Different comments on proposal to let Tax agency collect social insurance

	Expenditure for social insurance management only increased by 6%
	Reducing social insurance arrears by database of the Tax agencies
	Enterprises are worried about the new level of social insurance

The additional regulations on allowing the tax authority to collect social insurance have contributed to reforming administrative procedures, reducing declarations, time and costs.

At the draft on proposing to develop amend Law on Tax Administration announced and consulted widely, the management agencies said that the additional regulations on letting Tax authority to collect social insurance compulsory for employers have contributed to not only reforming administrative procedures, reducing declarations, time and costs for enterprises but also cutting management costs for the competent authorities. Accordingly, this measure helps them to cut and to simplify administrative procedures. The employers only declare and pay tax and social insurance at one agency with one declaration. According to Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of Legal Department, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the cooperation between tax authorities and insurance agencies to collect social insurance would benefit lawful enterprises because when enterprises declare revenues and expenditures of the enterprises and employees clearly and accurately, it will be a basis for reducing the social insurance premium. When the management agency collects effectively and works well, the collection costs will be reduced. This will also benefit the employees.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc, former Deputy General Director of Taxation, Chairman of Vietnam's Tax Consulting Association said that the proposal on letting Tax authority to collect social insurance was not a new issue but had been mentioned by the Government many years ago. Actually, there were about 600,000 enterprises paying tax, while only 300 thousand enterprises paying social insurance. The Social insurance and the General Department of Taxation is issuing regulations on information exchange for mutual control.

"As far as I understand, the collection here is that the Tax agency will guide and carry out procedures to collect the social insurance into an account outside the state budget and then transfer to the social insurance agency for its management. Therefore, the procedures for guiding, declaring and controlling the collection and payment only need to be transferred from the social insurance agency to the tax agency. However, the tax agency can only collect the insurance premiums belonging to the enterprise, not all other items such as voluntary insurance, student insurance, health insurance ", commented by Mrs. Cuc.

In this regard, Mrs. Ha Thi Tuong Vy, Head of Vietnam Association of Accountants and Auditors (VAA), expressed her disagreement with the proposal of the Ministry of Finance at on the draft proposal for the revised Law on Tax Administration.

According to Vy, compulsory insurances are being monitored by the insurance agencies and reported to the business monthly. In addition to the collection, the insurance agencies also must pay the business allowances for illness, maternity, etc

"Therefore, the control of the accuracy or inaccuracy of insurances payable and already paid by the enterprises also affects the interests of employees. These two things are completely different. If letting one agency be in charge of the collection, the benefits should be considered because it will easily cause a dispute, " said Vy.

The representative of the VAA also said that the drafting committee aimed to save costs for the society when combining the two matters, but actually, the tax debt was also very large. And if the apparatus and facilities were eligible for this combination or not?

Proposing Tax authority to collect compulsory social insurance VCN- This is a project proposed by the Ministry of Finance in the draft proposal for the ...

Accordingly, Ms. Vy identified that in the next years, the tax agency would be able to combine the tax collection with social insurance collection.