Boosting digitisation to identify tax debtors and apply appropriate tax debt management measures

	Customs authorities only manage tax collection and refunds of overpaid tax at the import stage
	Survey e-commerce platforms for tax declaration and payment of business households
	Banks racing to catch digitisation

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Xuan Truong

In the first six months of the year, the Customs and tax authorities have performed anti-revenue loss, collection and settlement of tax arrears. How do you assess the results?

Anti-revenue loss, collection and settlement of tax arrears have always been a key task of the tax and Customs authorities. The results in the first six months of the year showed tax and Customs authorities did it very well.

The results were obtained thanks to the drastic direction of the leaders of the Ministry of Finance and the leaders of the two General Department of Customs and General Department of Taxation together with many synchronous and appropriate measures, based on strictly complying with procedures and regulations on management and enforcement of tax arrears; the seriousness and creativity of local tax departments and local customs departments in performing the task.

Amid difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, both the Customs and tax authorities have had to introduce many measures to both curb the total debt and help businesses remove difficulties and restore production and business. How have these measures impacted tax debt management?

The debt collection and tax debt management measures of the tax and Customs authorities have matched current conditions. The urging of tax payment by tax and customs authorities at all levels is carried out in accordance with the Law and tax debtors and the use of modern information technology to tax debt management was efficient.

A series of effective and suitable tax debt management and enforcement measures can be mentioned, such as:

The General Department of Customs asked its units to focus on reviewing and grasping the tax debt situation in their units, classify collectible debts and uncollectible debts to assign targets for tax debt collection to local customs departments; take tax debt enforcement measures such as stopping customs clearance, enforcing taxes, reviewing and identifying individuals and business representatives who have not fulfilled their tax obligations to postpone exit.

The General Department of Taxation assigned targets for debt collection and tax debt collection from the General Department to each department in charge of debt management to raise the responsibilities of tax authorities for tax debt management; requested tax units to review and listcollectible tax debts and new debts in their areas, classify debts, causes for debt of each tax payer to make a list of tax debtors, especially classifying taxpayers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and those not affected by the pandemic to support them and introduce suitable debt settlement measures.

The pandemic is forecast to be complex till the end year, which will certainly affect the production and business of enterprises. What should the tax and Customs authorities do to bring the tax debt to the lowest level and ensure budget balance?

It is necessary to continue implementting the measures that were used in the first half of the year. We must strengthen information to raise the observation of tax law and tax obligations; regularly and urge taxpayers to fulfil their tax payment obligations; implement tax debt enforcement measures for tax debtors who are deliberately delaying tax debt; create favourable conditions for taxpayers facing objective difficulties to fulfil their tax payment obligations and further promote digitisation to be able to identify tax debtors and apply the right measures at the right time, improving the efficiency of management and enforcement of tax debts.

In addition, it is necessary to continue promoting the reform of tax and customs administrative procedures to facilitate production and business, and reduce compliance costs, which is also an urgent and fundamental solution to support production and business and create a premise for reducing tax debts.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance extended payment deadline for tax and land rentals for businesses and people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. How does this affect tax debt management?

The Government's measures to extend payment deadlines for tax and land rentals create conditions to increase liquidity for businesses facing difficulties due to large inventories and consumption markets; help them have more financial resources to restore and develop production and business. When firms restore and develop their operations, they will have money to fulfil their tax obligations to the State. This is the way to nurture revenue. This measure creates a premise for taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations, thereby reducing pressure on tax debt management.

However, to avoid negative impacts on the debt structure, tax authorities at all levels also need to closely monitor the operation of businesses, actively encourage them to fulfil the tax obligations.