Vietnam’s paying taxes ranks No. 3 in the ASEAN

	HCMC Customs has to collect nearly 22 trillion in the last two months
	The Taxation has implemented over 300 online public services at multiple levels
	Taxation authorities propose delaying e-invoices until July 2019

Comparing to ASEAN 4 countries and ASEAN 6 countries, Vietnam ranks No. 3 after Singapore (rank No. 7) Thai Lan (rank No. 67) and Malaysia (rank No. 73). Photo: Thuy Linh

Increasing 81 places compared to 2017

The above report, which was announced on 31 October 2017, indicated that Vietnam ranked 68 out of 190 countries and territories (increasing 14 places compared to DB2017) in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking. In which, the Paying taxes ranks 86 out of 190 economies (rising 81 places compared to DB 2017). According to the World Bank, if comparing to ASEAN 4 countries and ASEAN 6 countries, Vietnam ranks No. 4 after 3 countries Singapore (rank No. 7), Thai Lan (rank No. 67) and Malaysia (rank No. 73).

To measure the Paying taxes, the WB has based on indicators such as: number of hours per year; the number of tax payment per year; total tax rate of profit before all taxes and post-filing index (VAT refund, CIT inspection /audit). According to the measurement of the WB, most of these indicators have been improved and realized by the WB thanks to Vietnam’s efforts in the reform of tax payment procedures.

However, according to the General Department of Taxation, the DB 2018 report has not recognized the reforms of tax administrative procedures and policies to reduce the time of tax payment, which was carried out in 2015-2016. Actually, the time of tax payment in Vietnam is only 117 hours per year.

Although the Taxation’s reforms to reduce the time of tax payment in 2015-2016 have not been realized in the DB2018 report, these reforms have contributed to saving a lot of energy and time.

The Taxation has issued regulations on facilitation to enterprises such as: Remove the list of sale invoices of goods and services enclosed with VAT declarations under Law No. 71/2014 / QH13; some regulations on simplification of procedures for VAT and CIT calculation in Circular No. 26/2015 / TT-BTC and Circular No. 96/2015 / TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance. Thereby, Vietnam's paying taxes ranks 86 of out 190 countries and territories (increasing 81 places compared to the DB2017 report) and ranks No. 4 of ASEAN 6 countries.

Institutional and management reform

As reported by the WB, this result has recognized the efforts in administrative reform of the Taxation over the past time on tax institutional and management reform

About the institutional reform, the Taxation has issued documents to contribute to facilitating enterprises over the past time. They are the abolition or simplification of some tax procedures, such as Law No. 71/2014 / QH13, effective from 1 January 2015; Circular No. 26/2015 / TT-BTC dated 27 February 2015; Circular No. 96/2015 / TT-BTC dated 22 June 2015 of the Ministry of Finance; Circular No. 99/2016 / TT-BTC dated 29 June 2016 on guiding the management of VAT refund fund and Circular No. 31/2017 / TT-BTC dated 18 April 2017 amending and supplementing some articles of Circular No. 99/2016 / TT-BTC regulating the time that the State Treasury returns the tax refund to the enterprise within one day since receiving the refund decision from the tax agency.

At the same time, the Taxation has always carried out administrative procedure reforms while developing the institutions, thereby strictly controlling the issue of new administrative procedures, strictly review and standardizing administrative procedures in accordance with regulations. Accordingly, by the end of 2016, 85 administrative procedures have been cut compared to 31 December 2015 (reaching 22.1%) 300 Administrative procedures have been standardized in accordance with regulations. Particularly, the Taxation has strengthened the application of information technology in the management and implementation of administrative procedures. 118 administrative procedures of 300 tax administrative procedures are processed electronically via online public service Levels 3 and 4. Also, the Taxation has continued to expand e-tax declaration and payment to save time and costs for enterprises and to contribute to limit the interference and direct contact between tax officers and enterprises in the process of tax declaration and payment. By the end of October 2017, online tax declaration and payment service has been deployed in 63 of 63 provinces and cities.

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Thus, with the achieved results, the Taxation has fulfilled the target of business environment indicators set out in Resolution 19/2016 / NQ-CP of the Government, namely: "Achieving the average of the ASEAN 4 on tax administrative reform including 3 groups of indicators: tax refund, risk management in tax inspection and audit, time and results of handling tax complaints.