An employee counts Vietnamese banknotes at a bank in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy
The Ministry of Finance has proposed barring individuals and business owners from leaving Vietnam if they owe at least VND50 million (around US$2,000) in taxes.
This new threshold is four times higher than an earlier proposal made this month, and the overdue period remains set at 120 days.
There are around 81,000 people with VND50 million or more in tax debts across the country, said Hoang Thai Son, director of the legal department at the Ministry of Finance, at a meeting Friday.
The proposed amount aligns with levels enforced in several other countries, he said.
Under the proposal, individuals facing travel bans would be notified electronically by tax authorities or listed on the authorities’ official website.
If the debt remains unpaid 30 days after a warning, customs authorities will be informed to enforce the ban.
So far this year, 6,500 individuals have been prohibited from leaving the country due to tax debts—a threefold increase compared to last year.
Tax authorities have collected VND1.34 trillion from over 2,100 people who were subjected to exit bans.
The Ministry of Finance said that countries like China, Malaysia and the U.S. also impose travel ban on individuals with substantial and long overdue tax debts.
