The Ministry of Finance has agreed to extend the deadline for taxpayers to complete processing and payment of 2009 personal income taxes to the end of July – two months later than the initial due date of May 31.

A large number of income tax filings were late this year, necessitating the extension, said the head of the General

Department of Taxation's Personal Income Tax Unit, Ngo Dinh Quang, estimating that only about 80 percent of individual and corporate income tax filers had submitted complete dossiers by May 31.

Tax offices were also burdened by the large influx of last-minute filings, Quang admitted. Online filing systems had also not been working properly, further increasing the administrative burden, he said.

Online tax filings at www.tncnonline.com.vn were first authorised under the Law on Personal Income Taxation last July, but the website has proven of limited value, according to Thai Van Anh, director of the HCM City branch of KTC Assurance and Business Advisors Co.

Few taxpayers had used the website due to its lack of a solid verification system that would assure taxpayers that tax authorities had received their submission, Anh said.

"When it comes to tax filing, a day late can result in a heavy fine, so enterprises don't feel the need to risk it," she said.

"They'd rather stick to the old reliable method of submitting to the tax offices directly. The software is there to help enterprises make tax filings in accordance with the formal procedures of the department, but after they complete the filing, they still have to deliver it to the tax authorities to be keyed in."

Bui Ngoc Tuan, director of taxation for Deloitte Vietnam , said the system had been useful to organisations, but few individual taxpayers were yet familiar with the systems.

In a number of cases, taxpayers had income from more than one source or supplemental income from transfer of property or inheritances, and then the process to prove sources of income and the applicable forms and procedures became exceedingly complicated to many taxpayers, Tuan said.

This marks the second time the ministry has extended the deadline for paying 2009 personal income taxes. The first deadline, March 31, was moved back by two months in February to give taxpayers more time to become familiar with new declaration forms and regulations./.