Tax agencies disagree, businesses like fish on chopping board Businesses complain that they always meet with difficulties when getting tax refund, even though the VAT refund has been stipulated by the laws.    He said chicken, she said duck A senior executive of Minh Luan Company which imports agriculture tractors from Japan to repair them for re-export to Europe and America, said that the company consulted with the customs agencies before it imported products and it was told that this was a type of temporary import for re-export later. Under the current laws, the temporary imports for re-export later are subject to VAT refund. However, the Import-Export Tax Agency under the General Department of Customs decided that Minh Luan’s are not subject to VAT refund. As a result, the company still cannot get the imports cleared, though they arrived 20 days ago already. According to Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan, the problem in the case lies in the disagreement between the Supervision and Management Agency and the Import-Export Agency. “I think that the former agency is right in this case,” Tuan said. The representative of Duy Anh Fashion and Cosmetics Company complained that it still cannot get the tax refund worth VND25 billion, which should have been refunded in 2012. In 2012, taxation bodies, after checking the company’s file for tax refund twice, approved the refund, but later released a notice that the company will not get tax refund because of the inventories. Meanwhile, according to Do Hoang Anh Tuan, the regulation that enterprises cannot get tax refund in case they have 12-month inventories will only be applied in 2014. Having put the powdered milk factory in Binh Duong province into operation, Vinamilk still cannot get the tax refund. In March 2012, the company got a part of the tax refund from the HCM City Taxation Agency. After the Circular No. 06 of the Ministry of Finance took effect, Vinamilk was told to contact with the Binh Duong provincial taxation body. However, the Binh Duong provincial taxation agency said it is not within its competence. “We sent a dispatch to the General Department of Taxation to ask about the problem, and we only got reply in May 2013. We sent another dispatch to the Ministry of Finance in June 2013, and we have not got reply yet,” a senior executive of Vinamilk said. Asking for tax refund – a thorny path The representative from AVAL said in December 2012, the company received a dispatch from the taxation agency which requested to pay the VAT arrears of 5 percent for its insect spray products. At first, the taxation agency decided to impose the VAT rate of 5 percent on the products. However, the Ministry of Finance’s inspectors later decided that the products must bear the tax rate of 10 percent. The problem is that AVAL, which has sold the products, cannot demand the buyers to pay 5 percent VAT additionally. The representative also complained that as the products are imposed 10 percent instead of 5 percent in tax, the company’s products have become unsalable, because the products’ prices are higher than the products of other companies imposed 5 percent. “We have many times lodged complaints to the competent agencies. But our dispatch has been forwarded to ministries and branches. As far as we know, it is now on the table of the Ministry of Finance’s inspectors,” he said. “Businesses are like the fish on the chopping board,” a businessman commented. K. Chi,  VietNamNet Bridge