Joint Circular No. 43/2006/TTLT-BTC-BTP guiding the regime for the collection, submission, management, and use of enforcement fees

JOINT CIRCULAR

Guidelines on the collection, payment, management, and use of enforcement fees

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Pursuant to the Ordinance on Fees and Stamp Duties dated August 28, 2001;

Pursuant to the Ordinance on Civil Enforcement dated January 14, 2004;

Pursuant to Decree No. 173/2004/NĐ-CP dated September 30, 2004 of the Government stipulating procedures, coercive measures, and administrative penalties in civil enforcement;

Pursuant to Decree No. 57/2002/NĐ-CP dated June 3, 2002 of the Government detailing the implementation of the Ordinance on Fees and Stamp Duties; and Decree No. 24/2006/NĐ-CP dated March 6, 2006 of the Government amending and supplementing certain articles of Decree No. 57/2002/NĐ-CP dated June 3, 2002 of the Government detailing the implementation of the Ordinance on Fees and Stamp Duties;

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice jointly issue guidelines on the collection, payment, management, and use of enforcement fees as follows:

I. SCOPE OF APPLICATION

1. A person entitled to enforcement who has submitted a request for enforcement must pay enforcement fees for the amount subject to enforcement, calculated based on the value of assets or the amount of money that such person actually receives, in accordance with these Guidelines.

2. No enforcement fees shall be collected in the following cases:

a) Maintenance payments;

b) Damages for loss of life, health, reputation, and personality;

c) Wages and labor remuneration;

d) Unemployment benefits, severance pay; social insurance premiums; damages due to wrongful termination or termination of employment contracts;

đ) Other cases as prescribed by law, including:

- Assets received by the person entitled to enforcement that have only spiritual significance, are attached to the recipient's personal identity, cannot be exchanged, and cannot be valued monetarily;

- Money subject to enforcement is part of state social program funds, such as: poverty alleviation, support for remote, difficult, and extremely difficult areas, funds directly serving public health care and education without commercial purposes, and key national socio-economic programs.

II. AMOUNT OF COLLECTION, COLLECTION, PAYMENT, MANAGEMENT, AND USE OF ENFORCEMENT FEES

1. Collection levels

The amount of enforcement fees is calculated based on the actual amount of money or asset value received, as follows:

2. Collection, Payment, Management, and Use of Enforcement Fees

a) The enforcement agency responsible for executing the case is the agency collecting enforcement fees (hereinafter referred to as the fee collection agency).

b) When submitting a request for enforcement, a person entitled to enforcement who has submitted a request for enforcement does not need to pay enforcement fees at that time. The fee collection agency may collect enforcement fees only when it pays the money or delivers the assets subject to enforcement to the person entitled to enforcement, specifically as follows:

- In the case of paying money: When making the payment, the fee collection agency may deduct the enforcement fees that the person entitled to enforcement must pay from the amount of money the enforcement debtor actually receives.

- In the case of delivering assets: Within no more than 15 working days before the date of delivery of the assets, the fee collection agency is responsible for issuing a notice of enforcement fees that the person entitled to enforcement must pay according to these Guidelines. If the court judgment or decision does not specify the value of the assets or specifies but is no longer consistent with the market price, the fee collection agency shall establish a valuation committee to determine the enforcement fees payable by the person entitled to enforcement. In the event that the person entitled to enforcement has not paid the enforcement fees upon delivery of the assets, the fee collection agency may seize and freeze the delivered assets and set a deadline of no more than 15 days from the date of delivery for the person entitled to enforcement to pay the enforcement fees. If the deadline is exceeded and the person entitled to enforcement has not paid the enforcement fees, the fee collection agency has the right to apply coercive measures to enforce the judgment, including selling the delivered assets through auction to recover the enforcement fees. Valuation, revaluation, and sale of assets to recover enforcement fees shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the law on valuation and sale of assets for enforcement.

- When collecting fees, the fee collection agency must issue and provide a receipt for the payer in accordance with the current regulations of the Ministry of Finance on the issuance, management, and use of tax stamps.

c) For cases involving division of joint property, inheritance, or division of property in divorce proceedings (where only one party has submitted a request for enforcement), the person receiving the assets must pay enforcement fees corresponding to the value of the assets they actually receive, calculated based on the total enforcement fees payable by all parties.

An example is as follows: There are three people inheriting an asset worth VND 1 billion. The first person receives 20% of the asset value. The second person receives 30% of the asset value. The third person receives 50% of the asset value. The enforcement fees payable by each person according to the above regulations are determined as follows:

- Determine the total enforcement fees payable by all parties:

                        = VND 18 million + 2% x VND 500 million.

                        = VND 18 million + VND 10 million.

                        = VND 28 million.

