Old habits return for fear of tax inspection
While eating noodles at a restaurant on Nguyen Trung Truc Street (District 1), Mr. Nguyen Nam (living in District 3) was asked by the seller to pay in cash, and temporarily stopped receiving a transfer because he was afraid of being checked for taxes.
"This time, seeing people being strict about tax, the restaurant only accepts cash, customers sympathize" - the seller said.
At a famous coffee chain in Ho Chi Minh City, employees said they only accept cash payments or card scanning via POS, not receiving phone transfers or QR code scanning.
Most coffee shops accept bank transfers, but this one does not, which is very inconvenient for customers because not everyone carries cash or cards with them, said Ms. Thanh Loan (living in Thu Duc City).
Some other business households admit that the mentality of "taking advantage of taxes" is still the main reason why they do not want to have cash flow in reality. Income recorded through banks can be reversed or have their tax rate re-evaluated.
Meanwhile, Ms. Ngoc - a broken rice seller near Nguyen Tri Phuong market (District 10) said: "There is no need to evade taxes at all, just to do it simply. Collecting cash after the transaction, you don't have to check the statement or worry about being reported incorrect revenue".
Recorded at many food and beverage businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, it shows that the refusal to pay by bank transfer is not common. The refusal to transfer money mainly comes from the fear of income transparency, fear of tax fraud or simply to facilitate transactions.
Lack of understanding regulations, business households are likely to fall into tax violations
Mr. Nguyen Hoa Bac - Head of the Department of Business Household, Individual and Other Revenue Management (Tax Department, Region II) said that there are still many business households that do not fully understand the new tax regulations, leading to incorrect reactions, even causing damage to themselves.
In reality, some stores have chosen to close or operate at a low level to avoid inspection. Many places only accept cash payments, refuse bank transfers, go against the policy of encouraging non-cash payments and reducing competitiveness in business.
Mr. Bac also warned about the situation where some establishments use electronic invoices issued from cash registers but do not issue invoices to customers - this is a violation of the law. According to Decree 125/2020/ND-CP, the act of making invoices at the wrong time can be fined from 4 to 8 million VND; if there are signs of tax evasion, the fine can be up to 1 to 3 times the amount of tax evasion. In case of tax evasion of VND 100 million or more, the violator may be prosecuted under Article 200 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017). Therefore, business households need to raise awareness of law compliance, strictly fulfill tax obligations, contribute to building a fair, transparent and sustainable business environment.
According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tinh - Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Consulting and Agency Association (HTCAA), many businesses are facing many difficulties when starting to access cash registers, electronic invoices and input invoices. The current concern of business households mainly comes from the lack of understanding of regulations. Therefore, they really need accurate, clear, easy-to-reach information channels, while ensuring reasonable compliance costs to avoid being taken advantage of by brokers and services.
