In fact, big corporations do not know if the information is bad news or good news for them. In principle, this is a good news, because the existence of such a department will help the corporations settle their problems quickly when the companies can report their problems directly to the General Department of Taxation (GDT). However, big corporations are not thinking this way. They fear that from now on, they will have to bear the management of both local taxation agencies and the GDT’s large corporation taxation department

Together with the establishment of the big corporate taxation department, according to Pham Duy Khuong, Deputy General Director of GDT, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has promulgated the Decision No. 856, which shows the list of the enterprises subject to the direct taxation management from GDT. The list includes 35 economic conglomerates and general corporations with 425 branches. In the list, besides the state-owned economic conglomerates and general corporations like the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), the Vietnam National Petroleum Import-Export Corporation (Petrolimex), Viettel, there are many other big names like Toyota Vietnam, Honda Vietnam, Asia Commercial Bank ACB and Bao Viet Group.

Explaining the decision on establishing the new corporate taxation department, Khuong said that big corporations have been playing a very important role in the national economy and have been making increasing contributions to the national budget. Therefore, it is necessary to have a special mechanism on taxation management on large corporations.

Meanwhile, many corporations say that they have worries about the special mechanism on taxation management. Dam Thi Huyen, Deputy General Director of Petrolimex said at the dialogue between MOF and large corporations on June 19 that if taxation agencies of different levels (GDT and local taxation bodies) do not coordinate with each other, a lot of problems would arise when enterprises declare and pay taxes.

According to Huyen, Petrolimex operates in all 63 provinces and cities. Different local taxation agencies, in many cases have different viewpoints on the same matter which has put many difficulties for the operation of Petrolimex.

A representative from Viettel, the military telecom company, Vu Xuan Cu said that the inspection work of taxation agencies shows a lot of problems which forces the enterprise to spend too much time fulfilling their tax duties. Cu said that it is necessary to clarify the mechanism of coordinating between GDT and local taxation bodies in managing the taxation of big corporations, so as to avoid creating inconveniences to enterprises. He also stressed that taxation bodies need to announce periodic inspection plans in order to create the most favourable conditions for enterprises’ operation.

Other businesses have voiced the same concern that the existence of such a department under GDP would make large difficulties for enterprises’ operation. In recent years, large corporations only have to ‘go through one door’– i.e. that they only have to deal with one agency – local taxation agencies. Now with the existence of the new corporate taxation department, they will have to deal with two agencies, which will cost more time and money to enterprises.

Nguyen Trong Quang, Deputy Director of the Big Corporate Taxation Management Department under GDT has reassured enterprises that the GDT will do everything it can to ease the procedural burden on businesses. He has also promised to coordinate well with local agencies in taxation management in order to minimize inconvenience for businesses.

Do Hoang Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of MOF and General Director of GDT, stressed that the most important goal of the new department is to help large corporations better fulfill their tax duties, not to create inconveniences to enterprises.

Source: Dau tu chung khoan