Accelerating Tax Reforms to Facilitate Business Development

The General Department of Taxation (GDT) recently issued Decision 05/QD-TCT on Administrative Reform Plan in 2023.

Strictly controlling legal documents

A GDT representative said that the goal of public administration reform (PAR) in 2023 is accelerating comprehensive reforms by completing institutions and procedures to building and developing e-government, digital government and e-Ministry of Finance in the tax field to support the socioeconomic development and meet requirements of people and enterprises. This effort will also target to affirm the GDT’s position and role in leading and advising the Government and the Ministry of Finance to carry out tax administration reform towards building a robust national finance, and ensuring financial security, macroeconomic stability, financial and monetary system. It will mobilize, manage, distribute and use financial resources and complete the legal system on tax administration reform.

Administrative procedure reform, especially those directly for people and businesses, will stick to reality. This will be used as a measure of concrete and substantive results. Besides, tax authorities at all levels will continue to review and streamline the organizational structure and consolidate their functions to be lean, smooth, clean, strong, modern and efficient; step up decentralization of tax management; build up a strong workforce with a reasonable structure that meet title standards, employment positions and competency frameworks. They will build a tax agency model for people and businesses and improve the working performance of the sector through digital tools to change working methods and enhance the work performance of tax authorities at all levels and the quality of public service delivered to people and businesses.

To realize these goals, the GDT will build and upgrade the tax legal system, improve the effect of law enforcement, construct a unified, consistent, feasible, public, transparent, stable and accessible legal system that places legitimate rights and interests of people and businesses at the center and facilitates tax sector development. The GDT will regularly check legal documents, consider and evaluate the constitutionality and legitimacy of such documents in order to promptly handle or recommend solutions to promulgated legal documents that do not meet requirements to raise the quality and outcome of policymaking and enforcement. It will strictly control tax-related legal documents.

Slashing 25% of compliance costs by 2025

To speed up administrative reform, tax authorities at all levels need to comprehensively complete regulations on content and competency; control and assess the impact of administrative procedures right in the process of drafting legal documents and review enacted administrative procedures; reduce and simplify cumbersome and overlapping administrative procedures that trouble individuals and organizations; remove unnecessary, unreasonable documents and papers; integrate and cut unnecessary or replicated forms, declarations and papers by applying digital technologies and using available databases. In particular, tax authorities need to further review and propose plans to reduce and simplify business regulations to make sure that at least 20% of regulations will be cut and simplified by 2025, and compliance costs relating to business regulations will be slashed by at least 20%.

At least 80% of valid administrative procedures within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Taxation will be digitized, connected and shared in the electronic medium. At least 50% of people and businesses are not required to provide accepted information, papers and documents upon successful settlement of previous administrative procedures. The receipt and return of all administrative settlement results is guaranteed to be in time for individuals and organizations to enhance the public and business satisfaction with the service of tax authorities.

By Hien Kien, Vietnam Business Forum