Higher tax collection expected in 2016

Statistics from the Taxation Department showed that the collection of arrears in 2015 was VND39.1 trillion (US$1.78 billion), posting a 27%  year-on-year rise and surpassed the set target.

Nam said the department planned to reduce tax arrears this year. The taxation sector has been instructed to revise the Circular No 215/2013/TT-BTC, guiding enforcement of tax administrative rulings to overcome shortcomings of tax arrears enforcement and enhancing its effectiveness.

"We will co-operate with police agencies to strictly implement checks on tax arrears," he said.

People pay taxes at the Lang Son Tax Department. The collection of tax arrears this year should be higher than that of last year.

In addition, he said the tax sector would establish a special team for enforcement of tax arrears collection at the department. It would also submit to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for approval on a decision to prevent people with tax arrears from leaving the country.

He said they would also enhance awareness on tax collection for people and businesses.

Notably, the sector would continue to have warnings and publish information of businesses which have tax arrears.

Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung has said that VND34 trillion (US$1.55 billion) out of VND76 trillion (US$3.45 billion) tax arrears by the end of 2015 came from enterprises which did not want to pay tax despite having the financial ability to do so.

Dung was certain to collect US$1.5 billion while the real collection could go up to US$1.7 billion – much higher than the set target.

In July, the list of 600 firms with tax arrears in 63 provinces and cities was announced. The number of businesses in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City accounted for one-third of the total with tax arrears of VND3.5 trillion (US$159.1 million) and VND4.6 trillion (US$209.1 million) respectively.

He said tax agencies have applied several solutions to improve the collection of tax arrears including sending announcement to companies, halting their invoices and publishing their information.

They have also co-operated with banking systems in cities and provinces with regard to frozen accounts of firms.

The tax sector has also striven to reduce the total time for tax payment to 117 hours in 2015 or 50 hours lower than that of 2014.