Taxpayer’s satisfaction is the measure of effective Tax sector reform

Mr. Nguyễn Đại Trí

It is known that the champion of the APCI 2018 rankings is the administrative procedure group of Tax, with the lowest compliance costs and the shortest time to carry out tax procedures. How does this relate to the application of information technology to state management in the tax field?

The results of Vietnam’s administrative reform in recent years have been recognized by the international community. Most of the reforms implemented by the Vietnamese tax authorities are reflected in the assessment of the results of the Vietnam Tax Payment Index in the Doing Business report from the World Bank. This reflects the proper policy about administrative reform of the Government, together with the close supervision of the Ministry of Finance and the drastic efforts of the whole tax sector.

Administrative reform was a process and synchronous implementation of many solutions from institutional reform, reform of tax administration organization ... and one of the indispensable factors for reform was the application of information technology into the work of State management in the field of taxation.

The electronic tax services provided to businesses such as online tax declaration, electronic tax payment and electronic tax refund help businesses to reduce travel time for lodging dossiers and payment. The information that is declared and payment transactions made by an enterprise are stored on the tax authorities’ system. Thus it can be easily retrieved to reduce enterprises’ management costs, and they do not have to provide information again to the regulatory authorities for electronic dossiers submitted to the tax authorities.

The Tax sector also coordinated with other authorities in the information exchange, and processing of information also contributed to the administrative procedure reform, such as coordinating with the business registration authorities helped to process business registration dossiers of enterprises faster; coordinate with the land registration authorities to reduce travel time and processing time of land use right holders; exchange information with the customs authorities, helped businesses to lodge customs declaration only once when applying for a tax refund; coordinate with the Traffic Police Department and the Register Department to implement administrative reform on processing dossiers of Registration of Automobiles and Motorbikes.

In addition, the application of information technology in management helps tax officials process information better, facilitating the promotion of post-audit, from which the processing time of dossiers will be quicker. Examples: tax filing assistance, tax refund control, risk analysis, etc.

Thus, it could be said that the low compliance cost of administrative procedures was closely related to the application of information technology to state management. Obviously, the results of the electronic tax declaration and payment solution ... have created a gap in the compliance costs of the tax procedure with other procedures and demonstrate that the trend of electronization in administrative procedures is inevitable.

Could you tell us the difficulties in the implementation of administrative reform?

Besides the achievements, administrative reform of tax has encountered many difficulties. These are some administrative procedures that take time for amending legal documents, regulations and related procedures.

In addition, the strengthening for expansion of e-tax services to individuals who are facing difficulties about regulations in the self-authentication. The implementation of electronic tax payment services for individuals also faced difficulties due to the habit of using cash. In addition, the National Database on Population has not been formed, leading to a number of administrative procedures related to taxpayers which have to wait for the completion of the National Database on population, thus it could be reformed better.

Moreover, the reform of administrative procedures involves many authorities. Therefore, the reform is only successful when all stages are determined to reform and implement synchronously. Some reforms for administrative taxation procedures have to wait for the administrative reform of Ministries and other sectors, such as some formalities need to have confirmation from competent authorities for authentication.

The collaboration with external agencies for information exchange is complex and time-consuming, it takes a number of steps, from connection for testing until the system is ready to be deployed. In addition, the Coordination Status should be developed and signed as a basis for implementation.

The progress of administrative reform has also slowed down as policy changes.

In general, the administrative reform has never been difficult, especially in the context of the industrial revolution 4.0, since Vietnam is building e-government, moving towards digital government, developing e-commerce , big data ... All are changing the business model and operational methods in all areas, thus requiring the tax sector to make appropriate reforms in order to meet this change...

What are the motivations for the General Department of Taxation to continue to contribute their effort in the implementation of administrative reform?

In fact, the complexity and lack of information of administrative procedures of taxation increases the cost of compliance and causes discomfort to taxpayers when implementing procedures. In contrast, if the administrative taxation procedures were simplified, it would make taxpayers feel satisfied, reinforce trust and increase the cooperation of taxpayers.

In the administrative reform, besides the objective of cutting down compliance costs for taxpayers, the Tax sector is always focusing on facilitating taxpayers in the implementation of administrative procedures from searching, accessing information, making dossiers, sending and receiving the results ...

The Tax sector always sets enterprises and taxpayers as the center and taxpayers' satisfaction as a measure and motivation in the implementation of administrative procedures.

The work of tax administration has been improved day by day from the administrative reform. The tax sector also benefited from implementing the reform. In fact, the tax administration has improved remarkably in recent years: propaganda and support; tax Administration; the inspection and control has applied the risk management method in all stages based on the centralized database of taxpayers, improving the effectiveness of inspection and examination.

In the process of global integration, the administrative reform is an inevitable objective. The administrative reform of tax has contributed to improving the national competitive environment. It is known that foreign investment has been increasing steadily over the years. Along with that, the recognition and evaluation of ranking organizations in the world, such as by the World Bank (WB), World Economic Forum and Forbes magazine, is also the driving force for administrative reform in general and administrative reform of tax in particular.

The goods results from the assessment of organizations in coordination with tax authorities such as commercial banks, business registration authorities - Ministry of Planning and Investment, land registration authorities under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and taxpayers' satisfaction, is a measure of the effectiveness of the tax reform.

Thank you so much!