A customer at Agribank in Hà Nội. The Ministry of Finance has removed a proposal that would have required banks to provide taxpayer account information to authorities. — VNA/VNS Photo Trần Việt

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Finance has removed a proposal that would have required banks to provide taxpayer account information to tax authorities.

The proposal has been dropped from the latest draft decree on guiding the implementation of the 2025 Law on Tax Management.

In the previous draft version, the ministry had proposed that banks, e-wallet providers, payment intermediaries and international card organisations supply tax authorities with information on users’ payment accounts.

The organisations would also have been required to cooperate with the tax authorities in detecting unusual transactions related to tax obligations.

However, in the latest draft submitted to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal, the Ministry of Finance dropped the provision after receiving feedback from relevant parties.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said that requiring banks and payment service providers to supply such information could conflict with existing regulations on customer data confidentiality.

The SBV said current rules only allow financial institutions to provide information with customer consent or at the request of competent state authorities.

The 2025 Law on Tax Management does not specifically define the responsibilities of credit institutions, payment service providers and intermediaries in supplying information to tax authorities.

In addition, the established regulations on payment do not require service providers to identify or collect information on goods and services purchased or used by customers for reporting to tax authorities.

The SBV also pointed out technical barriers in the reality.

It added that Việt Nam’s payment systems currently process millions of transactions daily, thus, requiring banks to automatically identify foreign service providers that have not registered, declared or paid taxes in Việt Nm would not be feasible.

Before the Law on Tax Management was passed in 2025, the tax authority had requested access to bank account data under Decree 126/2020 and the 2019 Law on Tax Management.

Banks must provide information such as account transactions, balances and transaction records at the request of heads of tax authorities for tax inspection and audit purposes.

Tax authorities were responsible for ensuring the confidentiality, use and storage of taxpayers’ account information.

The draft decree is expected to be passed and take effect from July 1 this year. — VNS