Vietnam Tax Industry: 80 years of accompanying the country's construction and development

(Chinhphu.vn) - In the atmosphere of the whole country celebrating the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day, on September 9, in Hanoi, the Tax sector solemnly held a ceremony to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its tradition. The event affirmed its role as a pillar of the budget, and at the same time recognized outstanding achievements throughout the development journey.

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang: "The Tax sector has proven its role as a core force, accompanying the country's development and people's lives" - Photo: VGP/HT

Many outstanding achievements

On September 9, 2025, in the joyful atmosphere of the whole country celebrating the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day September 2, towards the 14th National Congress of the Party, the Tax sector solemnly held the 80th Anniversary of Traditional Day (September 10, 1945 - September 10, 2025). The ceremony was held with the consent of the Minister of Finance.

In his welcome speech, comrade Mai Xuan Thanh - Party Secretary, Director of the Tax Department emphasized that over the past 80 years, the Tax sector has gone through 4 stages associated with the nation's revolutionary cause.

Period 1945-1975: From Decree No. 27 (September 10, 1945), the Tax sector was born with the mission of creating resources to feed the army, contributing to the victory of Spring 1975, unifying the country.

Period 1975-1990: The Tax sector gradually perfected the policy system in the context of a planned economy . By the 6th Party Congress (1986), it had switched to a new mechanism, affirming its role as a macro-regulatory tool.

Period 1990-2011: This was a period of strong transformation, organizing the tax system vertically, issuing 9 unified tax codes, the 2007 Tax Administration Law opened up a self-declaration and self-payment mechanism, approaching international standards.

From 2011 to present: The Tax sector has achieved many breakthroughs in reform and modernization, implementing national electronic invoices, digitizing tax management, building large databases and applying artificial intelligence.

Director of the Tax Department Mai Xuan Thanh: "The Tax sector will continue to strive to excellently complete the assigned tasks" - Photo: VGP/HT

Firstly, the Tax sector has always played a key role in the national budget. Total budget revenue managed by the sector increased from 5.2 trillion VND in 1990 to more than 1.7 quadrillion VND in 2025 and is expected to exceed 2 quadrillion VND. The structure of domestic revenue has increased sharply, reflecting the sustainable development of the economy.

Second, the tax policy system is increasingly complete, synchronous, modern, and in line with international practices. Vietnam has signed more than 75 double taxation avoidance agreements and participated in many multilateral cooperation mechanisms, thereby creating a transparent investment environment.

Third, the Tax sector is at the forefront of modernization and digital transformation. Currently, 100% of businesses use electronic invoices, more than 99% declare and pay taxes electronically, and nearly 7 million people use eTax Mobile. New applications such as AI-supported Q&A and automatic tax refunds have been widely deployed.

Fourth, the motto of "putting taxpayers at the center" is thoroughly implemented. Tax administrative procedures have been reduced from 435 to 219 procedures. 93.9% of taxpayers participating in the assessment said they were satisfied with the service of the tax authority.

Fifth, the tax staff is increasingly strong. Currently, 97% have university degrees or higher, of which 32% are post-graduates. From 2015 to 2025, the payroll will decrease by 28.3% but work efficiency will continuously increase thanks to the application of technology.

Key tasks in the new period

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang acknowledged the contributions of the Tax sector in the cause of defending the Fatherland, building and developing the country. The Party and State have awarded many noble titles: Hero of Labor, Ho Chi Minh Medal, First Class Independence Medal, Labor Medals of various classes, Emulation Flags of the Government; many collectives and individuals in the sector have been honored and rewarded.

"This is a great source of encouragement, adding strength for tax officials today to continue the glorious tradition, overcome all difficulties, excellently complete their tasks, and make practical contributions to the cause of industrialization, modernization and sustainable development of the country." - Minister Nguyen Van Thang emphasized.

On behalf of the Party and State, comrade Nguyen Van Thang, member of the Party Central Committee, Party Secretary, Minister of Finance awarded the First Class Labor Medal to the Tax Department - Photo: VGP/HT

The new context places high and urgent demands on the Tax sector. Minister Nguyen Van Thang suggested that the Tax sector focus on a number of key tasks.

