People with $2,000 tax debt could be barred from leaving Vietnam

By Viet Tuan December 20, 2024 | 10:13 p.m. (Pacific Time)

An employee counts Vietnamese banknotes at a bank in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

The Finance Ministry has proposed banning individuals and business owners from leaving Vietnam if they owe at least VND50 million (about $2,000) in taxes.

This new threshold is four times higher than an earlier proposal made this month, and the delay period remains set at 120 days.

There are about 81,000 people with 50 million dong or more in tax debts across the country, Hoang Thai Son, director of the Finance Ministry’s legal department, said at a meeting on Friday.

The proposed amount matches levels in several other countries, he said.

Under the proposal, people facing travel bans would be informed 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 people have been barred from leaving the country due to tax debts, a three-fold increase from last year.

Tax authorities collected 1.34 trillion VND from more than 2,100 people subject to exit bans.

The Finance Ministry said countries like China, Malaysia and the United States also impose a travel ban on people with large and long-overdue tax debts.