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VCCI President Pham Tan Cong spoke at the Conference. Photo: VGP

E-commerce data can help manage import and export work well

Giving comments at the Government Conference summarizing 1 year of removing "bottlenecks" in implementing Project 06 and promoting connectivity and data sharing to serve e-commerce development and prevent tax loss on June 10, 2024, VCCI President frankly pointed out that recently, a part of retail businesses have switched to e-commerce to avoid inspection and examination by authorities, including the Tax sector. This is a big challenge for tax management, but according to Mr. Pham Tan Cong, this is also an opportunity for tax management of retail establishments.

Mr. Pham Tan Cong analyzed that e-commerce is transactions carried out electronically. Information about these transactions is on the databases of intermediaries such as e-commerce platforms, applications of banks, delivery units, etc. Therefore, if we collect this data to serve Tax management services, it will bring great efficiency. E-commerce data can even help manage the import and export of goods very well, including collecting taxes from imported and exported goods and specialized inspection of goods, thereby creating a very positive impact for customs operations.

“Leveraging data from e-commerce activities to serve tax and customs management is very potential and will bring high efficiency. This requires coordination between Customs, Taxation, Police and e-commerce platform service providers such as e-commerce trading floors, banks and shipping units," Mr. Cong stated.

Representatives of a number of ministries and branches at the Conference. Photo: VGP

Information about coordination between ministries and branches, also at the Conference, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan said that in the near future, this Ministry will connect with the General Department of Taxation to transfer data of 48,348 websites information/each e-commerce application for sales and 1,218 websites/applications providing e-commerce services immediately after completing the system connection of the two units in June 2024 (this work is 1.5 years ahead of schedule).

At the State Bank (SBV), Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said that in early November 2023, SBV worked with the Tax agency regarding cross-border service provision activities. The State Bank has directed banks and payment intermediaries to connect and provide information with tax authorities. Until now, credit institutions have provided the Ministry of Finance with more than 130 million payment accounts of taxpayers.

On the business side, VCCI, as a representative of the business community, Mr. Pham Tan Cong said, VCCI regularly consults with businesses on the feasibility of connecting and sharing e-commerce data. In general, most opinions agree with the benefits of connecting and sharing data. For example, e-commerce tax management helps determine the location of service consumption for taxation, because information such as physical address, customer IP address, phone number, cross-border payments can be collected more reliably.

VCCI President believes that there needs to be more specific instructions on using the above information to identify exported services, especially services provided via the internet. This not only helps encourage businesses to export services, but also helps economic growth, creates jobs, brings foreign currency to the country and strengthens national soft power.

Strengthen inspection of livestream sales activities

VCCI has closely coordinated with the Ministry of Finance and other ministries and branches in developing many legal documents related to tax, e-commerce, and providing comments on amending decrees on electronic invoices and the management of import and export goods via e-commerce, etc.

According to VCCI Chairman Pham Tan Cong, businesses' opinions have been reflected by VCCI and many of them have been absorbed by competent authorities. Basically, businesses are relatively satisfied with the spirit of dialogue and consultation in legal development by units in the Finance sector.

To make this work better, ministries and branches have also made a number of suggestions and proposals to the Ministry of Finance. Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade requested the General Department of Taxation to coordinate in sharing databases and strengthening the management of e-commerce activities in June 2024; Especially consider linking tax code data of businesses, supporting the Ministry of Industry and Trade to identify e-commerce businesses. The Governor of the State Bank requested the Ministry of Finance to agree to assign the General Department of Taxation to be the focal unit to receive and process taxpayer payment account information from credit institutions to allow other tax administration agencies to exploit information from the database of the General Department of Taxation.

On the local side, Chairman of Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee Trinh Viet Hung requested the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Taxation) to continue to coordinate with ministries and branches to promote propaganda, dissemination, and guidance for business organizations and individuals. E-commerce carries out tax registration, tax declaration and payment, and at the same time strengthening inspection and examination of livestream sales activities and consumer protection in cyberspace. At the same time, it is recommended that the State Bank strengthen inspection and supervision of payment transactions, and direct credit institutions to coordinate in providing transaction information to competent authorities (Tax, Market surveillance authorities, etc) to have a basis for tax management from e-commerce business activities according to the provisions of law.

VCCI also recommended that the Tax industry continue to study recommendations of international organizations and study the experiences of other countries to be able to come up with appropriate policy options.

"Enterprises are ready to provide information and documents, coordinate with tax authorities to devise policies to both ensure correct and sufficient collection for the budget, but also create maximum favorable conditions for taxpayers", reducing the burden of administrative procedures and tax risks," VCCI President emphasized.