Firstly, perfecting tax institutions and policies. The Tax sector needs to proactively review and propose amendments to legal documents on tax administration to ensure consistency, transparency, fairness, ease of understanding and implementation. This is not only to mobilize reasonable resources for the budget but also to create a favorable business environment, encourage innovation and overcome existing institutional bottlenecks.

Second, strengthen revenue management and prevent revenue loss. The tax sector must strictly manage and effectively exploit potential revenue sources, especially in areas such as e-commerce, digital economy and cross-border activities.

At the same time, it is necessary to resolutely and strictly handle violations, combat invoice fraud, and tax refunds. This is to ensure fairness and equality in tax obligations and strengthen budget sustainability.

Awarding the Prime Minister's Certificate of Merit to the Tax Department (Ministry of Finance) - Photo: VGP/HT

Third, promote administrative reform and improve the quality of service to taxpayers. The Tax sector needs to resolutely cut down and simplify tax administrative processes and procedures, ensuring that all procedures are simple, clear, accessible and easy to implement.

Strive for 100% of tax administrative procedures to be performed online, connected, and fully in the digital environment. The goal is not only to reduce time and compliance costs for businesses and people, but also to increase satisfaction, strengthen trust and social consensus towards tax authorities.

Fourth, continue to carry out comprehensive digital transformation of tax management and build a centralized database. This is a cross-cutting and central task of the entire industry. The Tax sector needs to urgently build and implement the Project to Redesign the entire industry's information technology system, ensuring synchronous modernization of the system and "correct, sufficient, clean, and live" input data.

In addition, it is necessary to continue building a centralized, integrated, and intelligent tax management system, strongly applying artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing, and real-time data analysis to improve tax management efficiency and promptly and tightly control risks.

At the same time, expand and diversify digital tax services, create a fast, transparent, safe and convenient transaction environment for all taxpayers. Digital transformation must become a key driving force to improve management capacity, while providing the best support for businesses and people.

In addition, the Tax sector needs to continue reviewing and redesigning the management process, ensuring consistency, science, transparency, reducing overlaps, eliminating unnecessary procedures, thereby improving the effectiveness and efficiency in management. All business activities must ensure the principles of publicity - correct policies - correct subjects, especially in sensitive stages such as tax refunds, tax exemptions, inspections, checks and tax debt management.

Fifth, strengthen the training and development of cadres, combined with tightening discipline and order. The Tax sector needs to pay attention to developing a team of tax officials and civil servants with strong political will, good expertise, clear ethics, and professional style. Promote training and fostering of modern management skills and information technology capacity to meet the increasingly high requirements of tax work in the digital age.

Along with that, it is necessary to strengthen internal inspection and supervision, implement strict discipline and order, resolutely fight and handle negative behaviors and violations. This is the key factor to build a clean, transparent, honest tax administration that serves the people.

"These are consistent, strategic and decisive tasks, which are the premise for the Tax sector to continue to affirm its core and pioneering role in ensuring revenue for the budget, contributing to building a stable, transparent and modern national financial system, making an important contribution to the sustainable and prosperous development of the country." - Minister Nguyen Van Thang especially emphasized.

After 80 years of construction and development, the Tax sector has proven its role as a core, trustworthy and steadfast force, accompanying the revolutionary cause of the Party, the development of the country and the life of the people. Minister Nguyen Van Thang affirmed that the great, comprehensive and sustainable achievements that the sector has achieved are the pride of many generations of tax officials, civil servants and public employees, and at the same time are the foundation and motivation for the whole sector to firmly step into the new stage of development.

"In the coming time, I believe that, with the glorious tradition, steadfastness, spirit of solidarity, discipline, innovation and aspiration for dedication; all cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers of the Tax sector will continue to strive, make many new achievements, and excellently complete the political tasks assigned by the Party, State and People" - Minister Nguyen Van Thang expressed his confidence.

Mr. Minh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/nganh-thue-viet-nam-80-nam-dong-hanh-xay-dung-va-phat-trien-dat-nuoc-102250909122450932.htm