According to the General Department of Taxation, individuals and organizations engaging in e-commerce on social media platforms are increasingly using various methods to evade taxes, such as failing to report income or concealing revenue. A common example involves sellers instructing customers to label their transfers as “loan,” “debt repayment,” or “gift” rather than indicating any connection to goods, making it difficult for authorities to track transactions.

The tax authorities are actively collaborating with e-commerce platforms and relevant state agencies to clean and verify the extensive database of e-commerce taxpayers.

In the near future, the General Department of Taxation plans to use AI to analyze large datasets and issue warnings for potential high-risk tax cases.

Working with commercial banks, the department will gather data on transaction flows in accounts used by domestic individuals and organizations dealing with foreign online service providers, such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Netflix. It will also track account holder information, transaction content, and amounts for accounts with signs of e-commerce business activity.

The department will collaborate with ministries to share and connect data to strengthen tax management in e-commerce activities, following the directive under Prime Minister’s Directive No. 18, which focuses on enhancing data connectivity to support e-commerce development, prevent tax losses, and ensure monetary security.

Under this directive, the Ministry of Public Security will coordinate and align the national citizen database with the tax ID database; the Ministry of Industry and Trade will integrate data from e-commerce platforms; the Ministry of Information and Communications will share data on entities in telecommunications, advertising, and broadcasting; and the State Bank will provide information on payment accounts and transaction flows.  

Binh Minh