The inspection at Lien Minh Tieu Dung Viet Nam Company in northern Bac Ninh Province revealed that the company also violated tax regulations in calculating personal income tax for their staff. — Photo vietnamnet.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Multi-level marketing companies have been discovered indulging in tax fraud worth several billion Vietnamese dong and the sale of fake goods, the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Competitive Management Department said.

After three months of investigations, the department yesterday officially announced the inspection results at four companies including Lien Ket Tri Thuc Company, Thang Long Franchise Company, Lien Minh Tieu Dung Viet Nam Company, and Lien ket Viet Nam Company.

The inspection team, managed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and police forces, uncovered several tax violations at the companies.

The team found that the Thang Long Franchise Company allowed their distribution agencies to receiving benefits which were not stipulated under the promotion campaigns. This violated regulations of multi-level trading.

In addition, several distribution agencies which received commissions from the company had not been mentioned in the list submitted to the team.

"The company reported turnover lower than data from their agencies at VND34 billion (US$1.5 million). This indicates violation of tax laws," the ministry said.

The inspection at Lien Minh Tieu Dung Viet Nam Company in northern Bac Ninh Province revealed that the company also violated tax regulations in calculating personal income tax for their staff. They did not report turnover of some distributors into the company's total incomes.

The ministry added that the company had committed violations by not reporting turnover, invoice usage and use of incorrect accounting documents.

It also revealed that there were some unclear turnover calculations, resulting in misunderstanding and wrong applications at companies. The inspection team suggested that management agencies should have made suitable adjustments to ensure united applications at multi-level marketing firms.

Incorrect labels

The ministry also revealed that the Thang Long Franchise Company advertised two functional foods including Thymo-Zin and Thymo Plus which have not been approved by management agencies. In addition, the two products have some incorrect ingredients and functions which do not match the certification granted by the Ministry of Health.

Its other eight functional products have labels which differ from their certifications.

"These violated regulations on advertisement of functional foods," the ministry said.

The same situation has been seen at the Lien Minh Tieu Dung Viet Nam Company.

The ministry would provide the inspection results to relevant agencies for further investigations or punishment. The ministry asked the department to quickly resolve the violations relating to multi-level management.

However, the team has not released inspection results at three companies including Amway Viet Nam Company, Unicity Marketing Company and Thien Ngoc Minh Uy which are considered big multi-level marketing firms in Viet Nam.

The ministry said they have received several complaints from participants at the Thien Ngoc Minh Uy Company. They established a team to conduct inspections while resolving each complaint. The ministry would announce the results soon.

They also planned to conduct a check-up team at the Amway Viet Nam Company on July 18. It added that the Unicity Marketing Viet Nam Company is no longer under the inspection list as the ministry imposed a fine of VND110 million on the company. — VNS