Hanoi (VNA) – The stateaudit sector plays an important role in tax administration, helping strengthenthe national financial system, heard a workshop held by the State Audit Office(SAV) and the UK-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) inHanoi on May 9.

SAV Deputy Auditor General Doan Xuan Tien said that tax auditing has been seenas an important task in all of the sector’s audits, which show that the numbersof tax evasions and violations of taxation regulations remain high across alllocalities, all types of enterprises and kinds of taxes.

Tien said that tax auditinghas been constrained by a number of factors like neglect of evaluation of taxcollection efficiency, short auditing duration, small-scale auditing, and alack of experience amongst auditors amid diversified business forms.

Belinda Young – member of ACCA’s Global Forum on Taxation, Chairwoman of ACCASingapore Taxation Interest Group, and Director of Centrecourt Group ofCompanies Singapore – said that changes in the global business environment andthe rapid development of technology such as cryptocurrency and encryption haveposed formidable challenges to the identification of tax responsibility.

To that end, nations should stay prudent when completing tax policies to fittheir socio-economic development conditions, she said, adding that experiencesharing and coordinating with competent authorities both outside and inside thecountry are crucial to ensure that the tax system is adaptable to new kinds of business.

Meanwhile, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Tax Consultant Association Nguyen Thi Cucsaid that Vietnam moved up five places in the World Bank’s tax paying indicatorin 2016 and 11 places in 2017, which means improvements were seen in thecountry’s business climate.

Survey conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry also showedthat more businesses express their satisfaction with administrative procedurereforms in the tax sector.

She noted that tax mechanisms and systems must be completed in accordance withVietnam’s socio-economic conditions and international regulations.

Reform should be sped up, with procedures slashed in tax registration,declaration, payment, refund, and tax finalisation. –VNA