Still troublesome when carrying out tax administrative procedures

Although the tax sector has made many efforts to reform administrative procedures, and the level of digital transformation in Vietnam's tax sector is higher than many other countries in the ASEAN region, many businesses and people still encounter troubles when carrying out tax administrative procedures.

Some specific examples of the above situation were presented by Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc, President of the Tax Consulting Association, at the workshop "Tax and a healthy financial system for sustainable development" organized by Lao Dong Newspaper on the afternoon of December 18.

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Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc, President of the Tax Consulting Association. Photo: Lao Dong Newspaper.

Ms. Cuc said that in January, February, and March, workers have very high salaries because of the Lunar New Year and Solar New Year bonuses, at which time personal income tax is high and must be paid immediately. In the following months, even if the income is not high, it will still be until March of the following year that the deduction can be calculated when making the personal income tax finalization. In this case, the taxpayer's money has been in the state budget for more than 10 months.

Ms. Cuc expressed concern that if the state budget is misappropriated by taxpayers, taxpayers will be fined, but no one has been held responsible when taxpayers and businesses are late in getting back the overpaid tax.

Another story was reported by the Chairman of the Tax Consulting Association: There was a couple who livestreamed selling goods on TikTok for 17 hours, sold 100 billion VND, the actual revenue was 86 billion VND. The next day, they sold 150 billion VND. If they do not register for tax, they will have to pay tax on salary and wages, tax rates from 5 - 35%. If they register for tax, they may only have to pay 1.5% (1% value added tax and 0.5% personal income tax. They really want to pay tax but do not know how to pay because they do not have a business location (online business).

“What needs to be done so that individuals and businesses can fulfill their tax obligations in the most convenient way? Then, compliance will be higher, reducing tax evasion, not only bringing benefits to taxpayers but also reducing risks for tax authorities,” Ms. Cuc recommended.

In addition, Ms. Cuc also expressed concerns about the VAT refund story. Participating in the production chain are many entities F1, F2, F3, F4, F5... For example, enterprises purchase wood from forest planting households and then sell it to wood processing and exporting enterprises. If just one F has a problem with invoices and documents, the wood exporting enterprise will not be refunded VAT. Therefore, according to Ms. Cuc, it is necessary to find solutions to support legitimate businesses.

Also at the workshop, Mr. Hoang Quang Phong, Vice President of the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), cited figures from the business environment survey conducted by VCCI in 2024: Up to 31% of businesses still encounter difficulties in implementing tax administrative procedures, especially micro, small and medium enterprises.

“There are still cumbersome tax administrative procedures. Despite many improvements, the process of tax declaration, payment, refund and finalization is still complicated, causing time-consuming and costly expenses for businesses. Some tax regulations have not been interpreted or applied consistently between central and local management agencies, leading to a lack of transparency and unpredictability for businesses,” Mr. Phong commented.

AI will be applied to tax management

Taking note of comments from experts and businesses, Mr. Mai Son, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation, said: In 2025, the tax sector will redesign the business process in tax management, minimize overlapping stages, focus on supporting businesses and taxpayers, promptly detect and handle risks to ensure a healthy business environment.

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Mr. Mai Son, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation. Photo: Lao Dong Newspaper

The General Department of Taxation will continue to build a big data database, promote the application of AI (artificial intelligence) in management to assess the "health" of businesses and taxpayers, thereby advising the Ministry of Finance, the Government, and the National Assembly to propose reasonable fiscal policy packages, remove difficulties and obstacles regarding taxes for taxpayers. The Virtual Assistant (chatbot) system being piloted at the Hanoi Tax Department will be replicated nationwide.

Mr. Pham Quang Toan, Director of the Department of Information Technology, General Department of Taxation, provided more information on some highlights in tax administrative procedure reform in 2025.

Tomorrow (December 19), the Electronic Information Portal for households/individuals engaged in e-commerce and digital business will be officially launched, allowing households/individuals to more conveniently register, declare, and pay e-commerce tax. In the immediate future, it will effectively support 500,000 households and individuals engaged in e-commerce and digital business activities.

In the first quarter of 2025, the Tax sector will deploy process automation and apply information technology to automatically respond to personal income tax refunds to reduce compliance time and costs for taxpayers.

In January 2025, a pilot program will be launched to use organization identification accounts to use electronic services of tax authorities, and will be widely deployed before July 2025.

In the third quarter of 2025, the Tax sector will implement the use of personal identification codes instead of personal tax codes.

“From 2021 to now, the Tax sector has simplified administrative procedures from 304 to 235 procedures, saving nearly 600 billion VND in tax administrative procedure compliance costs for taxpayers, integrating 122/235 administrative procedures into the National Public Service Portal,” said Mr. Mai Son, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation.