Job Discussion Forums

[Andy123]

Here is an old scam but one that is still being used. I have been looking for new work and found many schools wanting to interview me. The scam is they have no hours and no students yet they want to interview. Why?

The so called management wants to practice their English and/or look busy. They do not take into consideration your time or inconvenience of traveling there.

Last week I received 4 calls and confirmation from a school who stated they had many hours and needed a foreign teacher. Upon arrival I went to the restroom only to find that the toilet was out of order and it had been for quite some time. They had ten students waiting for their Saturday night class. The interviewer lied to me and told me he was the �Director� only to find out he was a simple teacher. 45 minutes of free English practice.

What pissed me off most was I was quite clear that I would not interview unless they had available hours. Shame on me.

[esbam2002]

Anyone know if VATC has ever taken out taxes from a teachers pay, but not actually paid the taxes? Called the tax office to try and find out if VATC was actually paying my taxes, or pocketing the money, but all I was told was by law I can request the pink tax receipt, which I have once already and they, VATC owner at Tan Phu, told me that they give tax information at the end of the fiscal year....sounded like Vietnamese run around excuse BS to me though....

[Belgrove]

Your pink slip must be issued monthly and the tax deducted from you must be submitted to the tax office within a certain amount of days into the next month (I think it's about 8 days).

I'll look up old tax office contacts and find the relevant papers.

[esbam2002]

OK thanks....as much as I bash IPS I have to be fair and say that every month I got that pink receipt from them on my taxes, which was the first clue to what might be a problem at VATC....I want to verify things though before I make accusations....I was told some schools do give yearly papers at the end of the fiscal year, and not monthly, but that if you request it that they can't refuse to give you tax receipts....

[Belgrove]

[generalgiap]

Clarification regarding tax documents

The pink slips(Phieu Chi) are not tax documents, it is an internal doc that schools/organisations use to document payments. If you look closely at the doc there is not an official number the organisation will write the number on it and most do not.Therefore, there is no paper trail and the school/organisation can flush them down the toilet if they want. Furtermore, the school can complete another Phieu Chi with a different salary and sign your name etc. These docs cannot be used to provide evidence for a school's/companys overheads for, CIT, etc. The evidence for salaries is generally the bank transfer, and schools who pay in cash may not be paying PIT.

Also most companies do not issue the Phieu Chi slips to their employees every month. Most will give their employees a letterhead doc stating the amount transferred to thier personal bank accounts with nothing mentioned about taxes. And some companies give their employees no docs. Most companies only issue the Phieu Chi if they are paying in cash.
This is to control petty cash etc.

The tax dept will not provide an official tax doc to any organisation to give to its employees on a monthly basis. However, they will provide an offical tax document for foreign employees when they leave an organisation and at the end of the year. The organisation must provide the employment contract, nationality, passport details etc, and evidence that the taxes have been paid. The document will state the following and will be in Vietnamese- the employees total salary and the PIT that the company has paid. The company will then translate that doc into English and chop it. This doc is necessary for foreign nationals who have to provide evidence concerning their salaries and PIT when completing their personal tax docs for their country. I get this document every year because I must include it in my personal tax doc for my yearly tax return for my own country.

What's the evidence that a company is paying PIT? Every month a company must complete an official tax doc to the tax dept which includes all employees, both foreigners and Viets, and the PIT that has been paid. Companys transfer the PIT taxes by bank transfer, therefore, the evidence is the official tax doc and the bank transfer.

There is also a yellow tax document and I suspect that none of you have ever seen this doc because the accounting dept completes it and it's none of your business. This doc includes confidential info such as revenue, costs, PIT paid, CIT etc. No company would show this to it's employees, whether its a school or organisation such as Nike BP etc.

These are the facts, I know this because one of my current responsibilities is to review all of the above docs before my school sends it to the tax dept. I dont work for a small school or cowboy outfit.

