Vietnam Businesses Favour Online Tax Declaration

According to statistics, in 2010, 19 taxation departments participated in the online tax declaration regime, allowing 8,406 enterprises to complete around 90,000 declaration forms online. In addition, five intermediary service companies called VAN supported businesses to complete tax declarations online.

 

This information was announced at a recent ceremony in Hanoi releasing a survey on business readiness for online tax declaration carried out by the Institute of Information Technology for Business under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the General Department of Taxation.

Mr Pham Gia Tuc, General Secretary of VCCI, said Vietnam has some 18,000 newly established businesses each year and is expected to have 1 - 1.5 million companies in 2015. VCCI’s survey results in business readiness for online tax declaration in particular and readiness for IT application in general will help the tax sector understand more about the demand of customers to offer better services.

 

“Although this is the first year and companies are unfamiliar with supporting services like digital signature, they are very active in online tax declaration and supportive of applying IT to tax affairs,” said Ms Le Hong Hai, Deputy General Director of General Department of Taxation.

 

Respondents shared the same view: initiatives/improvements of tax authorities are very good; Vietnam's telecommunications infrastructure is relatively good, and companies thoroughly understand procedures of applying information technology to tax declaration.

 

According to the survey, 91.2 percent of respondents use software provided by tax authorities; 50 percent know signature (real number has increased many times because when the survey was carried out, VDC was the only provider of digital signature but the current figure is five); 92.93 percent has internet connections; 95.12 percent know HTKK tax declaration software; and 79 percent master this software.

 

Mr Pham Quang Toan, Deputy Director of Information Technology Application Department under the General Department of Taxation, said: The report is laudable. In 2010, more than 8,000 companies declared tax online but [we] expect to serve over 30,000 companies in 41 provinces and cities in 2011. By 2015, about 300,000 companies will use this online public service.

 

Le Van Loi - Director of Institute of Information Technology for Businesses, VCCI The survey on the business readiness for online tax declaration analyses and assesses the situation and possibility of applying online tax declaration in companies, identifies problems and bottlenecks in tax declaration facing enterprises.

This survey is the basis for relevant authorities and parties to put forth recommendations on mechanisms and policies to boost information technology application in enterprises and offer effective solutions to help them declare tax online more easily. “Instead of going to tax offices, they can do the same work at their companies. This is extremely time-saving and is available around the clock. In 2011, we plan to allow 22 tax departments to apply this mechanism,” Hai added.

 

This report is the result of cooperation between VCCI and the General Department of Taxation. However, VCCI surveyed independently and did not use tax officers to ensure impartiality. VCCI directly phoned 8,000 respondents in provinces and cities nationwide. Up to 98 percent of respondents support electronic tax declaration and 79 percent say electronic tax declaration is simple and easy to use.