Tax collection must win the people's hearts.

Reforming administrative procedures and creating favorable conditions for taxpayers must start with amending unreasonable and even absurd regulations.

People and businesses settle taxes at the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department - Photo: TTD

Many people were startled when reading the article "Don't let small tax debts be collected in large amounts". Startled because with the current regulations, it is likely that many people will receive "summonses" for collection like Mr. LTH - an employee of a branch of a large joint stock bank in Quang Ngai .

Just because the paying unit where Mr. LTH worked did not temporarily deduct 10% tax before paying his income due to the small payment (one amount of 3.3 million VND/year, one amount of only 300,000 VND/year), he was charged with arrears, fines, and late payment of up to 20.7 million VND by the tax authority.

While if temporarily deducted, the tax he has to pay is only 360,000 VND (10% of income).

Some people still doubt whether this is true and why the difference is up to 57 times?

The difference is high because according to regulations, the tax authority added all 3 incomes of Mr. LTH to calculate tax according to the progressive tax schedule, causing him to jump to a higher tax bracket, resulting in a tax underpayment of more than 10.52 million VND.

At the same time, based on the tax payment deadlines for 2022 and 2023, the tax authority calculated the late payment amount to be VND 527,000, plus a fine of VND 9,646 million.

According to experts, in this situation, the tax authority's collection is not wrong because it is based on Decree 126. However, if considered in terms of the situation, it will not be okay because the nature of the regulation is to facilitate taxpayers as well as reduce the workload for the tax authority.

However, the policy does not cover all situations that arise in reality when many individuals such as university lecturers, doctors... have a casual income of only 300,000 - 500,000 VND/time from contributing professional work at an outside unit. The main income from the agency has been fully paid.

They do not intend to evade taxes, but they are subject to heavy fines, surcharges, and late payment fees, which are dozens of times higher than the amount of tax deducted. As a result, taxpayers are forced to fulfill their obligations but feel dissatisfied.

Therefore, to fully support and create more convenience for individual taxpayers, tax experts recommend that the Ministry of Finance should have clear instructions on this matter in a way that creates maximum convenience for taxpayers.

Do not let taxpayers be charged dozens of times more for a small tax debt, which is not in line with the spirit of "tax collection must win the hearts of the people" that the tax industry has repeatedly mentioned in "listening" conferences.

In other words, reforming administrative procedures and creating favorable conditions for taxpayers must start with amending unreasonable and even absurd regulations as reflected above.

This also helps the tax industry because it reduces the number of people doing tax settlement, especially when the number of personal income tax settlement files has continuously increased dramatically in recent years.

Only then can the tax industry effectively implement the motto "Transparency, professionalism, integrity, innovation", promptly resolving difficulties and problems in the process of fulfilling tax obligations.

Businesses and taxpayers will also feel that their feedback is recorded promptly, instead of having to wait for feedback in "listening" conferences as happened recently.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thu-thue-phai-thu-duoc-long-dan-20241104085031846.htm