Regulating some articles of Law on Tax Administration to facilitate taxpayers

In the process of implementing Decree 126/2020/ND-CP, several unclear provisions need to be amended and supplemented. Photo provided by General of Taxation

According to the Ministry of Finance, Decree 126/2020/ND-CP has created a legal basis for modern tax management, reducing administrative procedures, facilitating people and businesses, promoting information technology application in line with international practices, and enhancing law compliance and enforcement by taxpayers and tax authorities.

However, in the process of implementing Decree 126/2020/ND-CP, several unclear provisions need to be amended and supplemented to create a unified and convenient legal basis for the implementation.

On March 11, 2022, the Ministry of Finance issued Official Letter No. 2377/BTC-TCT reporting to the Prime Minister requesting the issuance of a Decree amending and supplementing several articles of Decree 126/2020/Decree-CP following the order, simplified procedures, and the decree takes effect from the date of signing. On April 1, 2022, the Government Office sent an official dispatch to notify the opinion of the Government leaders, agreeing to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14 and Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP stipulate the deadlines for submitting tax declaration dossiers, tax payment deadlines, and deadlines for tax authorities handling dossiers, the validity period of decisions on enforcement of administrative judgments on tax administration that is calculated according to calendar days. In practice, the case that the last day of the deadlines mentioned above is a weekend or a public holiday. However, in Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP, there is no regulation on this issue, leading to difficulties for tax authorities and taxpayers in implementation.

The Ministry of Finance considered that it needed to supplement regulations for the case, that is, the last day of the deadline for submitting tax declaration dossiers, the time limit for tax payment, and the time limit for the tax authority to handle the dossier. The time limit for coercion coincided with a weekend or a public holiday. Therefore, the last day of the time limit shall be counted as the next working day to have a basis for uniform implementation. Therefore, in the draft Decree amending and supplementing many articles of Decree 126/2020/ND-CP, the Ministry of Finance has added Article 6a of Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP by following this direction.

Along with that, according to the provisions of Clauses 1 and 2, Article 8 of Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP, organizations and individuals that pay incomes from salaries and wages are responsible for declaring tax on their behalf and paying tax on their behalf on a monthly or quarterly basis. However, Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP did not stipulate that income is paid. Still, no tax deduction is incurred. Therefore, income-paying organizations or individuals must declare tax on their behalf or not.

Therefore, in the draft Decree amending and supplementing many articles of Decree 126/2020/ND-CP, it has increased point e, Clause 3, Article 7 of Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP stipulating the case that organizations and individuals do not incur tax deduction for personal income tax, they are not required to submit personal income tax declaration dossiers.