On Wednesday, a seminar took place in Da Nang to discuss the implementation of Government Resolution No 19-NQ/CP which concerns tasks to improve the business environment and national competitiveness, and to collect opinions for the draft revisions of a decree on tax policies.  The event was jointly organised by the US Agency for International Development, the Central Institute of Economic Management, and the Viet Nam Tax Consultants’ Association.

Currently, the time for corporate tax declaration and payment procedures in Viet Nam is much longer than in other countries of South East Asia.  The main reasons seem to be that businesses spend too much time preparing related papers for tax calculations, and value-added tax declaration procedures incorporate numerous attached papers and complicated procedures for collating invoices as well as handling customs declaration papers.  As a result, businesses have to shoulder a burden of work-related pressure as well as waste a lot of their time.

Viet Nam is striving to reduce the time for tax declaration and payment procedures to an average of 171 hours per year by 30 June 2015, as in the ASEAN-6 countries of Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.