Vietnam News Network

A European tax expert has warned that risk management is vital to creating an efficient national system of policies and laws on taxation.

Dr Kevin Holmes said at a seminar being held in Hanoi on February 23-24 that Vietnam needs a mechanism to assess risk for each kind of tax and taxpayer in order to help tax authorities to allocate resources rationally, ensuring the equity of the tax system.

Regarding Vietnamese tax reform supported by EU technical assistance, he drew attention to a strong possibility that taxpayers might provide false information about the number of relatives who supposedly work with them in an enterprise, in order to reduce their tax burden. They might also take advantage of the way progressive taxes are calculated to move into a lower bracket, he added.

The current system relies on taxpayers to declare their own tax burden to the tax agency prior to paying – information which cannot be completely verified by the agency.

It is recommended that the agency employ an advanced data management system to deal with the large number of taxpayers and that the management system of the tax agency itself be carefully scrutinized.