According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Clause 1, Article 43 of the Law on Customs stipulates that the priority regime for authorized economic operator (AEO), are exempt from inspection of relevant documents in customs dossiers, exempt from physical inspection of goods when carrying out customs procedures, except for cases where there are signs of law violations or random checks to assess law compliance.

Article 19 of the Law on Import Duty and Export Duty No. 107/2016/QH13 stipulates that taxpayers who have paid export duty but exported goods that must be re-imported are entitled to export tax refund and not have to pay import tax if the goods have not been used or processing yet.

Dong Nai Customs officers supervise imported and exported goods at Dong Nai port. Photo: N.H

Article 33 of Decree 134/2016/ND-CP of the Government stipulates goods are exported and already paid export duty, but they must be re-imported, will be refunded export duty and not have to pay import tax. Taxpayers are responsible for making accurate and truthful declarations about re-imported goods which are previously exported goods; information on the number, date of the contract, the name of the partner purchasing the goods for the case of having a sale contract. The customs authority is responsible for checking the taxpayer's declared content and stating the inspection results to serve the tax refund settlement. Procedures for submitting, receiving and processing tax refund dossiers must comply with the law on tax administration.

Clause 4, Article 47 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP of the Government stipulates that the customs authority shall not collect tax on re-imported goods as specified in Clause 1 of this article. If at the time of carrying out re-import procedures, the declarant submits a complete set of tax exemption dossiers as prescribed.

Clause 6, Article 16 of Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC, as amended and supplemented in Clause 5, Article 1 of Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC stipulating customs dossiers for the case of tax exemption, besides the documents mentioned in Clauses 1 or 2 of this Article and Decree 134/2016/ND-CP, the customs declarant must submit a request document for tax exemption following the information specified in form No. 02. Appendix 2a issued together with this Circular.

In case of submitting a paper application, the taxpayer shall submit a request for tax exemption following the form No. 05/CVĐNKTT/TXNK, Appendix 6 issued with this Circular, clearly stating the number of the re-import customs declaration and the number of the export declaration, contract number, payment voucher number (if any) and the taxpayer's commitment that the goods have not been used, processed or processed from abroad.

Compared with current regulations and based on the report of Dong Nai Customs Department, the General Department of Vietnam Customs said that enterprises that do not submit a request document for tax exemption at the time of carrying out procedures for re-import of goods prescribed in Article 47 of Decree 08/2015/ND-CP and Clause 5, Article 1 of Circular 39/2018/TT-BTC, then the conditions for exempting tax of re-imported goods are not satisfied.