The Government is particularly interested in reforming the tax sector, as this is closely related to the financial activities of enterprises. Therefore, the important task of the sector from now until the end of the year is to reform administrative procedures, improve the investment and business environment, and closely manage budget revenues.
Inspection: How to avoid duplication and still be effective?
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In the first six months of 2017, tax authorities at all levels inspected and examined 36,664 enterprises, reaching 40.5% of the yearly plan, equal to 111.7% of the same period in 2016. The total tax revenue increased through inspection and examination was 7,643.9 billion VND, equal to 134.07% of the same period. The amount of tax paid to the budget was 3,429.92 billion VND, reaching 44.87% of the tax revenue increased through inspection and examination and equal to 147.42% compared to the same period in 2016.
According to statistics from localities, the progress of inspection and examination of the whole industry in the past 6 months has only reached 40% of the plan, in which some localities have a very low rate of inspection and examination. The inspection progress is low, but according to the reflection of some enterprises, although there is a provincial inspection plan, there is still overlap between some agencies such as audit, provincial inspection, tax… inspecting more than once a year…
Regarding this issue, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan analyzed: Directive 20 of the Prime Minister on rectifying inspection and examination activities with enterprises, in which the important point is that when building and approving the annual inspection plan, there should not be a situation of inspection and examination more than once a year for enterprises. However, Directive 20 also allows for enterprises with signs of violations, the competent authorities still have the right to inspect and examine. Especially in the field of tax, there are subjects with high tax risks, so there needs to be inspection to prevent revenue loss.
Furthermore, in tax administration, there are many activities that require inspection as prescribed to prevent tax losses, for example VAT refund activities.
Strict inspection and examination of high-risk enterprises will improve taxpayers’ compliance with the law, contributing to building a healthy and fair business environment. It is important that units must build a tax database, identify high-risk subjects, and reduce inspections of subjects with no signs of risk and good compliance.
Therefore, the leaders of the Ministry of Finance require units to thoroughly grasp the spirit of Prime Minister’s Directive 20 on business inspection, but must ensure strict management.
Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan also assigned the task to the inspection agency to coordinate and create a more unified mechanism with relevant ministries, branches and localities to minimize duplication between units. It is even necessary to review inspection mechanisms within the organization, for example, coordination between tax refund inspection, pre-refund inspection, post-clearance inspection of customs… to ensure duplication is limited, creating convenience for businesses but not leaving loopholes for tax loss.
Improving the legal mechanism is a long-term step, to both reform the administration, create favorable conditions associated with implementing strict tax management, and prevent tax losses. Therefore, regarding the long-term mechanism, Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan requested that officials participating in tax policy development must actively contribute to the drafting of the Law amending 5 tax-related laws on schedule, ensuring quality for submission to the National Assembly. The draft not only focuses on solving technical problems, but must have a vision to contribute to promoting the economy, national integration, preventing tax losses, and creating a legal basis for tax administrative reform.
Need to apply information technology more comprehensively
Electronic tax
According to Mr. Cao Anh Tuan, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation, in the first 6 months of 2017, tax declaration management had positive results when the rate of tax declarations submitted/to be submitted reached 93%; the rate of tax declarations on time and submitted reached 93%; the rate of taxpayers submitting tax declarations online reached 99.81%.
Mr. Cao Anh Tuan said that the application of information technology (IT) in tax management has always been given attention and focus, meeting the requirements for implementing new processes and policies and the requirements for amending policies to simplify administrative procedures, reduce the number of hours of tax compliance according to the direction of the Prime Minister; completing all functions of supporting the establishment of a new cycle of non-agricultural land use tax (2017-2021); building and upgrading applications to meet the application of risks in tax management; continuing to develop specialized tax facilities by implementing the Project “Upgrading the architecture of the tax industry database warehouse and the data mining system, synthesizing reports to serve tax management”.
However, the main content of IT application deployment is still tax declaration and payment, without many clear quantitative results in the first half of 2017. In fact, IT application in the tax field is very broad, not only in the field of tax declaration and payment.
Therefore, the leaders of the General Department of Taxation requested that in the coming time, units continue to promote the implementation of electronic tax payment (ETP). Strive to complete the implementation of the E-TIP service on all 3 criteria by December 31, 2017 (95% of enterprises register to use the E-TIP service; 95% of tax payment transactions in the month are made by the E-TIP method; 95% of tax payment amount in the month is made by the E-TIP method).
Continue to expand the declaration and payment of registration fees for house rental activities, registration fees, and personal income tax for real estate transfers. Pilot implementation of declaration and payment of registration fees for cars and motorbikes.
Continue to pilot implementation, gradually expand the implementation of electronic VAT for business individuals through authorized tax collection organizations. Continue to implement VAT refunds electronically at level 4, striving to achieve at least 70% of the number of procedures and 70% of the number of VAT refund records resolved in the fourth quarter of 2017 according to the direction of the Prime Minister in Directive No. 26/CT-TTg dated June 6, 2017.
The leaders of the Ministry of Finance also requested the unit to focus on drafting the Government Decree on electronic invoices and organizing its implementation so that in 2018, the application of electronic invoices can be synchronously deployed based on a complete tax database.
Thus, from now until the end of the year, the tax sector must carry out in parallel the tasks assigned by the Government and the Ministry of Finance. That is, implementing Directive 26/CT-TTg on continuing to implement Resolution No. 35 of the Government in the spirit of the Government accompanying enterprises and Directive No. 14/CT-TTg dated April 19, 2017 of the Prime Minister on focusing on directing and implementing the State financial and budgetary tasks in 2017.
– Excerpt from Baochinhphu.vn –