Pursuant to Ministry of Finance Circular No. 157/2007/TT-BTC of December 24, 2007, on enforcement of tax administrative decisions, persons that delay paying taxes or fines for violations of tax law for more than 90 days past the deadline for (voluntary) payment or commit acts of dispersing assets or fleeing to shirk payment of taxes or fines may face various enforcement measures ranging from deduction of their bank accounts or partial withholding of their wages and incomes to forcible inventory of assets in their possession or held by third parties as security, to revocation of tax identification numbers, business registration certificates or practice licenses. These remedies would be applied consecutively depending on the severity of tax violations.
Issuers of decisions on enforcement of tax administrative decisions and tax officers responsible for enforcement have to serve these decisions directly on enforced parties at least five working days in advance and get signatures of such parties in receipt of service. However, upon detecting any sign of dispersal of money in accounts or assets by persons subject to enforcement, enforcement decision issuers should immediately implement their decisions, skipping procedures for service and receipt of delivery.
The measure of forcible inventory of assets will not apply to persons who are under medical treatment or will terminate whenever persons subject to enforcement voluntarily remedy consequences or pay fully taxes or fines due into the state budget. Houses that are the sole residence of persons subject to enforcement and their families will not be forcibly inventoried. Equipment of large value such as motorbikes, cars, ships, boats, machinery, etc., may also be inventoried for auction but auction proceeds will be partially left for tax debtors to procure other equipment of lesser value.
Persons subject to the enforcement measure of partial withholding of wages or incomes, and entities responsible for payment of wages or incomes to these persons are required to supply necessary information to tax offices within three working days after being so requested. The withholding rate applicable to wages, wage-based bonuses and monthly allowances of individuals is between 10% and 30%. For other incomes, the withholding rate must not exceed 50% of actual income amounts.-