Vietnam continues to promulgate solutions on tax, charge in line with the development of Covid-19 pandemic

Representatives of tax authorities of Asian countries spoke at the SGATAR Conference.

Speaking at the meeting, the representative of the General Department of Taxation said that the past two years had been extremely difficult and challenging times for most countries and territories around the world.

Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, this had directly affected the SGATAR Meeting in 2020.

Especially in 2021, the outbreak of Covid-19 on a global scale seriously affected all socio-economic aspects of countries around the world. Vietnam was no exception when the Covid-19 pandemic seriously impacted the economy - society, affecting people's lives and health.

"Although we hope to have a day when Covid-19 is completely eliminated, at this time, with the rapidly changing and unpredictable situation, it required us to change our perception, adjust our approach, to be adaptive, flexible and safe in the new normal. Not only effectively controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, but also promoting socio-economic recovery and development," the leader of the General Department of Taxation said.

The representative of the General Department of Taxation also said that, as soon as the pandemic broke out in early 2020, the Vietnamese Government implemented many solutions to support people and businesses, in order to help the economy overcome the challenges of the pandemic. Vietnam's tax authorities have also advised deploying a number of solutions and support tools on taxes, fees, and charges.

Specifically, in 2020, the National Assembly issued a Resolution on reducing 30% of paying corporate income tax for enterprises and cooperatives with a turnover of not more than VND200 billion; reducing 30% of environmental protection tax on aviation fuel from August 1, 2020; the Government promulgated a Decree on extending deadlines of tax payment and land rent for taxpayers facing difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; Decree on extending the time limit for paying excise tax on domestically produced automobiles; the Prime Minister promulgated the Decisions on reducing the payable land rent in 2020; import tax exemption for medical products serving prevention of the Covid-19 pandemic; reducing the collection of more than 30 lines of fees and charges; the total value of solution packages on tax exemption, tax reduction, extension deadline of tax payment, fees and land rent in 2020 is over VND129,000 billion.

By the beginning of 2021, on the basis of closely monitoring and assessing the pandemic, the National Assembly, the Government and the Prime Minister promptly issued Resolutions and Decrees on continuing to extend the solution packages on tax exemption, tax reduction, deadline extension of tax payment, fees and land rent in 2021 for taxpayers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic; at the same time, reviewing and supplementing a number of solution packages on tax exemption for business households and individuals in localities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021; exemption of late payment interest arising in 2020, 2021 of tax debts, land use levy, land rent for enterprises and organizations that incur losses in the tax period of 2020. Total support solution packages in 2021 to over VND138,000 billion.

Tax and fee solutions were issued and implemented in a timely manner, recognized and appreciated by the people and business community, effectively supporting the response to the negative effects of the pandemic, and removing difficulties and stabilizing production and business activities, restarting the economy, leaders of the General Department of Taxation affirmed.

Also speaking at the conference, the General Department of Taxation said Vietnam's tax authorities have continued to promote the application of information technology in tax. Accordingly, the scope of implementation of tax registration, tax declaration and electronic tax payment systems has been expanded. Up to now, 100% of transactions are transmitted and received electronically for tax registration; over 99.6% of businesses make electronic tax declarations; over 98.7% of businesses pay taxes electronically.

The promotion of the implementation of electronic tax services made it convenient for taxpayers to carry out administrative procedures with the tax agency entirely online without having to go directly to the head office of Tax authorities, which is especially relevant in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Currently, the Vietnam Tax Agency is continuing to promote the implementation of electronic tax declaration and payment services to support individual taxpayers such as: electronic registration fee payment for automobiles and motorbikes; electronic tax payment for individuals earning income from salaries and wages; individual offering house for rent services.

Notably, in December, the General Department of Taxation will officially operate the eTax application on mobile devices, supporting individual and corporate taxpayers to look up tax obligations and pay taxes via mobile phones. This could be seen as a great effort of the Vietnamese tax authorities, adding an effective tool to support people and businesses more conveniently in fulfilling their obligations to the State.

Simultaneously, the tax agency's support for taxpayers was also promoted to implement via electronic methods such as: organizing training classes, online business dialogues, effectively using communication channels, social networks to speed up the support and solving problems through the electronic form in order to meet the needs of the majority of taxpayers. The General Department of Taxation has also established 479 information channels of the entire tax sector to receive and support taxpayers online 24/7.

On the basis of summarizing and evaluating the implementation of the solutions issued, closely monitoring the situation of the pandemic, the production and business activities of enterprises and people in all industries. At the same time, studying measures on fiscal policy in general and tax in particular of countries around the world. Vietnam would continue to issue solutions on taxes, fees and charges in the future in line with the actual developments of the Covid-19 pandemic and promote production and business activities. Furthermore, continuing to promote administrative procedures reform, develop tax policies and serve taxpayers.