"Clean" Tax Records: Secrets to Passing Every Tax Audit and Inspection

Tax audits and inspections are important for monitoring tax compliance in businesses. They have different objectives, scope, and procedures. Tax audits assess completeness and accuracy of information, while inspections detect tax violations. Audits have a limited scope and simpler procedures, while inspections have a broader scope and more complex procedures. Both require planning, issuing decisions, conducting visits, and preparing reports. Tax authorities handle violations based on the reports. Taxpayers have rights to provide records, cooperate, comment on reports, and appeal if needed. Useful information sources include the General Department of Taxation and Ministry of Finance Electronic Portal. Consulting with lawyers or tax consultants can also be helpful. Contact TPM Tax Agency and Consulting Corporation for free tax consultation. Summary. Tax audits and inspections play an important role in monitoring businesses' tax compliance. However, these two activities have distinct differences in their objectives, scope, and implementation procedures. This article will provide you with the necessary information to better understand tax audits and inspections, thereby helping businesses fulfill their tax obligations and avoid legal violations. 1. Distinguishing tax audits from tax inspections. Tax audits. Objective, to assess the completeness and accuracy of information and documents in tax records or to evaluate taxpayers' compliance with tax laws. Scope, more limited, focusing on specific aspects such as tax declarations, tax payments, invoice and document declarations, etc. Implementation procedure, generally simpler, can be conducted through file reviews at the tax office or direct on-site inspections at the taxpayers' premises. Shorter implementation period compared to tax inspections. Tax inspections. Objective, to promptly detect, prevent, and handle tax violations and combat tax evasion. Scope, broader, encompassing all aspects related to taxpayers' compliance with tax laws. Implementation procedure, more complex, often requiring the issuance of an inspection decision, the preparation of a detailed inspection plan, and the completion of various procedures as prescribed by law. Longer implementation period compared to tax audits. 2. Common procedure for tax audits and inspections. Planning tax audits and inspections. Tax authorities base their audit and inspection plans on risk criteria, collected information, and the industry's overall plan. The tax audit and inspection plan must clearly identify the audit targets, audit content, audit time, inspection team members, and the responsibilities of each member. Issuing tax audit and inspection decisions. Tax authorities issue tax audit and inspection decisions for each specific target. The tax audit and inspection decision must clearly state information such as the decision number, date of issuance, issuing authority, audit target, audit content, audit time, inspection team members, and other necessary information. Conducting tax audits and inspections. The inspection team visits the taxpayers' premises to examine records, books, documents, and perform other inspection activities as prescribed by law. The taxpayer is responsible for providing complete, accurate, and timely records, books, documents, and relevant information to the inspection team. Preparing tax audit and inspection reports. After completing the tax audit and inspection, the inspection team must prepare a tax audit and inspection report. The tax audit and inspection report must clearly state the audit results, violations discovered, if any, proposed handling of violations, taxpayers' opinions, and other necessary information. Handling tax audit and inspection results. Tax authorities base on a tax audit and inspection report to handle violations, if any, adjust tax payments, collect additional taxes, etc. Taxpayers have the right to appeal the tax audit and inspection results if they believe the results are inaccurate. Free notes. Provide complete and accurate records and documents as requested by the inspection team. Cooperate with the inspection team during the inspection process. Have the right to comment on the inspection report. Have the right to appeal or report if they believe they have been unfairly penalized. Some useful information sources. General Department of Taxation, https://www.gdt.gov.vn. Ministry of Finance Electronic Portal, https://www.mof.gov.vn. Law on Tax Management, https://thursdayvinfopluat.vn.van-ban.q-fi-le-fi-luat-sua-doi-qaq-luat-ve-q-2014-259208.aspx. In addition, you can also consult with lawyers or tax consultants for the best support in case of tax audits and inspections. If you encounter difficulties in tax audits and inspections, please contact us today for free tax consultation. TPM Tax Agency and Consulting Corporation. Plus 8428-3505-1800. Info at tpm.com.vn. Https://tpm.com.vn.