Tax authority hastens online tax refund on national scale

The General Department of Taxation is accelerating the implementation of online tax refunds on a national scale.

This is a part of the tax reform effort to create favorable conditions for businesses following the Government’s Resolution 19. A pilot implementation of online tax refunds was underway in 13 provinces and cities, which was expected to be expanded nationwide within the first quarter of 2017.

The tax refund is a critical issue as tax reimbursement procedures remained burdensome to firms while the country was striving to improve the business climate. The tax authorities targeted that at least 90 percent of filings for tax refunds would be conducted online.

According to the Deputy Director of the Department for Tax Declaration and Accounting Le Thi Duyen Hai, enterprises will not have to travel back and forward between tax departments when the online tax refunds is fully implemented. It is expected to save time and effort as well as reducing difficulties in tax reimbursement, Ms.Le Thi Duyen Hai said.

The General Department of Taxation is also pushing online tax filing and payment. As of November, 96.7 percent of around 550,000 businesses nationwide registered to pay tax online and 93.7 percent of them registered to conduct online tax payments with banks. According to the statistics, a total tax revenues of more than 404.6 trillion VND (18 billion USD) was collected online with 2 million transactions conducted through 43 banks.

Under the Government’s Resolution 19 about improving the business climate and enhancing national competitiveness, at least 95 percent of firms would pay tax online by the end of 2016 by three criteria including the number of firms registering to pay tax online, the number of online tax payment receipts and the value of tax collection. As of November, eight provincial departments fulfilled the goal, according to the General Department of Taxation.

Source: VNA