Multiple benefits from electronic tax filing

(Baonghean) - Electronic tax payment is a service that allows taxpayers to make a payment slip to the State Budget directly on the tax authority's electronic information portal and have the Commercial Bank (CB) confirm the tax payment transaction results immediately. Up to now, 100% of tax branches in the province have organized training courses on electronic tax payment for taxpayers; and Nghe An is the leading locality in the country in the number of enterprises paying taxes electronically, reaching 150.25% of the target assigned by the General Department of Taxation.

Electronic tax payment (ETP) is a policy of the General Department of Taxation to promote tax administrative reform, minimizing time for businesses in the issue of traveling to pay taxes. E-tax has 5 benefits: saving travel costs, transaction time; simplifying paperwork when performing tax obligations; paying taxes at any location with an Internet connection; paying taxes 24/7, including holidays, having the transaction result confirmed by the commercial bank immediately upon sending the payment slip (ETP); being able to access the electronic information portal of the tax authority to view, print, download notifications, and electronic EPs that have been paid; in addition, e-tax payers can also use other value-added services of commercial banks.

Staff of the Information Technology Department of Nghe An Tax Department guides businesses on electronic tax payment procedures.

Mr. Duong Minh Duc - Head of the Taxpayer Support and Propaganda Department informed about the conditions for registering for electronic tax declaration. These are organizations and enterprises that have been granted a tax code/enterprise code and are operating, have a digital certificate issued by an organization providing public digital signature certification services and are still valid. Enterprises have an Internet connection and a stable email address to contact the tax authority. Currently performing electronic tax declaration on the electronic information portal of the tax authority; have a bank account. With nearly 8 thousand enterprises in operation, of which 90% of enterprises perform tax declaration via the Internet, this is an advantage, because the number of enterprises using declaration support software is very large and regular. From September 2014, the Tax sector will connect with the systems of the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade... to create favorable conditions for enterprises to use this service.

Accountant of Viet Trung Artificial Board Joint Stock Company (Nam Cam Industrial Park) - Mr. Tran Quoc Hung said: “After being trained, I followed the steps to register to use the NTĐT service on the electronic information portal http://kekhaithue.gdt.gov.vn such as: user manual. Then, I downloaded the registration form for authorizing debit from the account with the bank; filled in the information, then went to the bank branch to carry out the procedure for registering authorization to debit from the account for the NTĐT service. When I was given a password, I could pay taxes immediately. Viet Trung Artificial Board Joint Stock Company pays 20 million VND in taxes per month, normally it takes a lot of time to travel, especially when National Highway 1A is under construction. But now when businesses participate in NTĐT, it is very convenient, from now on I can pay taxes for the company right at my desk without having to go to the bank to authorize tax payment”.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Linh - accountant of Lam Hong Construction Joint Stock Company also said that the procedure for registering for e-tax payment is very simple, the company has implemented e-tax payment since August 20, 2014, so far there have been no incidents, she can pay taxes at any time, before that she had to go to the bank to transfer money. In general, most of the enterprises that have been implemented are enthusiastic to receive it and when successfully applied, there have been no incidents in the tax payment process. According to Nghe An Tax Department, by October 30, 2014, 884 enterprises have registered for e-tax payment with the tax authority, of which the total number of enterprises that have successfully registered (both with the tax authority and the bank is 601 enterprises, reaching 150.25% of the target assigned by the General Department of Taxation and Nghe An is leading the country in terms of e-tax payment subjects.

To achieve the above encouraging results, the Tax Department has established a steering group and a team to implement e-tax, in which the steering group has a deputy director of the Tax Department as the team leader, the head of the Information Technology Department as the permanent deputy team leader, and the members are heads of departments and branch heads of 21 tax branches. Mr. Phan Tuan Nghia - Head of the Information Technology Department of Nghe An Tax Department said: In August 2014, the Information Technology Department advised the leaders of the Department to organize propaganda and mobilize taxpayers to participate in e-tax at 2 dialogue sessions with taxpayers on August 26 and 27, 2014 with hundreds of businesses participating. After that, training on e-tax implementation was organized for the leaders of the Department, officers of the departments of tax declaration, propaganda and support for taxpayers, and tax inspection. Up to now, 100% of tax branches have organized training on how to use e-tax for taxpayers in the tax collection management area (completed in October 2014). The Information Technology Department has also advised the Department's leaders to issue an official dispatch on the implementation of e-filing and upgrading the online tax declaration system to direct tax branches to implement e-filing for taxpayers in the districts. The Department also coordinated with banks that are ready to provide e-filing services (BIDV, Vietcombank, MB) to get a list of taxpayers with transaction accounts at these banks, send the list of taxpayers provided by the banks to tax inspection departments, and tax branches contact taxpayers to propagate and mobilize taxpayers to participate in e-filing.

Along with the implementation and training, the support work for taxpayers is also very focused on to reduce initial confusion. The IT Department always arranges staff to support taxpayers during the implementation of the electronic tax declaration. Over the phone, the problems described by taxpayers are enthusiastically guided by staff. In case the taxpayer cannot solve the problem by himself over the phone, through the Team Viewer software, the IT Department staff will fix it directly on the taxpayer's computer, thereby the taxpayer can also see the operations of the IT staff, can learn from experience or grasp more knowledge, operations with the electronic tax declaration application to do better next time. The IT Department's IT staff also goes to the taxpayer's headquarters to support taxpayers.

Currently, Nghe An Tax Department not only performs well in electronic tax declaration and online tax declaration but also uses nearly 40 IT applications to serve the work of the industry, divided into 4 main systems such as: application system serving tax management; application system serving internal work of the industry; application system serving taxpayers; application system exchanging information with external agencies. Many tax branches have applied the department-level management model. Most tax officers are proficient in applying information technology and providing good support to taxpayers.

However, at present, e-tax payment still has some problems. Although the General Department of Taxation has signed an agreement to implement e-tax payment with 5 commercial banks, including BIDV, Vietcombank, MB, Viettinbank, Agribank, but currently only 3 banks BIDV, Vietcombank, MB have met the requirements to provide e-tax payment services. Therefore, the implementation of e-tax payment in the districts is facing difficulties because in the districts, taxpayers mainly transact through the Agricultural Bank (AgriBank) and in Vinh City, the number of taxpayers mainly transact through the Industrial and Commercial Bank. This is a limitation that makes many taxpayers unable to access the service. Therefore, in the future, the coordination between the tax sector and the banks with which the agreement has been signed needs to be better and more effective so that taxpayers in the districts can use the service more.

Article and photos:Pearl