At the conference to perform the task of State budget - finance in the first six months and deploy the task of State budget –finance in the second half of 2020 held by the Ministry of Finance on July 7, the General Director of the General Department of Taxation Cao Anh Tuan said that the whole tax sector will be determined to review and seek revenues to offset shortfalls and strive to achieve the highest budget revenue in 2020.

Cao Anh Tuan spoke at the conference 

In first half of 2020, revenue decreases about VND 80 trillion

Reporting on tax collection in the first six months of 2020, Tuan said the total budget revenue as of the end of June reached 45.8% of the estimate, if excluding extended tax amount of VND 43,000 billion, the tax sector’s revenue was 49.2% of the estimate.

In the first quarter alone, the revenue was 28%, mainly from the balance of final settlement of 2019. From April, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, State budget revenue gradually decreased, focusing on three economic sectors: non-State economic sector (down VND 34,000 billion), FDI sector (down VND 18,500 billion) and State-owned enterprises (down VND 22,500 billion).

“Thus, in the first six months of the year, due to the pandemic and other objective factors, the State budget revenue decreased by VND 80,000 billion. 43 of 63 provinces had collection rate higher than the national average, of which 34 provinces reached more than 50% of the estimate. Through a review of 16 provinces with revenues paid to the central, there were five provinces exceeding 50%, in which, many provinces achieved good results such as Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Duong,"said Tuan.

According to Tuan, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and under the direction of the Government and the Ministry of Finance, tax authorities at all levels widely publicised the policy on tax payment extension in Decree No. 41/2020 / ND-CP; upgraded information technology applications and guided taxpayers to apply the payment extension of taxes and land rent online.

The General Department of Taxation strengthened information and received and appraised dossiers to support business households who faced difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the spirit of solving difficulties for taxpayers, in Government Resolution 42 / NQ -CP.

Another highlight of tax collection in the first six months is to promote the electronicisation of tax administration, to successfully connect 93 tax procedures to the National Public Service Portal, and to complete simplification of two administrative procedures at level 3 electronised to level 4. Accordingly, a total of 93 tax procedures integrated into the National Public Service Portal reach level 4.

"So, on the task of integrating online public services into the National Public Service Portal, the General Department of Taxation has completed 100% of the plan assigned by the Ministry before six months," Tuan said

Along with that, the electronic tax declaration system has been launched in 63 of 63 provinces and cities and 100% of tax branches. Nearly 100% of enterprises participate in using electronic tax declaration service.

For enterprises, the tax sectorpromoted 100% of electronic declarations; 98% electronic tax payment and 96% of electronic tax refund. For individuals, the tax sector is piloting electronic payment for registration fees for cars and motorbikes and electronic corporate income tax payment for house leasing etc.

Striving to achieve highest State budget revenue in 2020

Speaking about the task of the last six months, Tuan said the tax sector is determined to review and seek revenues to offset shortfalls and strive to achieve the highest State budget revenue in 2020. From now until the end of the year, apart from performing key tasks and solutions of the Ministry of Finance, the whole tax sector will focus on specific solutions.

The tax sector will focus on supporting enterprises and people in accordance with the spirit of Decree 41/2020 / ND-CP and Resolution 42. For Decree 41/2020 / ND-CP, according to initial calculations, the extended tax amount will be VND 180,000 billion, but extended amount is now at VND 43,000 billion, so the tax office is continuing to publicise information for enterprises and people entitled to the extension to perform declaration.

The tax sector continues to drastically implement Government Resolution 84 / NQ-CP. It is expected that the corporate income tax will decrease by VND 11,900 billion, the registration fee VND 3,700 billion, the land rent VND 1,800-2,000 billion, the fee for granting mineral rights VND 1,650 billion, and the environmental protection tax VND 450 billion.

At the same time, to deploy debt settlement in the spirit of Resolution 94/2019 / QH14 of the National Assembly; to carry out the revised Tax Administration Law, on the basis of which the Government's decrees, the General Department of Taxation urgently reports to the Ministry of Finance in issuing guiding circulars for training in July-August.

According to Tuan, the General Department of Taxation will implement Government Resolution 02 / NQ-CP. The tax sector strives to increase tax rank in the Doing Business report from seventh to tenth. The General Department of Taxation has worked with the World Bank to review four criteria (total tax rates, post-declaration indexes, tax payment time and tax payment times) to ensure the proposal of the Ministry of Finance and the Government on the ranking increase.

In addition to reducing taxes, extending tax payment and eliminating tax debts, the General Department of Taxation has publicised and taken measures to urge tax debt recovery; resolutely apply debt recovery measures in accordance with regulations to enterprises not affected by the Covid-19 pandemic but deliberately taking advantage of the policies.

In addition, Tuan said that the tax sector will provide support for enterprises that comply with tax laws through increased inspections at tax offices, promote inspection against transfer pricing; maximise the application of information technology, exploit databases for risk analysis, perform one step of inspection and limit inspections at enterprise headquarters in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance.

“After social distancing was over, the tax sector hasconducted inspections and examinations from May. As a result, only two months, the tax sector has obtained VND 682 billion through document examination at tax offices. In addition, the tax sector has continued to work with banking supervision agencies and business registration agencies to review databases and assess risks of capital transfer deals and projects, contributing to increase revenue to offset shortfalls,”said Tuan.

Tuan also affirmed that the tax sector would promote internal discipline and rectify the working style in accordance with the directions of the Minister of Finance.