Exclusive tax payment portal opened for foreign suppliers

As of March 21, General Department of Taxation held an online conference to launch a Portal for Foreign Suppliers (FSs) and an electronic tax mobile app – eTax Mobile 

In Vietnam, e-commerce activities are currently striking with an enormous annual growth rate. According to White book on Vietnamese E-Business 2020, the growth rate of e-commerce will reach 18% with the scale of 11.8 billion USD and was the only country in Southeast Asia with double-digit e-commerce growth. Many large corporations in the world such as Google have forecasted the possibility that the scale of Vietnam’s digital economy will reach over 52 billion USD and rank third in ASEAN by 2025.

Not having a permanent place of operation in Vietnam, business activities of FSs are mainly digital-based and via internet applications, etc., therefore, preceding registration forms, traditional tax declaration, and payment will no longer be appropriate and difficult to perform. As for being adaptable to the new situation, improving the efficiency of tax administration as well as creating favorable conditions for state public servants to fulfill their tax obligations during business operation, General Department of Taxation has researched and created a portal on digital platform exclusively for the FS. The portal is not only an address for the FS to register, declare and pay taxes, but also a place where businesses can look up information, learn about the tax legal system and related policies regarding Vietnamese e-commerce.

Whereupon, General Department of Taxation requested Tax Departments of large enterprises, in addition to the 64 FSs who need support in tax declaration via digital platform, to keep reviewing and providing timely support to other FSs having same demand. For transactions of suppliers who have not registered via the portal, it is necessary to closely coordinate with Tax Administration Department on small and medium enterprises and business households, individuals, Declaration department and tax authorities at all levels to deduct tax at source for Vietnamese organizations and individuals subject to income payment. At the same time, it is recommended that the leaders of commercial banks direct and closely coordinate with the General Department of Taxation to develop a specific plan and roadmap so that they can soon connect with the Etax Mobile application, diversifying options for taxpayers to fulfill their tax obligations electronically. There have been 54 banks that signed cooperation agreements on tax collection via banks with tax authorities, but currently, only 5 banks, namely Vietcombank, Viettinbank, BIDV, MBank, Agribank, have completed the connection with tax authorities.

(Source: thanhnien)