Nearly 43,000 online sellers under tax review
Nearly 43,000 online sellers under tax review
On July 9, Vietnam's General Department of Taxation (GDT) announced it is reviewing 42,898 businesses and individuals that selling goods through e-commerce channels were subject to review, encouragement, and support for tax declaration and payment.
Following these efforts, the total tax revenue from this group reached approximately $399 million, an increase of about $139 million compared to the same period last year.
Additionally, the tax authorities addressed violations involving 4,560 cases, resulting in back taxes and penalties amounting to $11.88 million. On average, each case faced fines and back taxes of around $2,600.
Through data-sharing activities with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Information and Communications, and the State Bank of Vietnam, the GDT has obtained data from 929 e-commerce service websites; 130 organisations in telecommunications, advertising, and broadcasting; and 144 million payment accounts (including 10 million organizational accounts and over 134 million individual accounts).
The tax authority also recorded over 663,000 connections with the citizen database of the Ministry of Public Security. Furthermore, they shared information with the Ministry of Industry and Trade regarding 929 e-commerce platforms, cross-referencing data of 53,000 business operators from 383 platforms, including major players like Shopee, Lazada, Sendo, Voso, and Tiki.
In the first five months of the year, revenue managed from organisations and individuals engaged in e-commerce activities amounted to approximately $71 billion. The taxes paid were around $2 billion, a 23 per cent increase compared to the average for the same period.
In Hanoi, the GDT reported that the rate of data matching between citizen ID information and tax codes exceeded 99.8 per cent. The tax authority has identified hundreds of e-commerce platform owners and thousands of online business individuals.
Tax revenue from the e-commerce sector in Hanoi alone exceeded $400 million in the first six months, with personal taxes, including those from livestream activities, increasing by 79 per cent.
Additionally, the GDT reported that the total taxes declared and paid directly through the electronic information portal by foreign providers in the first half of the year reached $161.56 million, a nearly 19 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023.
This includes significant contributions from major technology companies such as Google ($41.16 million), Meta ($58.68 million), TikTok ($28.92 million), and Apple ($18.48 million).
Furthermore, 26 new foreign providers have registered, declared, and paid taxes in Vietnam through this channel in the first half of 2024, indicating a growing compliance trend among international e-commerce entities.
