Tax payment through banks: Convenient

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Commercial banks collaborated with the Taxation to guide taxpayers to implement electronic tax payment. Photo: Thu Hang.

Effective channel of revenue collection

Under Resolution 19-2016/NQ-CP on major solutions to improve the business environment, Taxation has implemented a series of tax reform procedures and the application of information technology. Accordingly, by the end of 2016, Vietnam will have reduced the time of tax payment to 110 hours per year, equal to the ASEAN countries.

One of the notable solutions which Taxation has implemented in recent years is the electronic tax payment service. To date, the General Department of Taxation has signed cooperation agreements with 43 commercial banks. These banks have completed the connection of electronic tax payment services with 63 Taxation Departments in the country. According to the latest data on 21^st October 2016, there were 541,282 enterprises registered with this service with the Tax office (accounting for 96.46%) and more than 523,756 enterprises registering with banking services (accounting for 93.34%).

Until the end of October 2016, the total amount of electronic tax payment was more than 355,519 billion vnd with nearly 2 million electronic tax payment transactions. In addition, this service has helped the tax office to promptly update the information of taxpayers, reduce errors, enhance the effectiveness of tax administration, process tax collection information quickly and accurately, which has contributed to diversifying the channels of State revenue collection.

At the Vietnam E-Payment Forum (VEPF) 2016, the Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation, Mr. Nguyen Dai Tri said that in order to promote electronic tax payments, the General Department of Taxation collaborated with the Government Cipher Committee to upgrade technical solutions to meet the requirements of specialized digital signatures, and help State agencies easily use specialized digital signatures to fill in and carry out electronic tax payments. This solution has been implemented since August 2016. Besides, Taxation has enhanced technical infrastructure and operational monitoring systems to ensure the system is stable and efficient, especially in the peak months.

Commenting on the benefits of electronic tax payment through banks, a representative of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) said that online tax payment only incurred a little cost for commercial banks because enterprises had been equipped with digital signatures for tax declaration. Tax payment through banks is an important step in the modernization of the collection of tax, also contributing to the increase of banking service benefits. Accordingly, commercial banks will have more channels to evaluate the financial capacity of enterprises or other transactions with customers. Therefore, enterprises will have more favourable conditions to receive loans from banks.

Hesitance

It is undeniable that electronic tax payment services through banks have saved time and costs for enterprises. Speaking to a reporter of the Customs Newspaper, Mrs. Vu Thi Thanh Tam, the Director of the Hanoi Food Joint Stock Company said: "Since the introduction of electronic tax payments, my company have saved a lot of time and cost because we can declare and pay taxes any time, including weekends and holidays. The Accounting department of the company has also reduced the pressure by not having to wait in line and can implement transactions any time of the day. As a director, I no longer worried about whether my staff fulfil tax obligations or not, which affects the reputation and image of the company".

Mrs. Vu Thi Thanh Tam also said that at anywhere and anytime, she could easily examine the tax payment of her company by accessing the electronic portal of the Tax office with the history of electronic transactions of tax payments such as: view, print, download notifications and electronic payment papers, which the business community has expected for a long time.

However, not all companies are aware of the benefits of electronic tax payment. Accordingly, many companies are afraid of and not properly concerned about electronic tax payment services. Many business leaders still worry about losing money when implementing online tax payment.

For Taxation, in addition to the advantages, there are a lot of drawbacks during the implementation of electronic tax payments. Mr. Nguyen Dai Tri, said: "Due to a large number of newly registered enterprises and frequent changes in business activities with "input-output"of about 10%, so the tax office always encourages enterprises to carry out online tax payment. Many companies are not used to using this new kind of tax payment, so they still implement tax payment by cash. In addition, there are a lot of difficulties which come from the inconsistent combination among the Tax office, commercial banks and the State Treasury".

93% of enterprises registered e-Tax payment service VCN- The target set by the General Department of Tax by December 2016 is that 95% enterprises ...

The remaining technical problems or hesitance of taxpayers with a new service are unavoidable. However, with serious investment, the upgrading of tax agencies, the close cooperation of the tax office and banks and effective propaganda of electronic tax payment services through banks, will make the online tax payment become a powerful tool for businesses in fulfilling their tax obligations.