Hanoi to push for smart tax agency

Hanoi aims to digitize tax management, striving for a "smart tax agency" to reduce costs and time for both tax authorities and taxpayers. This will improve business environment and enhance competitiveness.

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Ha Minh Hai. Photo: Pham Hung/The Hanoi Times.

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Ha Minh Hai made the comments at a conference of the municipal Taxation Department on July 15 to discuss its performance in the first six months of the year.

“The tax department needs to intensify training programs to develop a high-quality workforce that meets the standards, qualifications, and expertise required for each position and to ensure modern tax management. Special emphasis should be placed on training key management personnel, mostly heads of units under the department,” said Hai.

He also requested the taxation agency to actively participate in the planning of the Capital and the amended Capital Law; to develop and build  Hanoi by 2030 with a vision to 2050 aiming for it to be "Civilized - Modern - Green," featuring a service-oriented government, dedicated businesses, a trustworthy society, and happy citizens.

At the conference, General Director of the General Department of Taxation Mai Xuan urged the Hanoi Taxation Department to continue developing tax management applications and to harness existing and potential revenue sources with the principle that where there is cash flow, tax laws apply.

A report from the Hanoi Taxation Department suggested the agency’s focus will be on monitoring revenue collection progress, assessing and analyzing factors affecting revenue, and tracking specific revenue progress in each area, region, and tax category. This includes evaluating the health of businesses in order to adopt suitable and effective revenue management and anti-tax evasion measures.

The department will maintain dialogues with businesses and enhance support services, particularly through electronic means, to address difficulties and facilitate the implementation of tax policies, thereby helping businesses to maintain stability, expand, and develop their operations.

They will continue to review and standardize personal tax identification data, and to develop solutions for digitizing and electronically processing of various stages to support taxpayers. This includes improving the quality of electronic tax filing, payment, and refund services, and speeding up the processing of VAT refunds while applying risk management to ensure proper tax refunds according to laws and policies.

Furthermore, efforts will focus on combating tax evasion in high-risk areas, enhancing inspections at tax offices, and targeting enterprises with significant potential for revenue growth in areas such as e-commerce, capital transfers, real estate transactions, and the fight against tax fraud.

Despite global economic uncertainties and rapid, unpredictable changes in economic, political, and military affairs, as well as unforeseen natural disasters and pandemics, the total budget revenue in Hanoi collected by the Tax Department still reached approximately US$10.43 billion in the first six months of 2024, achieving 64.2% of the forecast and increasing by 18.5% compared to the same period in 2023.

For e-commerce activities, the Hanoi Taxation Department focused on tax management and monitoring of businesses, households, and individuals generating revenue from e-commerce activities. They collaborated with e-commerce platforms, commercial banks, and intermediary transport units to collect and build a database.

Based on the results of standardizing personal tax identification numbers under the national digital transformation in the 2022-2025 period with a vision to 2030 (Project 06) on developing applications of population data, identification, and electronic authentication, the Hanoi Tax Department has validated information for 418 enterprises owning e-commerce platforms, 668 business entities selling digital products and content, 54 businesses providing lodging services, and standardized data on 366,857 shops corresponding to 197,848 tax identification numbers, including declared revenue, paid taxes, and bank accounts.

The Hanoi Department of Taxation also coordinated with the Hoan Kiem District People's Committee to pilot e-commerce tax management in the district, enhancing communication and guiding taxpayers in filing and paying taxes  according to the law, with initial success.

Total revenue from e-commerce activities in Hanoi for the first six months of 2024 reached approximately $425 million.