On the afternoon of October 6, at the Ministry of Finance's regular Q3 press briefing, Trinh Thi Huong, Deputy Director of the Department of Private Sector and Collective Economic Development (Ministry of Finance), said the department had received reports of about 4,000 cases in which people's personal details were used to set up organizations or businesses without their knowledge.Dân trí
Put simply, that is a count of complaints, not of cases confirmed as identity misuse. According to VTV, the reports came in through the eTax Mobile app and the tax authority's hotline.VTV This piece follows the order in which an affected person would act: check your own name, file a report, then understand what the 6-month mark from Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi does and does not mean.
How a person's name ends up on a company
Huong explained that business registration currently runs on self-declaration: applicants state the information and take responsibility for it. That makes it quick to set up a company. But in her view, the same openness can be exploited to put someone else's personal details on a business, especially as personal data leaks more easily.
These cases surfaced as the tax authority ran a campaign to clean up tax codes, reviewing and closing codes of businesses that have stopped operating. According to Le Long, Deputy Director of the General Department of Taxation (Ministry of Finance), as of September 20 tax offices had terminated the tax codes of nearly 109,000 businesses, branches and organizations, up 25% from the end of 2025.VietNamNet Once officials trace each abandoned tax code, the names behind them come to light. Some people only then learn they are the "director" of a company they have never heard of.
So the real concern is timing of discovery. Victims often find out late, after the company has built up a tax record or even abandoned its business address.
Step 1: Check your own name before the tax office calls
There are three places to look, all doable on a phone.
The national business registration portal (dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn). In the business search, you can search by the name of the legal representative. If an unfamiliar company shows up, note its name, business ID, registered address and status, and take a screenshot.
The tax authority's taxpayer lookup page (tracuunnt.gdt.gov.vn). It lets you search by tax code, name, or the representative's ID number. Check whether any company's tax code is tied to your ID card number.
The eTax Mobile app. According to VnBusiness, since August 23 the app lets individuals look up companies and household businesses where they are listed as representative or owner, and submit a report in the app if they see signs of unauthorized use of their details.VnBusiness
Separately, if an organization has declared paying income to you when it never did, you can report it in eTax Mobile under "Tax finalization lookup", in the personal income tax finalization support section.VTV This is close to, but not the same as, having a company set up in your name: your name may have been used to book payroll expenses without being used to found a company.
Step 2: Where to file, and what to include
At the briefing, a tax authority representative recommended that anyone who finds they have been impersonated promptly notify the tax office and the business registration office, with documents showing they took no part in the company's activities or transactions. Where the company has abandoned its address, the tax authority advises also reporting to the police for verification and investigation.VTV
In practice, the file should go to three places in parallel. The provincial business registration office where the company is based has the authority to revoke its registration certificate. The tax office that manages the company, or the online channel in eTax Mobile, is where your real tax obligations get separated from those created by someone else using your name. The police verify the signatures and papers in the incorporation file and look for whoever is actually behind it.
The sources do not yet list a standard set of required documents. A sensible package includes a signed statement saying you did not found, authorize, invest in or run the company; a copy of your ID card; screenshots of the lookup results above; and any notice from the tax office. The single most important item is a receipt or reference number showing the date your file was received. The reason lies in the 6-month mark below.
On the legal basis, point a, clause 1, Article 212 of the 2020 Law on Enterprises provides that a company's registration certificate is revoked if the information in its registration file is falsified.LuatVietnam Huong said that once a competent authority reaches a verification conclusion, the information is passed to the tax and business registration offices to revoke the certificate. In other words, your report is only the starting point. The certificate does not lapse the moment you file, and while you wait, the company stays linked to your name.
Step 3: Read the 6-month mark correctly
At the briefing, reporters raised cases of impersonation left unresolved for 3 to 4 years. According to VnExpress, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi said he had no confirmation of those cases and asked the relevant units to look into the reasons.VnExpress
He said that if people have sent a request and supplied a complete file to the business registration office, and after 6 months it still has not been reviewed or resolved, they should report back to the Ministry of Finance so it can direct a response.Dân trí "Six months is already a lot," he said, and asked the press to pass such cases on to the Ministry. Three points in that remark deserve a close read.
First, the 6-month mark is a remark at a press briefing, not a regulation. No document was cited with it. It gives victims grounds to knock on the Ministry's door, but it does not require the registration office to finish within 6 months.
Second, it is tied to the condition of a "complete file" sent, and does not run from the day you discover the problem. Someone who found out long ago but filed nothing has not started the clock. Someone who filed incomplete papers and was asked to supplement them will most likely see the clock start when the supplement is done. That is why a dated receipt matters more than anything else in the file.
Third, amending the law to block impersonation is still at the research stage. According to Huong, following the Ministry leadership's direction, the department is studying options to amend the Law on Enterprises, including measures to limit impersonation. The sources give no draft or timeline. Anyone affected now has to follow current procedure rather than wait for a new law.
Consequences: what is sourced and what is not
According to VnExpress, many individuals have recently reported that use of their details to set up businesses led to tax obligations, temporary exit bans and prolonged waits for verification.VnExpress Deputy Minister Chi also said delays could affect other rights of those impersonated.
On tax, a tax authority representative said that once someone is identified as a victim, the local tax office will review the case, separate that person's actual obligations from those created by the unauthorized use of their details, and adjust according to the verification result. In other words, the impersonating company's tax debt does not automatically become yours, but the separation only happens after a conclusion is reached.
On credit, the October 6 sources cite no specific case. Merely being listed as a company representative does not mean you took out or guaranteed any loan. Risk arises only if a loan file carries your actual identity details.
Bottom line: check your name and keep a dated receipt
If you have never checked, look yourself up on all three channels this week, even if you have received no notice. The roughly 4,000 reports so far came to light as the tax authority closed tax codes, meaning the impersonating companies had already been running for some time.
If you have already found a case, the sensible approach is to file in parallel with the business registration office, the tax office and the police, and keep a receipt showing the date your file was fully received. If more than 6 months have passed since that date with no review result, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi's remark is grounds to report straight to the Ministry of Finance. It cannot replace a verification conclusion, but it sets a limit on how long your file should wait.