The Law on Tax Administration minimizes tax administrative procedures.

Ms. Le Thi Duyen Hai, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Tax Consulting Association, former Head of the Tax Declaration and Accounting Department, Department of Taxation (Ministry of Finance) said that amending the Law on Tax Administration must be consistent with digital transformation, modernization and application of technology to minimize tax administrative procedures.

Ms. Le Thi Duyen Hai, Deputy General Secretary of Vietnam Tax Consultants Association, former Head of Tax Declaration and Accounting Department, Tax Department ( Ministry of Finance ).

What is your assessment when approaching the Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended)?

The current Law on Tax Administration has 17 chapters and 152 articles, while the Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) has only 9 chapters and 53 articles. Thus, the spirit of the Draft Law has closely followed the direction of General Secretary To Lam that the promulgated law is only a principle, a basic legal framework for legal documents to adhere to in order to specify details. As for detailed and specific regulations, the Government is assigned to issue decrees and ministries and branches to issue guiding circulars.

The way to build new legal documents, including the Law on Tax Administration, is also the trend of law building in countries around the world, because only then will legal documents be stable, have a long "lifespan", and not need to be amended, supplemented, or newly built every time objective factors change or become outdated quickly compared to the development of the economy and society.

In general, it can be said that the Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) has institutionalized the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's legal policies on digital transformation, modernization and application of technology in tax administration to improve the capacity and efficiency of tax administration activities.

Is there anything new in the issuance of guiding legal documents after the Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) was passed, Madam?

After the Law on Tax Administration (amended) is promulgated by the National Assembly (expected at the 10th Session at the end of this year), unlike before when the Government only issued a few decrees guiding a number of articles specifically regulated in the law, now the Government will issue many guiding decrees, then the Ministry of Finance will issue an even larger number of guiding circulars, so it is impossible to say anything at this time.

However, businesses, organizations, individuals, and generally taxpayers, can rest assured because recently, speaking to the business community, economic experts and the press during the consultation on the Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) chaired by the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director of the Tax Department (Ministry of Finance) affirmed that the new Law on Tax Administration will be simplified, eliminating at least 44% of tax administrative procedures, invoices and documents that are not really necessary.

Mr. Minh also pledged not to issue any additional tax administrative procedures, especially guidance documents related to invoice procedures, tax declaration, tax calculation, tax settlement, tax refund, and tax exemption, in order to create maximum conditions for businesses and people when carrying out tax procedures.

Does this mean taxpayers will be given maximum convenience?

At the meeting to collect comments on the Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) mentioned above, Mr. Minh said that the commitments to thoroughly reform tax administration to transform the tax administration model from "management by function" to "management by combined objects and functions"; to cut at least 44% of tax administrative procedures, not to issue any additional tax administrative procedures, and to create maximum conditions for taxpayers, have been committed by the Ministry of Finance to the Prime Minister.

Mr. Minh also asked the media and press to monitor and supervise the activities of tax authorities from central to local levels. Anywhere that causes trouble for taxpayers will be reported directly to the competent authorities.

While working in the tax industry, we were instructed to redesign the tax management process in line with the transformation of the management model and the restructuring of the information technology system, to ensure the application of information technology in a synchronous, modern, effective, integrated, and automatic data processing manner. Along with that, we need to shift from the "management" mindset to "service" mindset, eliminating the mindset of "not knowing how to manage, if you can't manage, then ban"; promoting voluntary compliance based on the classification of the level of legal compliance and the level of risk of taxpayers.

One of the key tasks when drafting legal documents is to simplify tax administrative procedures, review, reduce, and simplify the components of tax registration dossiers, tax declarations, tax payments, tax refunds, tax exemptions and reductions, and conduct tax transactions in the electronic environment in accordance with international practices; taking taxpayers as the center of service.

Regarding each provision in the Draft, do you have any concerns?

The Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended) only establishes tax administration principles, is a framework law, so there is not much to comment on at this time when there are no guiding decrees or circulars. However, I also have concerns about some provisions.

Regarding business households and individual businesses, according to regulations, they must register for tax along with registering for business. To carry out these two procedures simultaneously, there must be communication and connection between the tax administration agency and the business management agency. According to the Prime Minister's direction, state management agencies, including the tax administration agency and the business registration management agency, the banking system... must be connected with each other.

However, this connection has not met the requirements, because previously tax management and business registration management belonged to two different state management agencies. But after the merger of ministries, this connection is much more convenient because there is only one agency in charge, the Ministry of Finance.

Furthermore, the VNeID National Population Database has been upgraded to level 2, allowing the integration of many documents such as health insurance, driver's license, vehicle registration, citizen identification card, etc. The application integrates many different utilities, supports digital citizens and digital government, making the administrative procedure process faster and more convenient. This will create maximum conditions for connection when individuals and households register for taxes along with business registration.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/luat-quan-ly-thue-giam-toi-da-thu-tuc-hanh-chinh-thue-d388666.html