To: Taxation Departments of provinces and centrally affiliated cities

The Ministry of Finance has issued Circular No. 10/2021/TT-BTC dated January 26, 2021 on guidelines for the management of tax procedure service practice (Circular No. 10/2021/TT-BTC). To facilitate the management of granting and revoking practice certificates and management of tax agents and tax agent employees, the General Department of Taxation has upgraded the TMS application (the Tax Procedure Service Practice Management sub-system), the website of the General Department of Taxation to support management of tax agents, tax agent employees and publicize information about tax agents and tax agent employees according to the provisions of Circular No. 10/2021/TT-BTC, the General Department of Taxation proposes the Taxation Departments to implement the following:

Study application manuals, update full information about tax agents, tax agent employees in a timely manner;

Review data on tax agents and actual tax agent employees under management, compare with data on TMS application and publicize on the website of the General Department of Taxation, if any errors are detected, adjustments must be made immediately. Taxation Departments are responsible for the accuracy of data and information of tax agents and tax agent employees under their management.

In addition, the General Department of Taxation is developing a process to manage the practice of tax procedure services. While such a process has not been promulgated, the General Department Tax has compiled a guidance for a number of cases of management of tax procedure service practice (Appendix attached to this official letter), request the Taxation Departments to study and implement it.

Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this document should be reported to General Department of Taxation for guidance and support by the following contact points:

- For problems related to management of tax agents and tax agent employees, contact the Department of Communication and Support for Taxpayers - Phone number: 024.39712555-ext 5084, email: [email protected] (Tran Thi Sinh); Ext 5080, email: [email protected] (Toan Thi Na).

- For problems with the application, contact the IT Department through the support request management system (CA) (https://hotro.gdt.gov.vn).

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PP. GENERAL DIRECTOR
DEPUTY GENERAL DIRECTOR




Vu Chi Hung

APPENDIX

GUIDANCE FOR A NUMBER OF CASES OF MANAGEMENT OF TAX PROCEDURE SERVICE PRACTICE
(Issued together with Official Dispatch No. 183/TCT-TTHT dated January 18, 2022)

A. TAX AGENT MANAGEMENT

1. Issuance of certificates of eligibility for business in tax procedure services

Upon receipt of the enterprise's application for a Certificate of eligibility for business in tax procedures (Certificate), the Taxation Department shall check the following information:

- Status of TIN (taxpayer identification number) of the enterprise: the enterprise remains in on-going status;

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- In case of registration to provide accounting services for micro-enterprises, there must be at least one tax agent employee with an accountant certificate (not an auditor's certificate) working full-time at the enterprise.

- If the tax agent is a branch whose address is different from the province or city with its head office, the Taxation Department that issues the Certificate is the Taxation Department where the branch is based. Notes: a person who is currently a tax agent employee of the parent company is not allowed to register as a tax agent employee of the branch.

2. Re-issuance of certificates of eligibility for business in tax procedure services

a) Cases of re-issuance of Certificates

- There is a change in the name of the tax agent;

- There is a change of the head office address to another province or centrally affiliated city;

- The certificate of eligibility for business in tax procedure services has been lost or damaged;

- There is a change in the scope of service stated in the certificate of eligibility for business in tax procedure services already granted to the tax agent.

When verifying the application for re-issuance of the Certificate, the Taxation Department needs to check that the tax agent must be in one of the cases eligible for re-issuance of the Certificate.

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According to Point a, Clause 5, Article 22 of Circular No. 10/TT-BTC, a tax agent that changes its head office address to another province or centrally affiliated city must submit an application for re-issuance of the Certificate to the tax authority of the place of destination, so as a result the Certificate issued by the Taxation Department of the place of departure ceases to be valid. However, in order for the tax agent to have time to register at the destination and to ensure the tax agent's practice conditions not to affect the taxpayer's use of services during the relocation period, the Taxation Department of departure will not update the expiry date of the Certificate, the date of leave of the tax agent employee on the TMS application; and the Taxation Department must request the tax agent to send a notice of change (reduction) of number of employees (if any).

- In case the enterprise continues to wish to provide tax procedure services, the enterprise shall submit a registration application for issuance of a Certificate to the Taxation Department of place of destination at the same time as submitting the application for change of registration information. When receiving the application, the Taxation Department of place of destination will issue the Certificate and use the function of re-issuing the Certificate on the TMS application to update the information and the application will automatically update the expiry of the old Certificate, and also update information about the tax agent employees.

- In case the enterprise moves but it neither submits the registration application nor notifies the tax authority in writing, after 90 days from the date of notification of relocation, the TMS application will automatically update that the old Certificate expires.

c) The tax agent changes the scope of service on the Certificate

A tax agent that has been granted a Certificate of eligibility to provide tax services, but also meets the conditions to provide accounting services for micro-enterprises, must submit an application to the Department of Taxation for re-issuance of the Certificate.

