Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - The tax watchdog is striving to increase the percentage of tax reimbursements processed through the “refund first, check later” regime, aiming to speed up refunds that would be beneficial for businesses, according to Le Thi Duyen Hai, Director of the Tax Declaration and Refund Department.
Hai said that the “refund-first-check-later” reimbursement is expected to account for at least 80 percent of refunds, adding that the tax watchdog will make efforts to prevent businesses from taking advantage of legal gaps to get tax refunds.
The application of online tax refunds will also be promoted, she said.
From November, online tax refunds will be applied in five cities and provinces, including Hanoi, HCM City, the northern port city of Hai Phong and the southern provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai, Hai said, adding that e-tax refunds are more complicated and that it will take more time to complete the online procedures.
By the end of 2017, 95 percent of provinces and cities nationwide will use online tax return services.
Currently, online tax submissions and payments already account for 95 percent of all submissions.
Statistics from the General Department of Taxation revealed that businesses received 58 trillion VND (2.6 billion USD) in value-added tax refunds in the first seven months of this year, while a total of 12 trillion VND in claimed refunds were rejected.
Hai said at the August 31 conference of the General Department of Taxation that the tax refund for Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company was compliant with the Law on Value Added Tax.
Since the company started investing in the central province of Ha Tinh in 2009, Formosa has received a total of 14.6 trillion VND in tax refunds, more than 10.6 trillion VND of which were refunded for taxes Formosa had already paid for its imported equipment and materials.
The remainder of the refund was for value added taxes that Formosa’s local contractors had paid.
The Taiwan-invested steel project, worth nearly 10 billion USD in investment, has already paid 500 million USD in compensation for causing sea pollution off four central provinces of Vietnam that caused mass fish deaths in April, said Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha on August 30.-VNA
