As of January 2015, tax filing hours were reduced by 370 hours per year and must be cut by another 45.5 hours to reach the average level of ASEAN-6. — Photo thesaigontimes

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The General Department of Taxation said during an online meeting yesterday that it would step up tax reforms to improve the business environment.

The department plans to cut at least 10 per cent of tax administrative procedures and simplify at least 20 per cent of the current procedures to reduce tax filing hours to 121.5 hours per year as per a Government Resolution or to 171 hours per year (included social insurance filing hours).

As of January 2015, tax filing hours were reduced by 370 hours per year and must be cut by another 45.5 hours to reach the average level of ASEAN-6.

The Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung said at a meeting detailing measures that a determination from the tax agencies was needed to achieve the target.

The General Department of Taxation said the application of information and technology would be hastened during tax filings going forward, adding that IT applications would be implemented before June 30.

Specifically, 60 per cent of tax refund filings and tax reimbursement would be conducted online by the end of September and the rate is expected to be raised to 95 per cent a year after that.

The tax department said the number of businesses using online tax payments remained modest, only 41,800 enterprises out of a total 488,000 enterprises nationwide, or 8.5 per cent. The General Department of Taxation planned to boost the percentage of businesses using online tax payments to at least 90 per cent by the end of September.

The Deputy Minister of Finance, Do Hoang Anh Tuan, also pointed out that the application of IT in tax payment for business households, which numbered up to 1.6 million was also limited, recommending that tax payment could be conducted via mobile devices, such as smartphones.

The 2014 Doing Business report by the World Bank showed that Viet Nam was among countries that had the highest tax filing hours of up to 537 hours, ranked 149 out of 189 countries, based on this indicator of business environment. — VNS