Customs and Taxation go hand in hand to cut procedures and support businesses

(Chinhphu.vn) - Implementing the direction of the Government and the Ministry of Finance, the Customs and Tax sector is promoting administrative procedure reform, digital transformation and perfecting tax and land policies, creating favorable conditions for import-export, investment, production and business enterprises and economic recovery.

Perfecting tax and customs policies to promote business development - Photo: VGP/HT

Customs proactively reviews and cuts administrative procedures

At the seminar "Improving tax and customs policies, promoting business development" organized by the Economic and Financial Magazine on October 16, Mr. Tran Duc Hung, Deputy Director of the Customs Department, said: implementing Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW of the Politburo and the direction of the Ministry of Finance , the Customs agency has reviewed nearly 100 legal documents to propose amendments, supplements, and abolishes inappropriate regulations, removing barriers to import-export and trade activities.

In 2025 alone, the Customs Department conducted a comprehensive review of 214 administrative procedures (AP) directly implemented by the industry and 29 business conditions under its management. As a result, this agency advised the Ministry of Finance to approve a plan to reduce and simplify 39 APs and submitted to the Government for approval a similar plan to reduce and abolish 15 unnecessary business conditions.

In the context of the Party and State promoting scientific and technological breakthroughs and national digital transformation, the Customs sector has stepped up the application of modern customs management, such as: pre-determining codes, values, and origins of goods; post-clearance inspection; risk management; recognition of priority enterprises; assessment of compliance with customs laws. Thanks to that, enterprises are encouraged to comply with the law, harmonizing state management and trade facilitation, reducing costs and customs clearance time.

However, Mr. Hung said that the reduction of administrative procedures also poses many difficulties. On the one hand, it is necessary to ensure transparency in management, on the other hand, it is still necessary to avoid taking advantage of the openness to commit violations. In 2026, the Customs Department is expected to encounter many difficulties when continuing to review and submit new reduction plans.

Mr. Tran Duc Hung, Deputy Director of the Customs Department - Photo: VGP

Mr. Hung emphasized that the unit in charge of drafting the document must bear high legal responsibility and ensure consistency with other documents. Balancing the goal of facilitating and preventing policy abuse is a big challenge, because just one loophole can lead to legal risks.

On that basis, the Customs Department has approved the Project to reduce the inspection rate in the implementation of administrative procedures, ensuring the publicity and transparency of information on the National Database and receiving feedback and recommendations from people and businesses through the National Public Service Portal. The Customs Department also focuses on digitizing records, restructuring processes in a way that puts people and businesses at the center, ensuring quality, convenience and efficiency.

In particular, in the period 2020 - 2024, the Customs sector has proposed to cut 5% of regulations and 5% of administrative procedure compliance costs, while simplifying 6 procedures, amending 3 legal documents, and replacing the requirement to present a paper household registration book with electronic residence data mining. Four administrative procedures have been publicly announced, making it easy for people and businesses to access.

Reforms to support businesses

From the tax sector's perspective, Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director of the Tax Department, said that 2025 is a special year when the Tax sector must both complete the task of collecting VND 1,719 trillion in budget revenue and implement a series of institutional reforms and comprehensive digital transformation.

Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh, Deputy Director of the Tax Department - Photo: VGP

Resolution 204/2025/QH15 continues to allow a 2% reduction in VAT until the end of 2026; Decrees 81 and 82/2025/ND-CP extend the deadline for paying taxes and land rents, with a total of VND96,749 billion being exempted, reduced, or extended in the first 6 months of the year.

Corporate Income Tax Law No. 67/2025/QH15, effective from October 1, 2025, clearly demonstrates the spirit of reform. The tax rate of 15% applies to enterprises with revenue under VND 3 billion/year, 17% for revenue from VND 3-50 billion/year. In addition, newly established small and medium-sized enterprises are exempt from corporate income tax for 3 years, and enterprises converted from business households are exempt for the first 2 years of operation.

For income from innovation, scientific research, and digital transformation, businesses are exempt from tax for up to 3 years. Expenses for research, technology development, green investment, and carbon emission reduction are all included in reasonable expenses, and 20% of taxable income is allowed to be allocated to the Science and Technology Development Fund.

The Tax Department is also preparing to submit to the National Assembly the amended Law on Personal Income Tax and policies for business households. According to the draft, the "tax lump sum" mechanism will be abolished, switching to simple declaration and accounting, encouraging households with revenue of over VND 3 billion to use electronic invoices and applying a tax rate of 17% similar to small businesses. The family deduction is expected to increase to VND 22.7 million/month, reducing the tax burden for employees.

Along with tax policy, the 2024 Land Law (effective August 1, 2024) and guiding decrees in 2025 have helped reduce procedural burdens, especially for manufacturing and trading enterprises. People exempted from land use fees and land rent do not have to carry out price determination procedures or request exemptions. According to Decree 230/2025/ND-CP, the time to process land rent reduction applications is no more than 30 days, while many localities have reduced rental costs in industrial parks by at least 30%.

At the same time, Resolution 198/2025/QH15 allows localities to support site clearance, technical infrastructure, and create favorable production grounds for businesses.

In 2025, the Tax sector will carry out two major organizational reforms: from 63 Tax Departments to 20 Regional Departments (March) and continue to rearrange 34 provincial and municipal tax agencies and 350 grassroots-level focal points (July). This process helps to streamline focal points, improve management efficiency, but reduce more than 8,000 staff. In that context, digital transformation becomes a key solution. The Tax sector has deployed electronic invoices, eTax Mobile, converted tax codes to citizen identification codes, and synchronized population data. At the same time, e-commerce platforms are required to deduct taxes for business households, contributing to transparency of operations and reducing budget losses.

Notably, the Law on Tax Administration (amended) is being developed in a modern and transparent direction, cutting over 44% of administrative procedures. Currently, the system has only 219 procedures and will be reduced to about 120 in the near future - helping taxpayers reduce at least 30% of compliance time and costs.

"The Tax sector hopes to receive cooperation and contributions from the business community and experts, so that tax and customs policies become increasingly practical, creating momentum for innovation and international integration," Mr. Dang Ngoc Minh affirmed.

Mr. Minh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/hai-quan-thue-song-hanh-cat-giam-thu-tuc-ho-tro-doanh-nghiep-102251016163002156.htm