VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has denied the rumor that Intel, a big US invested enterprise in Vietnam dodged the laws to evade the tax it should have paid for the $100 million capital transfer deal.

The suspicion about Intel’s tax evasion has been raised after the HCM City Taxation Agency discovered that Intel Asia Holding Ltd was sold to another subsidiary of the same group at $100 million, which was equal to the cost price.

As the capital transfer deal did not generate profits, the transferor did not have to pay the corporate income tax.

Intel has been named in the HCM City Taxation Agency’s December report about the capital transfer deals, which showed the doubts about the foreign invested enterprises’ behavior of evading tax.

The involved parties in the capital transfer deals were believed to deliberately declare the selling price equal to the buying price to evade tax.

Besides Intel, a lot of other “big guys” have also been put onto the “black list,” namely Pho 24, Masan, Hoan My and PT Global Investment.

In the case of Intel, analysts commented that the tax evasion of the US big guy “dealt a strong blow” on Vietnam, which has been taking pride of the high achievements in attracting foreign direct investment.

Some months ago, a series of foreign invested enterprises, including South Korean Keangnam and Taiwanese – Malaysian Hualon, were found as conducting the transfer pricing and forced to pay the tax arrears worth trillions of dong.

In 2006, Intel came to Vietnam with the initial investment capital of $1 billion which it poured into its seventh production basis in the globe. At that time, the presence of Intel in Vietnam was hailed as Vietnam’s great achievement which was the reward for its efforts to attract foreign direct investment.

Intel vindicated

MOF has confirmed with the local press that Intel has suffered unjust accusation of tax evasion, and that the Intel’s capital transfer case is, by the nature, different from the other suspected cases like Massan, Pho 24 or Coca Cola.

Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan affirmed that Intel is a high-technology export processing enterprise which has been making great contribution to the Vietnam’s national economy.

“The statistics show that Intel’s turnover has been growing very well and it has always been fulfilling its tax duties,” Tuan said.

Not only fulfilling all of its duties in Vietnam, Intel has also been acting as the policy advisor to MOF in the policies relating to customs procedures.

Regarding the $100 million capital transfer deal, Tuan said this is just a move in its restructuring plan.

“Intel Vietnam once belonged to Intel Hong Kong which was a subsidiary of Intel Netherlands, a member of the US-based Intel Group. Nowadays as Intel Vietnam has got full fledged, it is put under the direct control by Intel Netherlands,” Tuan explained.

Tuan also said that before making the capital transfer deal, Intel consulted with Le Manh Ha, Vice Mayor of HCM City and the high-technology park’s management board.

Regarding the other cases which have also been suspected as evading tax, MOF said the cases still need further investigation for clarification.

Pham Huyen