The tax industry in Vietnam has recently announced that it holds data on over 121 million personal accounts and 9 million organizational accounts at 96 commercial banks. This was prompted by the Prime Minister’s request to improve data sharing between ministries and branches in order to prevent tax losses.
According to the General Department of Taxation, various agencies such as the police and banks have successfully completed data sharing, establishing electronic connections with the tax industry and supporting e-commerce channel management. The tax agency now possesses information on over 9 million organizational accounts and 121 million individual accounts at commercial banks.
Individuals and organizations often hold multiple accounts at different banks for transactional convenience. The State Bank of Vietnam’s data indicates that by the end of 2023, the country had nearly 183 million individual payment accounts. Therefore, the tax industry’s data collection encompasses nearly two-thirds of the total personal payment accounts in banks at the close of the previous year.
Bank account data is provided to tax authorities in accordance with Decree 126/2020 and the Law on Tax Administration 2019. This includes information on account transactions, balances, and other relevant data given by banks at the request of the tax authority head to facilitate tax obligation payments and checks. Tax authorities are tasked with securely handling and storing payer’s account information, using it to identify individuals or organizations engaged in online business who have failed to declare and pay taxes.
Apart from bank account data, the tax industry also has information related to 929 e-commerce websites and 130 organizations operating in telecommunications, advertising, and broadcasting sectors. The tax industry faces significant challenges in managing and collecting taxes amidst the rapid growth of e-commerce. The agency has implemented several strategies to improve tax management within this domain.
In addition to bank account data, e-commerce channels contributed significantly to revenue generation for taxes paid in Vietnam in 2023, amounting to $46 billion VND ($575 million USD), representing a whopping increase of over $45 billion VND ($678 million USD) compared to the previous year – an indication that online businesses are becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for Vietnam’s government.