March is always a peak time for enterprises or individuals to complete their internal revenue service (IRS) tax settlements for the previous year. Does the Hà Nội Tax Department have any measures to support them fulfill their duty quickly?

From early 2016, the Tax Department had specific plans to facilitate enterprises and individuals in settling their 2015 tax duties in the shortest time.

March is always the peak period for tax payers to settle their annual IRS taxes. That’s why, in early March, the Hà Nội Tax Department together with its 30 divisions spread throughout the city launched a campaign to help tax payers accomplish their duties in the shortest time. We also developed and distributed guide books on how to prepare documents before going to the tax office.

In addition to the one door policy, this month, we have also arranged additional staff to support tax payers on how to complete their dossiers or guide them in how to fill in the online forms.

Where tax division offices lack space, they have been given a green light to rent additional space for tax payers to lodge their dossiers. In addition, these offices will be open seven days a week in March.

I should say that 2016 is a special year. Now over 99 per cent of tax payers have used the online method of tax payment, up from just 86 per cent in March 2015.

What other measures have the Hà Nội Tax Department adopted to help enterprises facing difficulties claim their tax refund?

We have set up a hotline to assist tax payers in cases of need. For example, in early March we sent our staff to the Việt Nam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and the Viet Nam Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV) to help them fill in their tax documents online. As a result, they have saved quite a lot of time filling out their tax papers for 2015 online.

In addition, we have also adopted specific plans to help enterprises facing difficulties in filling out their tax settlements for 2015.

Could you elaborate further on what proposals your tax department has put forward to help tax payers reduce their paper form burden?

We have posted the main points that any enterprise or individual needs to  know when they want to clear their tax payments for 2015 on our website https://gdt.gov.vn, and also on the news bulletin of the one-stop shops in our department and its 30 divisions in the city.

We have also advised tax payers to visit our offices or to use our hotline to get advice. In special cases, we’ll send our staff out to enterprises to provide direct instructions. -- VNS