Tax authorities: using dual accounting books to evade taxes is a serious violation and will be strictly sanctioned

During the first-quarter 2026 regular press briefing organized by the Ministry of Finance, Deputy Director Le Long of the Tax Department stressed the strict handling of accounting fraud, particularly the practice of enterprises maintaining dual accounting systems to evade taxes. According to Deputy Director Le Long, it is essential to affirm that using concurrent accounting systems — one to monitor actual production and business activities, and another to provide to the competent state authorities — constitutes a serious violation of law intended to evade taxes or to commit fraud in preparing and issuing financial statements for malicious purposes (bidding, obtaining bank loans, etc.). This shows weak corporate social responsibility. "It is not only a matter of revenue shortfalls for the state budget, but also has long-term impacts on the economy and the business environment. A concerning aspect is that this conduct can occur systematically, be highly sophisticated, easily concealed, and difficult to detect without thorough inspection or investigative skills by the authorities." In practice, there have been typical cases such as Hoang Long Company establishing two sets of accounting books to hide revenue, and Bao Tin Minh Chau Co. using two accounting software systems to manage and declare taxes. The Tax Department leadership notes this is a worrying trend as the scale and severity of violations are increasing. Analyzing causes, leaders say this behavior stems from factors such as limited compliance with law and business ethics; incentives to maximize profits and reduce tax obligations; enterprises not fully aware of criminal risks or willing to compromise. Some cases even reflect that enterprises believe this is easy to conceal. To address this, the Tax Department has required organizations to provide electronic invoicing and electronic transaction services in the tax domain, to compile a list of customers using accounting software and send it to the tax authorities. Collecting data helps the tax authority understand the use of accounting software and implement solutions to support declaration, tax payment and more effective management. As of 7 April 2026, the Tax Department has received data from 42 organizations with information on 12,809 customers and continues to aggregate nationwide. Based on this, the tax authority will review, issue warnings, and make recommendations to organizations and small businesses showing signs of using multiple accounting books since April 2026. The Tax Department believes that with leadership and social responsibility, along with the collaboration of organizations, this will be an important basis for building a healthy, fair, and transparent business environment and contributing to the national digital transformation. To curb fraud effectively, the Tax Department is deploying several groups of solutions such as tightly controlling cash flow, limiting cash usage, increasing data connectivity with banks, especially for high-value transactions. At the same time, the tax agency will promote the use of Big Data and artificial intelligence to analyze risk and detect unusual signals such as revenue fluctuations or unreasonable profit margins, shifting from manual checks to data-driven monitoring. In managing electronic invoices and accounting software, the department will continue to require real-time data connections between sales data and the tax authority for high-risk industries and monitor the use of multiple accounting software. Additionally, the department will strengthen investigations and criminal prosecution for systemic violations, promptly forwarding cases to the police when there are signs of crime. The Tax Department will continue to promote legal awareness, implement the "Lucky Invoice" program, and offer rewards to consumers who report lack of invoicing. Under the law, all economic and financial operations must be fully and accurately recorded in a single accounting system. Maintaining multiple accounting systems to conceal activities not only causes revenue losses but also creates unfair competition, undermines the rule of law and public trust. Regarding loss-making firms, Deputy Director Le Long noted that more than 400 enterprises with annual revenue of 1,000 billion VND but still reporting losses have been identified. The tax agency says losses or low profits may have many causes, but there are several cases where firms have reported losses for years yet still expand, raising questions about honesty in tax and accounting. To address this, the tax sector has implemented measures such as promoting truthful declarations; conducting reviews and tax payments; developing targeted checks for loss-making, low-margin enterprises; and creating a high-risk list for 2026. The department has also issued plan 1927/CT-KTr dated 31 March 2026 to strengthen tax management for this group.