Ha Tinh Tax Officers Paid by Facebook for Policy Guidance

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hong - Deputy Head of the Business Support Management Team, Grassroots Tax 1, Ha Tinh province is being affectionately called "policy creator" by her Facebook friends.

She is known to many taxpayers across the country for her many posts providing guidance and answers to questions about tax policies. Her personal Facebook page “Thu Hong Nguyen” currently has more than 13,500 followers. Each post receives a lot of interactions and is enabled for monetization.

Portrait of Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hong - Deputy Head of Business Support Management Team, Grassroots Tax 1, Ha Tinh province.

Sharing about her journey to becoming a policy content creator on Facebook, Ms. Hong said: “My initial goal was to convey useful information to help taxpayers grasp policies and comply with State regulations. Unexpectedly, my posts received a lot of attention from everyone. From a post about a business household that did not accept transfers to hide revenue in June, reaching nearly 5 million views, my personal page began to increase its followers. For more than a week now, Facebook has enabled monetization mode for my posts.”

According to Ms. Hong, Facebook pays an average of 4-5 USD per day to her personal page depending on the level of interaction. This number is not large, but it is the motivation for her to continue sharing useful content; helping taxpayers grasp the regulations and fulfill their obligations.

Currently, every day, she maintains 2-3 short, direct posts, using specific illustrative examples and step-by-step video instructions to suit the information approach of social media users.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hong's personal Facebook page currently has more than 13,500 followers thanks to regularly posting information explaining tax policies.

The main contents revolve around questions that many taxpayers are interested in such as: regulations on abolishing lump-sum tax for business households; tax declaration on eTax Mobile; procedures for buying and selling individual invoices for business households; land procedures... The contents seem dry and difficult to access, but through Ms. Hong's sharing, they are receiving positive interactions and spreading strongly in the community, opening up a new direction of propaganda for the tax industry.

It is known that Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hong (born in 1989, residing in Cam Xuyen commune) graduated from the Banking Academy and has more than 12 years of experience in tax work in Ha Tinh. With practical working experience and a firm grasp of new documents, she is considered an officer who can present tax policies clearly and easily for everyone. During her work, she has also received many certificates of merit from the Tax Department and Ha Tinh Provincial Taxation for her outstanding achievements in professional tasks.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hong participated in propaganda and supported business households to implement the conversion from lump-sum tax payment to declaration.

Mr. Le Hong Liem, Head of Tax Department 1 of Ha Tinh province said: "Ms. Hong is an officer with a solid professional background, has a firm grasp of real-life situations and is always proactive in simplifying complex regulations so that taxpayers can easily understand and implement them.

Her use of social networks to convey information is a modern, effective propaganda method, suitable for people's approach, helping the tax industry get closer to the community."

Ms. Hong and her colleagues discuss ways to promote tax policies on social networks.

With her creativity in conveying information on social networks, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hong is helping taxpayers access policies quickly and easily. Not only does this help people grasp information in a timely manner, but it also helps reduce pressure on tax authorities during the peak period of implementing the elimination of lump-sum tax and switching to a declaration method for business households.

Ms. Hong's story is a vivid example of the effectiveness when tax officials combine expertise with technology; at the same time, it is also a suggestion for many other officials to learn and replicate the method, helping to bring policy information closer to the community.