- Determine the enforcement fees payable by each person:

+ The first person must pay = 20% x VND 28 million = VND 5.6 million.

+ The second person must pay = 30% x 28 million VND = 8.4 million VND.

+ The third person must pay = 50% x 28 million VND = 14 million VND.

d) For cases where the person entitled to enforcement has submitted a request for enforcement but subsequently the parties have voluntarily enforced the judgment, the following shall be implemented:

- If the person entitled to enforcement does not submit a withdrawal request for the enforcement application so that both parties can voluntarily enforce it, the fee collection agency will still collect enforcement fees according to the provisions of this Circular.

- If the person entitled to enforcement submits a withdrawal request for the enforcement application, the following shall be implemented:

+ If the person entitled to enforcement has a document renouncing the rights and interests they are entitled to under Clause 3, Article 28 of the Civil Enforcement Ordinance, then the fee collection agency will not collect enforcement fees;

+ If the person entitled to enforcement does not renounce the rights and interests they are entitled to under Clause 3, Article 28 of the Civil Enforcement Ordinance and the withdrawal of the application is carried out after the decision on compulsory enforcement has been made, then the person entitled to enforcement must pay one-third (one-third part) of the enforcement fees that would have been paid if the withdrawal had not occurred;

+ If the person entitled to enforcement does not renounce the rights and interests they are entitled to under Clause 3, Article 28 of the Civil Enforcement Ordinance and the withdrawal of the application is carried out after the enforcement agency has completed the compulsory enforcement and collected money or assets to pay or deliver to the person entitled to enforcement, then the fee collection agency will still collect enforcement fees according to the provisions of this Circular.

đ) For cases where, according to the judgment or decision of the Court, the person entitled to enforcement is entitled to enforce an amount of money or assets with a value of 1,000,000 VND or more, but the person entitled to enforcement requests enforcement of a different amount of money or asset value, the following shall be implemented:

- In the case where the person entitled to enforcement only requests enforcement of an amount of money or asset with a value of 1,000,000 VND or less, then no enforcement fees need to be paid.

- In the case where the person entitled to enforcement requests enforcement in multiple installments with a total amount of money or asset value requested being over 1,000,000 VND, the enforcement fees are calculated based on the total amount of money or asset value received. The enforcement fees payable for each installment are determined correspondingly with the amount of money or asset value actually received each time, similar to the method of calculating enforcement fees payable in the case of dividing joint property, inheritance division, and division of property in divorce as stipulated at point c, section of this article.

e) In the case where the enforcement agency has enforced money or assets, but must pay the person entitled to enforcement in multiple installments as prescribed by law, the enforcement fees payable are calculated based on the total amount of money or asset value actually received. The enforcement fees payable for each installment are determined correspondingly with the amount of money or asset value actually received each time, similar to the method of calculating enforcement fees payable in the case of dividing joint property, inheritance division, and division of property in divorce as stipulated at point c, section of this article.

g) In the case of a mistake regarding the enforcement fees payable, the enforcement fees will be recalculated according to the regulations, and the person entitled to enforcement must pay additional fees if the enforcement fees already paid are lower than the recalculated enforcement fees, or the person enforcing the judgment will be refunded the excess if the enforcement fees already paid are higher than the recalculated enforcement fees.

The fee collection agency is responsible for collecting any additional fees that the person entitled to enforcement has not paid or processing the refund of enforcement fees that the person entitled to enforcement has overpaid. If the person entitled to enforcement does not voluntarily pay the additional enforcement fees, the enforcement agency has the right to apply enforcement measures to collect the additional enforcement fees.

Enforcement fees are revenue belonging to the state budget, managed and used as follows:

h.1) The fee collection agency is allowed to retain 70% (seventy percent) of the enforcement fees collected to cover costs supporting enforcement activities and fee collection. Specifically, as follows:

- The fee collection agency may use 50% (fifty percent) of the enforcement fees collected to cover the following expenses:

+ Payment of remuneration, wages, allowances, contributions according to current regulations for those participating in enforcement activities (excluding salary costs for officials and civil servants who receive salaries from the state budget according to the prescribed system); payment of allowances for officials of various sectors and levels in cooperation for enforcement;

+ Direct costs serving enforcement activities and fee collection such as office supplies, office materials, telephone, electricity, water, travel expenses, administrative expenses according to current standards and norms;

+ Costs for regular maintenance, major repairs of assets, machinery, equipment directly serving enforcement activities and fee collection;

+ Costs for purchasing materials, raw materials, conference summaries, mid-year reviews, training, directing business operations, and other related expenses directly related to enforcement activities and fee collection;

+ Rewards and welfare for officials and civil servants of the enforcement agency and fee collection according to the principle of an average of up to three months' actual salary if the income this year exceeds last year, and two months' actual salary if the income this year is lower or equal to last year;

- The fee collection agency is allowed to open a "temporary holding account for fees" at the State Treasury where the fees are collected to monitor and manage enforcement fees. Based on the situation of fee collection (the amount of fees collected is high or low, the location of fee collection is far or near the State Treasury...), the fee collection agency must deposit the enforcement fees collected during the period into the temporary holding account regularly daily or weekly, and must organize separate accounting for this revenue according to the accounting system of public institutions.

