CO-Vietnam Tax avoidance by MNCs operating in Vietnam has been going on for many years. It is worrisome that so far this situation has not been resolved and this has deprived resources for investment in public services like social protection, health and education for people, especially for women and girls.
The Vietnamese government has been improving its regulations and laws reducing the risk of profit shifting and tax avoidance of MNC, such as the introduction of decree 20 requiring MCN to file their country by country report to the General Tax Bureau and they are also revising the law on tax administration. Oxfam Vietnam got request from the Vietnamese Government (General Tax Department) in sharing international experiences as references for their policy revision to address tax avoidance.
Oxfam global tax work in cooperation with Finance Uncovered will produce a global research report on Capital Gains Tax (CGT). The purpose of the report is to generate appreciation that CGT is a problem for DRM in developing countries. To raise awareness in civil society # and among tax justice activists and investigative journalists # about the magnitude and importance of this topic, providingthem with an analytical framework to analyze cases of potential CGT abuse when new cases arise and offering recommendations on policy and fair taxation of CGT. The Conoco Philip case would be among the cases of this study.
Oxfam global EITI lead by OUS is workingon improving governance of the extractive industry,  OUS is influencing EIcompanies being more  tax transparency (contract disclosure, and payments to governments reporting, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative involvement). Governments are also often the target here, as OUS encouraged them to improve tax administration, close tax loopholes, reconsider offering tax incentives, or address subnational revenue concerns.  But OUS also engages directly with many of the major mining and petroleum companies and international industry associations on tax issues (in addition toother key policy issues of transparency, community consent, human rights, and gender).
According to an investigation by Finance Uncovered  about the sale of two companies owned by a UK subsidiary of US energy giant ConocoPhillips # ConocoPhillips Gama Ltd and ConocoPhillips Cuu Long, they were sold to a UK company owned by the Anglo-French oil firm Perenco. According to accounts filed at Companies House in the UK, ConocoPhillips profited $896m from the sale and paid no taxes in Vietnam on the capital gain. It is estimated by international tax expert that this case is making Vietnam losing tax revenues of more than USD 170 million.
OGB, Novib, OUS, the global tax team, and OVN tax team discuss on the issues of Capital Gains Tax facing by developing countries, and the cases like Conoco Philips. And the team see a potential synergy between country to countrywork and global tax influencing could bring greater impacts in improving national policies, including Vietnam legal framework. Meanwhile contributingto the global EITI program of Oxfam on tax transparency and Oxfam global tax influencing on fair taxation.
Workingon improving legal framework reducing the risk of tax avoidance is one of the key priorities of The Vietnam Tax Justice alliance and VATJis planning to do a research reviewing MNC practices in Vietnam, international experiences and legal framework to advocate to improve the Vietnamese legal documents and fair share tax payment of the company , and the Conoco case would be one among other similar cases they VATJ will study. .
Meanwhile OUS has engaged with CP on EITI and OUS assess that OUS could engage/dialogue with the CP on case in Vietnam, using insider influencing first. The risk is the US for this work for Oxfam is assessed as medium low. However, we will implement step by step, to access the results of each step and any new risks emerged to decide the next step.