Taxpayers and/or any persons affected by a decision issued by the tax authorities have the right to file an administrative appeal before the appropriate tax authority. The appeal petition must be filed within 90 days from the date of receiving the decision or of acquiring knowledge of the decision.
Alternatively, taxpayers can file a petition directly with the administrative court without pursuing administrative appeals. A taxpayer will have the right to file a petition with the competent administrative court to settle the appeal on tax issues within one year from the date of receipt of or the awareness of a decision issued by the tax offices.
The resolution of tax disputes in Vietnam takes place in two forums: administrative appeal to an administrative authority and adjudication by the administrative court.
There are two steps in the administrative appeal process. The first appeal is made to the same tax authority that issues the initial assessment. If the response to the first appeal is unfavorable, taxpayers have the option of either continuing with the second administrative appeal to a tax authority of a higher level or bringing the case to the administrative court for resolution. If the response to the second administrative appeal is still unfavorable, taxpayers remain free to bring the case to the administrative court.
Alternatively, taxpayers are not required to pursue administrative appeals and, instead, may bring their dispute directly to the administrative court.
A taxpayer who does not agree with the first instance judgment of the administrative court can appeal further to the appellate court for a final and binding decision.
Generally, it takes 1.5-2.5 months from filing the first appeal petition to obtain the first appeal settlement, and two to three months from filing the second appeal petition to obtain the second appeal settlement.
Generally, it takes four to six months from filing a case to the administrative court to obtain the first instance judgment, and a further three months if the case is later brought to the appellate court for a final and binding decision.
In practice, it may take much longer than the timeline stipulated under the law to resolve tax disputes — through either administrative appeal or court litigation.
- Start: Taxpayers need to choose either the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) or the local dispute resolution channels. The time limit for an MAP case is three years from the date of the tax assessment.
- Conduct of the proceedings: Once national proceedings have been initiated and they are pending, an MAP cannot be initiated.
- Completion of proceedings: If a mutual agreement is reached and the taxpayer rejects the agreement, the taxpayer should be able to pursue domestic remedies provided that the statute of limitations has not expired.
- Other actions: N/A