- The fee collection agency shall be responsible for depositing twenty percent (20%) of the collected fees into the account of the Civil Enforcement Department under the Ministry of Justice (or the Enforcement Department under the Ministry of National Defense if the fee collection agency is a military zone enforcement agency or equivalent) at the State Treasury simultaneously with the deposit of the collected fees into the temporary holding account for the Civil Enforcement Department under the Ministry of Justice (or the Enforcement Department under the Ministry of National Defense) to coordinate the distribution of funds to fee collection agencies where the collected fees are insufficient to cover operational expenses as specified in point h.1 of this section. The entity implementing the coordination of enforcement fees may incur management costs related to the coordination of enforcement fees (such as office supplies, accounting books, tracking, consolidating data on fee allocation, communication, inspection, reporting...) but the annual expenditure shall not exceed five percent (5%) of the total amount of enforcement fees submitted by units.

- Annually, the fee collection agency must settle accounts based on actual figures. After settling accounts according to regulations, any unspent fees from the year may be carried over to the next year for continued spending according to prescribed regulations. Fees retained by the fee collection agency as stipulated in point h.1 of this section shall not be reflected in the state budget.

h.2) The fee collection agency shall be responsible for declaring, paying, and settling the remaining thirty percent (30%) of the fees into the state budget according to the corresponding chapter, type, and sub-item 044, minor item 14 of the current State Budget Manual.

i) In cases where the person subject to enforcement does not pay the enforcement fee, they will be subject to administrative penalties or criminal prosecution as provided by law.

III. EXEMPTIONS AND REDUCTIONS OF ENFORCEMENT FEES

The person subject to enforcement shall be exempted or have their enforcement fees reduced as follows:

1. A fifty percent (50%) reduction in enforcement fees for persons subject to enforcement who are economically disadvantaged. Economically disadvantaged individuals eligible for a reduction in enforcement fees are those meeting the poverty standard as defined in Decision No. 170/2005/QĐ-TTg dated July 8, 2005, of the Prime Minister regarding the poverty standard applicable for the period 2006-2010.

2. Exemption from enforcement fees for persons subject to enforcement who are members of policy families or have made contributions to the revolution as defined in the Ordinance on "Preference for Revolutionary Activists, Martyrs and Their Families, War Invalids, War Veterans, Anti-War Activists, and Those Who Have Contributed to the Revolution" and related guiding documents.

3. Exemption from enforcement fees for persons subject to enforcement who are single, disabled, or suffering from prolonged illness.

4. To be eligible for exemption or reduction of enforcement fees, the party concerned must submit a request for exemption or reduction of enforcement fees according to Form 1 issued together with this Circular (accompanied by relevant documents if available), confirmed by one of the following authorities or organizations: People's Committee of Commune, Ward, Town, the authority or organization where the individual resides, works, or lives, or confirmed by a hospital or health department at the district level or higher (for cases of prolonged illness). The request for exemption or reduction of enforcement fees (accompanied by relevant documents if available) shall be submitted to the fee collection agency. The head of the fee collection agency receiving the application shall examine and issue a decision on exemption or reduction of enforcement fees in accordance with this Circular.

5. If the applicant is not granted an exemption or reduction of enforcement fees, the fee collection agency must notify the party concerned and clearly state the reasons for not being granted an exemption or reduction of enforcement fees. The time limit for considering requests for exemption or reduction of enforcement fees shall not exceed fifteen (15) working days from the date of receipt of the application for exemption or reduction of enforcement fees.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION

1. This Circular shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the Official Gazette. Other issues related to the collection, payment, management, use, and public disclosure of fee collection regulations and settlement of fees not covered in this Circular shall be implemented according to the guidance provided in Circular No. 63/2002/TT-BTC dated July 24, 2002, of the Ministry of Finance on the implementation of legal provisions on fees and charges.

2. For cases where fees were temporarily collected previously at a higher rate than the rate prescribed in this Circular, the collection and payment of fees shall be conducted according to the rate prescribed in this Circular.

3. Complaints and appeals, as well as the resolution of complaints and appeals regarding enforcement fees, shall be handled in accordance with the laws on civil enforcement and laws on fees and charges currently in force.

4. During the implementation process, if there are any difficulties, organizations and individuals are requested to promptly report them to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice for review and supplementary guidance./.