Businesses breathe a sigh of relief as they are relieved to be free from the burden of tax procedures.

While the exact amount of time saved once the tax administrative procedure reduction regulations officially take effect is not yet quantifiable, many businesses believe the Ministry of Finance's new circular is at least saving them millions of dong in accounting costs each month.

Illustrative photo: VNA

Filing taxes has become "easier".

It's no coincidence that the head of the finance sector, Minister Dinh Tien Dung, was so critical when speaking about administrative procedures at the sector's review meeting a while ago.

The issue partly stems from the figure of 872 hours per year spent on tax filing by Vietnamese taxpayers, as reported in the World Bank's Doing Business report. Following this, the Prime Minister instructed relevant agencies to reduce the time businesses spend on tax declaration and payment procedures to no more than 300 hours per year by the end of this year.

Circular 119/2014/TT-BTC was quickly issued amidst significant public attention, and for that reason alone. According to Mr. Nguyen Quang Tien, Director and Deputy Head of the Reform and Modernization Committee of the General Department of Taxation, one of the biggest changes in the new regulations is the reduction in the time required for businesses to prepare documents, review, and record data for tax declaration.

A series of columns and rows in invoice summaries and value-added tax declaration forms have been eliminated, such as invoice form symbols, invoice symbols, and tax rates; the declaration of special consumption tax for internally transferred goods has also been removed. These changes, according to the leaders of the General Department of Taxation, could reduce the tax filing time for businesses by more than 100 hours per year.

While the exact amount of time saved since the changes took effect has not yet been quantified, Ms. Pham Thi Hong, Chairwoman of the Board of Members of Phuc Hung Limited Company (Tuy Hoa City, Phu Yen Province), affirmed that she "feels much more relaxed."

According to Ms. Hong, the first noticeable benefit is that previously, her company had two people dedicated to tax declaration work due to the large number of invoices, sometimes up to a dozen booklets, but now only one person is needed.

"As a result, monthly labor costs have been reduced by approximately 5 million VND," said a representative of Phuc Hung Limited Liability Company.

Some businesses are worried about inspections and audits by the tax authorities. (Photo: VNA)

As someone who has directly handled tax declarations, Mr. Vu Thanh Danh, Chief Accountant of Power Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company No. 4 (Khanh Hoa province), feels these changes more concretely.

One of the changes that pleased Mr. Danh was that invoices for telecommunications services, electricity and water bills, bank fees, passenger transport tickets, etc., only need to be declared once instead of listing dozens of invoices for each type.

"The capital declaration forms that used to take up so much of our time have now been significantly reduced," Mr. Danh said.

And that's why a representative from Power Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company 4 said that their accounting department, which previously had an employee solely dedicated to tax declarations, now handles both tax and materials inventory. The workload for the entire department is therefore shared, saving time.

We will thoroughly brief every tax official.

While equally enthusiastic about the new regulations, Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga, an accountant at Phuc Hung Limited Company (Phu Yen), also expressed concerns about the "post-declaration" process.

According to Ms. Nga, removing invoice symbols is one of the major changes that helps people in her profession to have less work to do, but subsequent verification may cause problems.

"Every year, businesses print a new batch of invoices. Without invoice symbols, only serial numbers, it can be difficult to distinguish and compare them," Ms. Nga commented.

Another concern raised by a business representative was the inspection and auditing work of the tax authorities.

According to this view, removing invoice symbols could save businesses time in entering input data, but will tax officials ask for this information again during inspections? If this happens, businesses may still waste time preparing forms according to the old template along with a declaration form according to the new template to submit to the tax authorities.

According to Mr. Tran Sy Quan, Deputy Director of the Khanh Hoa Provincial Tax Department, these concerns may arise among businesses, but this leader affirmed: "Circular 119 has been issued and stipulates the removal of invoice symbols, so there is no reason for tax inspectors to demand them anymore."

Therefore, Mr. Quan stated that his unit has instructed tax officials to create favorable conditions for businesses when implementing the new regulations starting in September.

This is also a "frank reality" that Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan warned about at a meeting announcing administrative procedure reforms in Circular 119 held earlier.

According to him, one of the solutions the financial sector is focusing on in this adjustment is "implementation."

“The tax sector and the Ministry of Finance must have a portal to reflect all the difficulties faced by businesses and localities, publicly disclosing the date of receipt and the date of resolution of these issues. Effective governance requires transparency and openness,” said Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan.

According to Vietnam+