A lot of Vietnamese companies are still complaining about tax procedures in spite of many reforms. Recently, the USAID Governance for Inclusive Growth Program (USAID GIG) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) coordinated with the General Department of Taxation (under the Ministry of Finance) to organise a workshop titled “Improving the Business Environment through Tax Reforms” to shed light on the above matters.
Mr Nguyen Quang Tien, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee for Reform and Modernisation under the General Department of Taxation, said that the Prime Minister adopted the Tax Reform Strategy for the 2011 - 2020 period and Resolutions 19/NQ-CP of the Government in 2014, 2015 and 2016 stated very specific goals of reducing tax-related procedure burden to improve the business environment. Accordingly, by the end of 2020, Vietnam will be one of the Top 4 countries in Southeast Asia by the ease of time of executing tax administrative procedures. By 2020, at least 90 per cent of companies will use electronic tax services; 65 per cent will register and declare taxes via electronic media, and 80 per cent of taxpayers will be satisfied with services provided by tax authorities.
He added that the tax service has worked hard to issue many legal documents to support the enforcement of this strategy to simplify tax management policies and procedures in recent years. According to the General Department of Taxation, in 2016, the time of tax payment has reached the average level of ASEAN 6 countries. But, according to the World Bank (WB), the business environment of Vietnam increased three places in 2016 over 2014, from No. 93 to No. 90. The overall tax index rose five places to No. 168 from No. 173.
Mr Pham Ngoc Thach from the Legal Department under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said that, in a survey on business satisfaction of reformed tax administrative procedures in 2014, VCCI surveyed 10,000 businesses and received feedback from 2,500 respondents. Results showed that 51 per cent of respondents acknowledged the ease of accessing central tax laws and policies and 79 per cent said information on tax administrative procedures was available and easy to find. 70 per cent of surveyed enterprises met obstacles in learning tax policies and laws. In encountering obstacles, a majority sent questions to local tax authorities and 77 per cent were satisfied with answers.
Ms Nguyen Minh Thao, Deputy Director of the Business Environment Committee under the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said the time of paying taxes and social security insurances has been reduced to 102 hours, thus climbing four places in the WB business environment rankings, but its position was still low relative to other countries in the region. She said that the ratio of tax and social insurance payments to earnings in Vietnam was still as high as 39.4 per cent. Of the sum, social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance accounted for 24.8 per cent and corporate income tax made up for 14.5 per cent and other taxes took 0.1 per cent. Compared with other countries in the region, this ratio was still lower than that in the Philippines (42.9 per cent) and Malaysia (40 per cent) but it was 2 times and 1.5 times higher than that in Singapore and Thailand, respectively.
Ms Nguyen Thi Cuc, Chairperson of the Vietnam Tax Consultants Association, said although the General Department of Taxation and relevant agencies have made remarkable reforms, taxpayers and businesses are, in fact, still much bemoaning this reality. For example, some localities are offering incentives inappropriate with central laws to lure more investors, thus troubling companies in measuring investment effectiveness and tax preferences. In addition, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) do not have timely access to changed legal regulations beneficial to them. Rapid innovation policies, communications infrastructure and databases are not timely changed for effective implementation.
She added that Vietnam now has more than 500,000 enterprises and over 1.5 million business households paying taxes. Hence, tax officers must meet higher professional qualifications. Tax reform means institutional reform and management reform. Sadly, 70 per cent of tax officials fail to meet management requirements. And, current pressing issues are training and upgrading qualifications and expertise of tax officials managing SMEs and business households. They must also obey the code of conduct to perform their duties better.
Anh Phuong
Vietnamese