3. Tax agent applying for cessation of providing tax procedure services at their (own) discretion

An on-going tax agent (not in the cases of violations such as failing to maintain their practice conditions or being suspended from practicing) that does not wish to continue doing business in tax procedure services must send an official dispatch of notifying the Taxation Department of the cessation of providing tax procedure services.

Upon receiving the official dispatch from the tax agent, the Taxation Department checks that if the tax agent is not subject to the suspension or withdrawal of the Certificate, it will issue a Notice of expiry of the Certificate of eligibility for tax procedure services. The Notice shall clearly state that the Certificate (number, date of issue, the issuing tax authority) issued to the tax agent expires from the date of signing the notice, reason: the enterprise requests to stop providing the services.. .; the tax agent employee (Full name, date of birth, practice certificate number) is no longer an employee of the tax agent from the date of signing the notice, reason: The tax agent's Certificate...expires.

4. Management of maintenance of tax agent's practice eligibility

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5. Urging submission of reports on the operation of tax agents

According to point b, clause 8, Article 24 of Circular No. 10/2021/TT-BTC, the deadline for tax agents to send reports on tax agent operations (Form 2.9 issued with Circular 10/2021/ TT-BTC) is January 15 every year. This is a new rule compared to the previous one. Therefore, in order to avoid delays in submission of reports, the Taxation Department shall review and urge tax agents to submit reports on time. In case a tax agent submits a report late or fails to submit a report, the Taxation Department shall, based on Article 26 of Circular 10/2021/TT-BTC, take actions according to regulations.

B. MANAGEMENT OF TAX AGENT EMPLOYEES

1. Management of practice registration of tax agent employees

On receiving an application for issuance of certificate of eligibility for doing business in tax procedure services or the notification of an increase in tax agent employees, the TMS application supports the Taxation Department in checking the following conditions:

- Check validity of the practice certificate (not revoked)

- The holder of certificate of tax procedure service is not practicing at any other tax agent.

- The holder of certificate of tax procedure service must obtain at least 24 hours of knowledge update course in the preceding year (applicable to cases of practice registration from January 1, 2022).

If the conditions are satisfied, the Taxation Department shall issue a notice certifying that the tax agent employee is eligible for tax procedure practice (Form 2.1 issued together with Circular No. 10/2021/TT-BTC).

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No later than January 31 of each year, based on the report on tax agent activities, the Taxation Department shall review and compare the number of hours of knowledge update course in the preceding year of the tax agent employees. In case there is a discrepancy between the information on the tax agent's report (Form 2.9) and the data in the TMS application, the Taxation Department shall request the tax agent to explain and do the following:

- If the data on the tax agent's report is incorrect, the Taxation Department shall request the tax agent to submit another report.

- If the data on the TMS application of the tax authority is incorrect: the Taxation Department shall make an adjustment if the knowledge update course is held by the Taxation Department; request the General Department to support (through the Department of Communication and Support) if the knowledge update course is held by another unit.

In case, after comparing, it is found that the tax agent employee has not updated or has updated inadequate number of hours as prescribed, the Taxation Department shall:

- Notify the suspension of tax procedure service practice for practicing tax agent employee who has less than 24 hours of knowledge update of the preceding year.

- Issue a decision on termination of tax procedure service practice for tax agent employee who has been suspended from practice but has not updated their knowledge for at least 24 hours during the year of suspension.

- For the case where a tax agent employee has been suspended from practice but has 24 hours or more of knowledge update in the suspension year, the application automatically transfers the tax agent employee from the list of "Suspended tax agent employees” to the list of “Practicing tax agent employees”.

C. MANAGEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE UPDATE

1. Certain notes for the Taxation Department upon offering knowledge update courses

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In the first quarter of each year, the Taxation Department shall develop a detailed plan of knowledge update courses on the basis of the framework program issued by the General Department of Taxation and inform that to the General Department of Taxation. In case the Taxation Department combines knowledge update into general training courses for taxpayers, it is not required to notify the plan to the General Department of Taxation.

Where a Taxation Department, because of objective conditions, cannot offer knowledge update courses (even combining them with training courses), the Taxation Department shall inform local tax agents about that so that tax agents can plan to update knowledge at other units to maintain their eligibility for practicing next year. The General Taxation Department has published information about training institutions and professional social organizations related to tax agents that are eligible to offer knowledge update courses on the website of General Taxation Department.

2. Update data on knowledge update results of Taxation Departments

- For data in 2021: Before January 15, 2022, the General Taxation Department supports updating data on knowledge update results according to reports of units offering knowledge update courses on TMS application (including the results of the knowledge update courses offered by the Taxation Department).

- From 2022, when the Taxation Department offers knowledge update courses, the Taxation Department will update the results of the knowledge update courses on the TMS application and send the report on the results of the courses to the General Taxation Department. (Form 2.5 issued together with Circular No. 10/2021/TT-BTC)./.