Finally, it is the responsibility of the employer to pay the PIT not the employee. Yes they are trying to change this with each employee having thier own tax code but it has not been implemented and I suspect it wont be for another ten years. In fact, the tax dept informed my organisation that they are no longer issuing the personal tax codes. Dont know if its true but we cant get them right now. The biggest problem with the tax codes is that the govt needs effective software for this. The Viet govt spent millions of dollars for this software but unfortunately the Viet company who designed it was incompetent/corrupt and the programme was useless-welcome to The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The company director is currently rotting in a prison cell.

I am very happy to answer any questions concerning the above.

Cheers

[Belgrove]

Great post with every point covered and explained using first hand experience.

The tax code information is mind-blowing.

Thanks

[Jbhughes]

Hmm. I assumed that the 'pink slip' people were discussing was the 'Certificate of Personal Income Tax Withholding' Chứng Từ
Khấu Trừ Thuế Nhập C� Nh�n?

My company (occasionally) gives me these (although I haven't got any for one year of the years I've worked despite requests.) The accountant writes the information regarding my pay for the month on the top form of a pad that looks like it's come from the tax dept and then tears it off and hands it to me - I get Copy 2: For Tax payer Li�n 2: Giao cho người nộp thuế.

At the top of the form is the usual Socialist Republic of Vietnam header and on the left it says Ministry of Finance General Department of Taxation (at this point I'm done with writing the VNese sorry!) and on the right is a Form No., Serial No. amd No. the final one I assume is the number of the form from the pad.

Right at the bottom of the form in small writing is 'printed in a branch of Finance printing company' (that's my rough go at translating it.)

My impression from a little contact with tax depts in a couple of cities was that this document gives the holder effective proof that the taxs have been collected (withheld from pay) by a third party and that the holder is admonished from responsibility for the corresponding taxes. It was actually my going to the tax dept originally that got the school to start using these papers - perhaps a further trip is required to get my missing year back!


Your post is very thorough and you sound like you really know what you're talking about GG - so how does this pinky red document fit in with the picture?

cheers

[esbam2002]

So how do we know if they are paying the taxes, or not, since some schools claim to be taking out the taxes but are only pocketing the money....such as Little Stars School that every month took out taxes from my pay, but I didn't get a tax ID number until IPS which was the next school I worked....or do we just take them at their word, get whatever print outs we can, and hope the VNGov accepts them as proof?

I strongly have my doubts on if VATC is really paying my taxes, as they have proven, at that school at least, to be cheap....I mean really it is a certificate mill, and working new teachers on the first 2 weeks without pay....that is cheap, not to mention robbing the teacher and the students/parents paying the higher class cost to cover the wages of the teachers....

[Handyman]

I�m a little surprised to hear all the problems with VATC. I started working at the Binh Duong branch about 10 months ago and it�s one of the best schools I�ve ever worked for. And I�ve worked for a lot, but never before for VATC.

From the first day they were straight up about what my salary would be and how the taxes would work. They went through the procedure to get me a tax number. I�ve worked for other places and got the red receipt for taxes deducted so I was a little surprised at that, but they did it.

My schedule has always been regular, except for holidays, and they were more than happy to accommodate me when I had to change it. They gave me a contract with a guaranteed number of hours and never once failed to offer me the classes, usually more. They even offered make-up classes when I couldn�t work my regular shift. The guarantee was for only 8 hours a week, but that�s what I accepted.

The rate wasn�t as high as some other places, but not lowballed either, and the peace of mind more than compensated for that. I really regret that I have to quit.

[Andy123]

After many years of working here I have only had two schools ask me for my tax number. I had a student who is a high ranking officer with the tax dept. I had him check out the taxes I paid. Guess what? Nothing.

He told me everyone is issued only one number and it never changes. The schools are paying someone but who knows who?

The new trend is to sucker the young and newbies to work for little money. I guess that is business but just be honest about it.

[haller_79]

[Belgrove]

[Handyman]

haller 79 wrote:

[esbam2002]