Online tax payment was a part of the efforts of tax administrative reform to improve the country's business environment. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyet

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Online tax payment will likely be availabe to individuals and business households in Viet Nam soon with the pilot implementation underway in three major cities.

According to the finance ministry, the pilot online tax payment system will be launched in some districts of Ha Noi, Da Nang and HCM City by the year end, in an effort to promote administrative reform and create conveniences for business households – a large taxpayer group estimated to number 1.5 million in Viet Nam.

Nguyen Thi Cuc, President of the Viet Nam Tax Consultancy Association, said that online tax declaration and payments were largely applied to enterprises today while it remained an alien concept to millions of households and private individuals.

Online payment would also help improve tax management, Cuc said.

According to Nguyen Dai Tri, deputy director of the General Department of Taxation, online services would help reduce time for conducting tax procedures, ensure flexibility in paying tax and limit direct contacts with tax officials.

Initially, tax departments would pilot online services for automobile and motorbike registration, property transfer, personal property leasing businesses and land-related fees of individuals.

Under the pilot scheme, individuals would have their online tax declarations and payment conducted by entrusted organisations through internet banking transactions, for example.

From the beginning of 2017, online tax payments for vehicle registration, property leasing and land fees were expected to be applied on a nationwide scale.

This service was expected to help cut 23 administrative procedures.

Online tax payment was a part of the efforts of tax administrative reform to improve the country's business environment.

According to the finance ministry, as of the end of October, 98 per cent of enterprises registered to declare tax online and 90 per cent registered to pay tax online through their connection with commercial banks.

As of September 2015, the ministry's statistics showed that tax payment time was cut by 420 hours to 117 hours, exceeding the goal of 121.5 hours set for 2015 in the Government's Resolution 19/2015 about improving business environment. — VNS