Through monitoring and managing low-value imported and exported goods sent via express delivery services, the Customs sector uncovered an array of tax evasion regarding the import tax exemption regulations for goods sent via post or express delivery services.

Customs officers of Customs Sub-department for express
delivery check imported goods via scanners. Photo: T.H

Regularly review the declaration of low-value goods

In order to prevent this violation, the General Department of Customs requested the Customs Departments of provinces and cities to direct Customs Sub-departments to rapidly strengthen management measures on the gathering, centralized inspection and supervision of postal and transit goods and goods sent via delivery services.

The customs value determination for imported goods sent via express delivery service which is exempt from tax is regulated in the provisions of Clause 2, Article 29 of Decree No. 134/2016/ND-CP dated September 1, 2016 as amended and supplemented in Clause 11 Article 1 of Decree 18/2021/ND-CP dated March 11, 2021 of the Government.

A shipment belonging to a master bill of lading (master bill) or an equivalent document including many small packages and each package is separated into a sub-bill (house bill) or of the same owner (with the same identity card or another equivalent paper) costs over VND1,000,000 must pay import tax on the entire package and cannot apply tax exemption regulations specified in Clause 11 Article 1 of Decree No. 18/2021/ND-CP.

Units have to strengthen inspection, supervision and control for low-value goods sent via express delivery services to prevent the possibility of taking advantage of regulations to commit commercial fraud.

Specifically, the Customs authority does not carry out customs procedures for low-value import declarations that declare incomplete and unclear recipient information (without the recipient address or incomplete recipient address, fake recipient's address, without identity card number or missing the number of other equivalent documents).

Customs units assign officers and civil servants to regularly review low-value goods declarations to detect groups of people who regularly receive goods with the same address, same phone number, and same identity card (or number of papers of equivalent value) or without the clear and exact recipient's address and report to relevant units such as: market management agency, tax agency and Steering Committee against smuggling and fraud and counterfeiting (Steering Committee 389); functional units under the General Department of Customs and the Customs Departments of provinces and cities.

The General Department of Customs requires during the review process, cases with constant import goods via express delivery service in the form of gifts, presents or goods transactions via e-commerce or goods in normal trade, the customs declarants are requested to provide relevant documents such as: purchase orders for transactions via e-commerce, gift vouchers or documents to identify the donation of gifted goods, commercial invoices for the purchase and sale of ordinary goods.

In case the customs declarant fails to provide legal documents to prove the legal purchase, sale and transaction, customs procedures shall not be carried out.

At the same time, the units will strengthen the inspection of customs valuation for cases showing signs of splitting goods into many small packages to match the tax-exempt value as prescribed by law.

Strengthen inspection of goods management policies in accordance with the Law on Foreign Trade Management and related guiding documents to ensure that the division of imported goods into group 2 must comply with the provisions of Clause 5, Article 2 of the Circular. 56/2019/TT-BTC.

Strengthen coordination in violation detection

In addition, warehouses leased by express delivery enterprises at gathering locations, centralized inspection and supervision sites for postal and courier goods in operation will be reported to the General Department of Customs to withdraw the warehouse code if they do not meet the inspection and supervision and control requirements of the customs authority.

For express delivery businesses, in the case of declaring customs on behalf of the owner of the goods or instructing the consignor to declare, the General Department of Customs requires the customs value to be determined for imported goods sent through this service in order to group goods according to the above instructions including the detailed information of the recipient on the low-value import declaration.

Express delivery businesses have to inform agents of overseas express delivery companies, overseas e-commerce products of tax policies, lists of goods banned from import, and cases of suspension/temporary stopping importing and unacceptable to transport goods belonging to these lists.

In case of receiving signs of suspicion of exporting goods from countries through scanning, express delivery businesses must notify and share the scanned image data to the Customs office carrying out customs clearance for import goods in order to issue appropriate check and control as soon as the goods arrive.

At the same time, coordinate with Customs in key inspection, supervision and control violating cases of sub-dividing shipments in order to evade taxes or exempt from policies, trade fraud, and illegally transport goods.