Online tax declaration - double benefits for businesses

(Baonghean) - Online tax declaration is an inevitable trend to simplify administrative procedures. In Nghe An, after more than 3 years of implementation, it has brought convenience and efficiency to taxpayers as well as tax authorities, reduced costs and waiting time for businesses, creating progress in reforming administrative procedures in the tax sector.

Law No. 21/2012/QH13 dated November 20, 2012 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Tax Administration took effect from July 1, 2013, "In case the taxpayer is a business organization in a locality with information technology infrastructure, it must declare, pay taxes, and transact with the tax authority via electronic means in accordance with the provisions of law on electronic transactions". Before the Law took effect, from October 2010, Nghe An had implemented online tax declaration at the Tax Department Office, Vinh City Tax Department, and Cua Lo Tax Department. All enterprises that are eligible to declare taxes online were trained and disseminated to enterprises by Nghe An Tax Department and Tax Departments in the province so that enterprises could clearly understand and quickly access the form of electronic tax declaration.

Online tax declaration application at Technical, Resources and Environment LLC (Vinh City).

At the beginning of implementation, the tax authority had to encourage businesses to make electronic tax declarations because taxpayers were still unfamiliar with this new form. Up to now, after more than 3 years of implementation, many businesses in the province said that online tax declaration has given them the initiative in the tax declaration process. Submitting tax declarations online is simple, quick and highly effective, helping taxpayers save time. The outstanding benefit of online tax declaration is that it is not limited by space and time. Businesses can submit declarations 24/24 hours a day, 7 days a week and at any address with an internet connection. In case the business representative is not present at the headquarters, they can still sign and submit tax declarations by authorizing the management of electronic signatures to a trusted person. At the same time, using the online tax filing application also helps businesses reduce the cost of printing paper declarations and statements, reduce travel costs, and increase the application of information technology in businesses.

Mr. Nguyen Ai Sy - Chief Accountant of Natural Resources and Environment Engineering One Member Co., Ltd., shared: With the profession of consulting, environmental impact assessment and mine exploration and design consulting, environmental quality monitoring and supervision, the company's leaders often go on business trips to locations across the country, and have very little time to work directly in the office, so it is difficult to be proactive in signing tax declarations and reports. Therefore, in previous years when tax declarations were not made online, the company was late in submitting declarations compared to regulations and was fined.

Since 2010, the company has been making tax declarations online, applying digital signatures, so the accounting department has proactively submitted declarations and reports on time, without having to wait for direct submissions as before. At the same time, additional declarations and corrections are quick and timely, and the information lookup mode is convenient. However, besides the advantages, there are still limitations due to the unstable declaration software system, which often changes, causing the company's accountants to spend time reinstalling and always monitoring for updates. The transmission system has not met the quality standards, at peak times, it is often at the end of the period of submitting declarations and reports, so in some cases, it leads to late submission of declarations. The online submission system often has some errors during the declaration process that the enterprise cannot proactively edit, and must contact the tax authority's IT department or the digital signature provider to fix them, etc.

Mr. Tran Thong - Tax accounting and information technology declaration compilation team of Vinh City Tax Department said: Previously, on peak days, there were many people coming to submit declarations, and they had to wait a long time. Normally, businesses came to the tax office to submit their documents on the last day of the deadline, so there was always an overload at the tax office. Currently, online tax declaration is done simply and safely because the tax declaration documents submitted by businesses to the tax office via the internet will be encrypted to secure the business's information as well as the digital signature of the unit's representative. In October 2010, Vinh City Tax Department started implementing this, and in the first year, 800 businesses in Vinh City declared taxes online. By March 2013, at Vinh City Tax Department, 100% of businesses declared taxes online with 3,600 businesses.

Currently, the one-stop shop at tax agencies has reduced the burden of submitting tax declarations on peak days, and the search of tax declarations for tax inspection and invoice verification is quick and convenient. After more than 3 years of implementation, it has been shown that the majority of taxpayers strongly support the form of submitting tax declarations via the internet, especially for taxpayers who live far from the tax agency headquarters, taxpayers with large tax declaration data... According to the data of Nghe An Tax Department, by the beginning of 2014, in the province, 17/21 Tax Branches and Tax Department Offices have implemented tax declarations via the internet with about 6,500 enterprises having been provided with the service, equal to 258% of the number of enterprises according to the target assigned by the General Department of Taxation. All of the above enterprises have submitted tax declarations online. Currently, there are only 4 branches in difficult mountainous areas that are applying information technology at the branch level and have not yet implemented online tax declaration, including: Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong, and Quy Chau.

Regarding the 4 branches in the mountainous areas that have not yet implemented online tax declaration, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hoa - Director of Nghe An Provincial Tax Department said: The Tax Branches of Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong, and Quy Chau all have a small number of enterprises, and are currently running on the old software of the General Department of Taxation. To implement online tax declaration, Nghe An Tax Department must invest in buying back the entire server system and converting the application software, with an investment budget of nearly 500 million VND/branch. In the context of limited funding, the Provincial Tax Department must consider reasonable and effective investment, prioritizing investment in branches with a larger number of enterprises. However, the Tax Department is currently promoting the implementation at Quy Chau Tax Branch, purchasing the server system and converting the application software. After the operation is completed, the local businesses will be notified and trained to register for the application. By the beginning of the third quarter of 2014, online tax declaration will be implemented in Quy Chau district. For the remaining 3 branches including Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong, the Provincial Tax Department will choose the unit with the larger number of businesses to continue investing. It is expected that by the end of 2015 at the latest, the application software upgrade for all 3 remaining districts will be completed, to deploy for businesses.

Reality shows that online tax declaration is an urgent requirement to implement corporate tax management and is an inevitable direction to gradually modernize the tax sector, creating conditions for businesses to fulfill their tax obligations to the State, thereby meeting the development requirements of the country.

Article and photos:Quynh Lan