Businesses "breathe a sigh of relief" because they are freed from the burden of tax procedures

The exact amount of time saved when the regulations on cutting tax administrative procedures officially take effect has not been measured, but for many businesses, the new circular of the Ministry of Finance is at least helping them "pocket" millions of dong in accounting costs each month.

Illustration photo: VNA

Tax declaration has become "easier"

It is no coincidence that the head of the financial sector, Minister Dinh Tien Dung, was so harsh when talking about administrative procedures in the industry's preliminary meeting not long ago.

The issue partly stems from the figure of 872 hours spent by Vietnamese taxpayers each year in the World Bank's Doing Business report. Immediately after that, the Prime Minister requested that by the end of this year, the authorities reduce the time for businesses to complete tax declaration and payment procedures to no more than 300 hours per year.

Circular 119/2014/TT-BTC was quickly issued in the special attention of public opinion for that reason. One of the biggest changes of the new regulations according to Mr. Nguyen Quang Tien, Director, Deputy Head of the Reform and Modernization Department, General Department of Taxation is the reduction of time to prepare documents, review, and record data to make tax declarations for businesses.

A series of columns and rows in the invoice list and value added tax declaration form have been removed, such as invoice form symbols, invoice symbols, tax rates; special consumption tax declaration for internally circulated goods has been eliminated, etc. These are changes that, according to the leader of the General Department of Taxation, can reduce more than 100 hours of tax filing for businesses each year.

Although she has not yet measured the amount of time saved when the above changes take effect, Ms. Pham Thi Hong, Chairwoman of the Board of Members of Phuc Hung Limited Liability Company (Tuy Hoa city, Phu Yen province) affirmed that she "feels much lighter."

According to Ms. Hong, the first visible effect is that previously her company had 2 people specializing in tax declaration because the number of invoices was too large, sometimes up to dozens of books, but now only 1 person is needed.

"Monthly labor costs are reduced by about 5 million VND," said a representative of Phuc Hung Limited Liability Company.

Some businesses are worried about the inspection and examination work of tax authorities. Photo: VNA

As someone who has directly done tax declaration work, Mr. Vu Thanh Danh, Chief Accountant of Power Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company 4 (Khanh Hoa province) feels these changes more specifically.

One of the changes that satisfied Mr. Danh was that when making invoices for telecommunication service fees, electricity and water bills, bank fees, passenger transport tickets, etc., only one declaration was needed instead of listing dozens of invoices of each type.

"The time-consuming forms we used to fill out have now been greatly reduced," said Mr. Danh.

And that is why, the representative of Power Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company 4 said that the accounting department of his unit used to have an employee who only specialized in tax declaration, but now this person can also do material statistics. The work of the whole department is therefore shared to save time.

Will thoroughly understand each tax officer

Equally excited about the new regulations, Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga, accountant of Phuc Hung Limited Liability Company (Phu Yen) also expressed concern about the "post-declaration" stage.

According to Ms. Nga, removing invoice symbols is one of the big changes that helps people in the profession like her to have less trouble, but later reconciliation can be problematic.

"Every year, businesses will print a new batch of invoices without invoice symbols but only serial numbers, which can be difficult to distinguish and compare," Ms. Nga commented.

Another concern is that a business representative raised questions about the inspection and examination work of tax authorities.

According to this opinion, removing invoice symbols can help businesses save time on inputting data, but will tax officials ask for this information again when they need to inspect or check? If this happens, businesses may still have to spend time creating tables according to the old form along with a declaration according to the new form to submit to the tax authority.

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

Therefore, Mr. Quan said, his unit has thoroughly informed tax officials to create favorable conditions for businesses when implementing new regulations from September.

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

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

“The tax sector and the Ministry of Finance must have an information portal that reflects all problems of businesses and localities, and publicly announces the date of receipt and resolution of problems. To be able to manage, there must be transparency,” said Deputy Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan.

According to Vietnam+