Launch of the portal for foreign providers and introduction of eTax mobile application

The Minister of Finance, leaders of the General Department of Taxation and representatives of VCCI and banks performed the launching ceremony

Continue to research and upgrade

According to the General Department of Taxation, e-commerce activities have received the attention of many countries around the world because of their great contributions to socio-economic growth, especially when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.

It can be said that amid the 4th industrial revolution, e-commerce is increasingly promoting its advantages, playing an extremely important role, becoming a new business method and becoming more and more popular on a global scale.

In Vietnam, e-commerce activities are currently in a booming period with a very high annual growth rate. According to the Vietnam E-commerce White Paper, in 2020, the growth rate of e-commerce reached 18%, the scale reached US$11.8 billion and Vietnam was the only country in Southeast Asia that achieved e-commerce growth in double digits.

Many large corporations such as Google have made comments on the possibility that the scale of Vietnam's digital economy would exceed the threshold of US$52 billion and hold 3rd position in the ASEAN region by 2025.

This required appropriate and timely adaptations, not only in order to effectively manage but also create conditions to promote the development of e-commerce activities; create a level playing field between traditional business and e-commerce business, between domestic business activities and cross-border business activities.

On March 21, the General Department of Taxation officially announced and launched the portal for foreign providers and the introduction of the eTax mobile application. After that, the General Department of Taxation will continue to work with units to deploy task groups to smoothly operate the applications and continue to improve limitations (if any) in order to improve and develop more modern and safe digital tax services for people and businesses as well as promote digital transformation in tax management activities.

Accordingly, the General Department of Taxation continues to maintain and operate the portal for foreign providers and eTax mobile application to ensure continuous and stable operation 24/7. Promoting communication on mass media and information channels to support taxpayers to fully and easily access as well as using electronic tax services to fulfill tax obligations.

Along with that, the General Department of Taxation will strengthen support, regularly review, inspect and supervise the implementation of tax registration, declaration and payment of foreign suppliers to ensure compliance with the law and transparency in the performance of obligations to the State.

The General Department of Taxation will continue to research, upgrade, integrate and add new features and utilities to meet the needs of foreign suppliers in the process of implementing tax obligation and complying with tax regulations in Vietnam in order to improve the efficiency of tax administration for cross-border business activities based on digital platforms.

Furthermore, timely adapting to development and new production and business models and methods in the digital transformation era; expanding the eTax application for businesses and developing other digital tax services for tax management.

Need multidisciplinary coordination

Speaking at the conference, Director General of Taxation Cao Anh Tuan said that with the goal of putting taxpayers as the service center, with the high determination and efforts of the tax sector and the support of the business community, businesses, people, especially foreign suppliers, the operation and implementation of the electronic portal for foreign suppliers as well as the deployment of the eTax Mobile of tax sector would bring great efficiency, creating a good premise for the tax sector in particular and the Finance sector in general to successfully complete the political tasks assigned by the Party, National Assembly and Government.

The Director General of Taxation suggested that the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises promote the use of electronic tax services for the business community and taxpayers.

At the same time, it is suggested that the leaders of commercial banks should direct and closely coordinate with the General Department of Taxation to develop a specific plan and roadmap so that they can soon connect to the eTax Mobile application, diversifying options for taxpayers to fulfill their tax obligations, especially 54 banks that have signed cooperation agreements on tax collection via banks with the General Department of Taxation. Currently, only five banks, namely Vietcombank, Vietinbank, BIDV, MBank and Agribank, have completed the connection with tax authorities.

Therefore, General Director of Taxation Cao Anh Tuan asked the remaining banks to urgently deploy this. The General Department of Taxation will actively coordinate and support banks in making connections.

For the Large Corporate Tax Department, besides 64 foreign suppliers that need support in declarations, the leaders of the General Department of Taxation also suggested the unit continue reviewing to provide timely support for other foreign suppliers wishing to declare directly through the Portal.

For transactions of suppliers who have not been declared through the portal, the unit should closely work with the Department of Tax Administration of Small Enterprises and Individuals, the Tax Declaration Department and Tax authorities at all levels to deduct tax at source for Vietnamese organizations and individuals that pay an income.

In particular, Mr. Cao Anh Tuan asked Tax authorities at all levels to continue to implement solutions and measures to communicate, support and guide taxpayers to use electronic tax services via the eTax Mobile application, facilitating taxpayers, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.