10 million. Her husband’s registered permanent residence is in HCM City, but his temporary residence address is in Hanoi. He has income from four agencies which all are located in Hanoi but in different districts – Dong Da, Thanh Xuan and Long Bien.

“I learned that citizens can make tax refund declarations and send dossiers to tax agencies in the localities where they live or localities where the taxpayers are headquartered. This means that I can submit dossiers for tax refunds to the Thanh Xuan district’s tax agency. However, officers of the tax agency told us to contact the HCM City Taxation Agency,” Q.P said.

“But the HCM City Taxation Agency refused the dossiers, saying that we need to contact tax agencies in Hanoi for the tax refund, because the income was paid in Hanoi,” she said.

After that, the couple sent documents to Thanh Xuan district Taxation Agency, but they were told to send documents to Long Bien district Taxation Agency, because Long Bien is where the company that signed the labor contract with Q.P’s husband is located (in other districts, he is just considered a collaborator and gets irregular income). However, the Long Bien Taxation Agency refused the documents.

“We submitted dossiers via email as instructed by taxation agencies, but we were refused for many reasons,” P said.

According to Q.P, making declarations via eTax Mobile system is simple and she can do it herself. In previous years, she applied for tax refund via the system and had no problems with the procedure.

She cannot understand why she still cannot get a tax refund this year.

“It is so frustrating. If you don’t fulfill the obligation of making tax declaration and paying tax, you will be fined. But if taxation agencies don’t fulfill their tasks, no one imposes a fine on them,” she said.

T.C, an office worker in Hanoi, complained that he doesn’t know what he needs to do to get a tax refund of VND10 million, because he cannot collect enough information about sources of income.

“I logged in the e-Tax system to find out how many units have issued tax deduction invoices for me, to ask for necessary documents as required by the tax authority. However, I found an unfamiliar unit which doesn’t look like any unit where I once worked,” he said. 

“Some people said my tax code might have been used by some units," T.C said, adding that "there is no way to track it down."

“Under current regulations, taxpayers have to collect enough invoices from all sources of income to be eligible to apply for a tax refund. I am seeking a service provider who can help get tax refund, but I have not found anyone,” he said.

He said he is considering giving up the money, because he has been told that it will take several months to get the refund.

“I would rather use the time I spend to get a tax refund for other work to earn money,” he said.

In general, taxpayers who have different sources of income have to spend a lot of time collecting documents for tax refunds.

In the first six months of 2024, the HCM City Taxation Agency received 174,478 dossiers requesting tax refunds, while 20,000 dossiers have not had final settlements, of which 10,584 dossiers did not meet requirements to get a refund.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has cited several reasons behind the tardiness in tax refunds. In many cases, taxpayers submit documents to the wrong agencies. In other cases, taxpayers submit insufficient declarations about taxable incomes, or make wrong declarations about independent persons. 

Le Xuan Truong from the Academy of Finance said since 2023 taxation agencies have run eTax Mobile, an app on smartphones that allows taxpayers to look up information about income and the personal income tax they have paid. Taxation agencies need to offer help to people on how to use the app to make declarations and pay tax, he said.

Binh Minh