Uber to face tax ultimatum by year end

HÀ NỘI — Authorities are cracking down on Uber B.V. Ltd’s (Uber) alleged shady tax payment in Việt Nam and are determined to see results before the end of the year.

According to Trần Ngọc Tâm, director of HCM City Tax Department, the company must pay an additional corporate income tax amount of VNĐ66.68 billion (US$2.9 million).

He confirmed with infonet.vn, the Ministry of Information and Communications’ online news site, that out of the said amount, merely VNĐ13.3 billion ($594,000) has been submitted by Uber’s Việt Nam-based office so far.

Tâm was certain that his department would resort to coercive enforcement measures to collect the rest of Uber’s unpaid taxes, starting with alerting commercial banks to suspend the company’s accounts.

Initially, Uber’s 2017 corporate tax declaration was just over VNĐ76.8 billion ($3.42 million), which did not sit well with the country’s taxation authorities.

Citing the company’s alleged total revenue since 2014 to 2017 of VNĐ2.7 trillion ($120 million), the city’s Tax Department demanded they pay another $2.9 million, which the company showed reluctance to do.

Nguyễn Nam Bình, deputy director of HCM City Tax Department, said that the company had sent an official confirmation to pay by December 20, but immediately announced they would continue to protest and litigate the matter if necessary.

The aforementioned $594,000 accounts for only Uber’s foreign contractor tax, while value added tax, corporate income tax and personal income tax payable on behalf of the company’s drivers have not yet been paid.

The company is also requested to pay around VNĐ10.3 billion ($459,000) worth of fines for wrong tax declaration resulting in payable tax shortfall and VNĐ4.9 billion ($218,000) worth of late payment fee.

The said decision on sanctioning administrative violations in taxation for Uber came after the HCM City Tax Department inspected the company in June 2017. — VNS