CONSULTING SERVICES AT VACO AUDITING COMPANY LIMITED (luận văn tốt nghiệp tiếng anh)

MINISTRY OF FINANCE ACADEMY OF FINANCE PHAM ANH DUC CLASS: CQ56/02.01 GRADUATION DISSERTATION TOPIC: TAX CONSULTING SERVICES AT VACO AUDITING COMPANY LIMITED Major: Taxation Code: 02 Supervisor Assoc Prof Ph.D Le Xuan Truong HA NOI – 2022 i TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ACRONYMS iv LIST OF TABLE v LIST OF FIGURE vi DECLARATION vii GRATITUDE viii INTRODUCTION 1 The necessity of the dissertation Objectives of the dissertation Scope of the dissertation Research methods Structure of the dissertation CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON TAX CONSULTING SERVICE 1.1 An overview of tax consulting 1.1.1 Concepts, characteristics and objects of tax consulting service 1.1.2 The role of tax consultancies and assistance 10 1.1.3 Forms of tax consultancy and assistance 16 1.2 Tax consulting services 17 1.2.1 Formation and development of tax consulting services 17 1.2.2 Contents of tax consulting services 19 1.2.3 Criteria for assessing the quality of tax consultancy services are enterprises providing consulting services 20 1.2.4 The factors affecting tax consulting services 22 1.2.5 Potential development of tax consulting services 25 1.2.6 The basic process of professional tax advices 27 ii CHAPTER 2: THE STATUS OF TAX CONSULTING SERVICES AT VACO AUDITING CO., LTD 31 2.1 Overview of VACO Auditing Company Limited 31 2.1.1 Process of formation and development of VACO Auditing Company Limited 31 2.1.2 The organizational structure of the company 33 2.1.3 Services provided by VACO Auditing Company Limited 39 2.1.4 Overview of business operation of VACO Auditing Company Limited 41 2.2 Tax consulting services of VACO Auditing Company Limited 44 2.2.1 Form of tax consulting services provided by VACO Auditing Company Limited 474 2.2.2 Major customers of VACO 47 2.2.3 Tax consulting procedures 49 2.3 General assessment of Tax advisory services at VACO Auditing Company Limited 52 2.3.1 The achievements 52 2.3.2 The limitations 59 2.3.3 The reasons for drawbacks 61 CHAPTER 3: SOME RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE TAX CONSULTING SERVICES AT VACO AUDITING COMPANY LIMITED 64 3.1 Goals and development orientations of the company 64 3.2 Some recommendations for improving tax consulting services at VACO… 65 3.2.1 Building customers development strategies 65 3.2.2 Deploying new consulting services 67 iii 3.2.3 Improving the quality of each specific part of the consulting process and working with customers 68 3.2.4 Developing human resource 68 3.2.5 Promoting marketing activities 70 3.2.6 Strengthening the coordination and support of the tax authorities in the process of providing tax advisory services to customers 72 3.2.7 Combining the development of tax consulting services with other consulting services 72 3.3 Some recommendations to promote tax consultation and support activities of tax consulting companies 73 3.3.1 Proposing to functional agencies solutions to perfect tax law system 73 3.3.2 Proposing to the Vietnam Tax Consultants Association to facilitate the development of tax consultancy services in Vietnam 76 CONCLUSION 79 REFERENCES 81 iv LIST OF ACRONYMS CIT Corporate Income Co., Ltd Limited Company FDI Foreign investment FTA Free Tax Agreements HR Human Resources ISD International Service Department IT Information Technology KYC Know your customer TCS Tax Consulting Services VAT Value Added Tax VTCA Vietnam Tax Consultants' Association WTO World Trade Organization v LIST OF TABLE Table 2.1: Profit and loss statement by years 42 Table 2.2: Number of customers by the audience 48 Table 2.3: Revenue from tax advisory services in total revenue 53 vi LIST OF FIGURE Figure 2.1: Company structure 34 Figure 2.2: Structure of tax consulting department 37 Figure 2.3: Revenue from tax advisory service in total revenue 55 Figure 2.4: Revenue ratio of each tax consulting service in 2021 57 Figure 2.5: Revenue proportion of each tax consulting service in 2021 58 vii DECLARATION I hereby declare that this dissertation is a report of my own research and all data, information was provided in this essay are true and based on reality Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions Dissertation author Pham Anh Duc viii GRATITUDE First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Associate Professor Dr Le Xuan Truong for everything that he made to contribute to the completion of my dissertation Without his profound academy knowledge, I could not receive from many constructive comments and valuable suggestions he has given me, which I found very helpful to not complete this dissertation but also to improve my research-related skills and cognition Secondly, I want to thank all of my friends and all teachers at Academy of Finance, especially teachers of Tax and Customs Faculty for giving me the best four years of my student life Without them, my graduation dissertation would not be finished Thirdly, I want to express my tremendous appreciation to the Tax Service and Financial Consulting as well as the entire staff, VACO Auditing Vietnam Co.,Ltd for creating conditions for me to have the opportunity to practice and approach With documents and data that are extremely important in my research It has truly been a wonderful time working with the team that has always facilitated me to finish this graduation dissertation successfully Last but not least, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my entire family and friends They are always a great source of unceasing encouragement and support during my whole journey While I tried my hardest during the writing process, due to my limited theoretical and research abilities, the dissertation will undoubtedly have several flaws, so I hope to receive sympathy as well as enthusiastic comments from the teachers to make this dissertation more complete INTRODUCTION The necessity of the dissertation After more than three decades of opening up for international integration, Vietnam has been attracting more and more attention from foreign investors, becoming an ideal investment destination in the Southeast Asia and Asia in general It is a country with a large, highly skilled workforce and diverse natural resources In addition, the enthusiastic support from the Government, always creating the best conditions for international businesses and corporations to invest in Vietnam, has helped Vietnam become one of the top choices when foreign investors invest in Vietnam Foreign enterprises want to enter the Asian market Moreover, the Vietnamese people and Government's quick, accurate and timely response to the COVID-19 pandemic has created great confidence among international investors With those favorable conditions, the number of jobs created each year increases This has brought Vietnam into the top 10 countries with the lowest unemployment rate in the world (Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, 2021) With the remarkable economic growth in recent times, large enterprises and small businesses tend to seek financial solutions to support them in doing business in Vietnam In particular, issues related to legal regulations, in which tax issues are of primary concern to domestic and foreign enterprises However, the number of businesses with tax consulting services is not many, and their activities are pretty weak compared to accounting and auditing services If enterprises are knowledgeable and proficient in tax operations, they can save more tax costs and create competitive advantages in their business activities based on compliance with the provisions of the law Besides, in recent years, tax consulting activities in Vietnam have had many opportunities to develop, especially with the participation of large enterprises such as KPMG, Deloitte, Ey, PwC, etc And fierce competition in the tax consulting services market is inevitable In order to stay ahead of 71 services, while only foreign professional companies only know very little or hardly recognize the role of tax consultants in their development, FDI enterprises are also not used to using a service such as tax consulting To overcome this, the company needs to carry out the promotion of services as well as company images to customers Currently, besides the website in Vietnamese, the company should have an English version so that foreign customers can easily access and use the service The company should also organize customer conferences to get feedback on the services they provide, thereby improving and further improving the business process while also grasping the needs New customers to develop more diverse types of advice In the conference, it is also necessary to invite businesses who are not customers of the company to introduce them to tax consulting services and expand customer opportunities to the company To improve the effectiveness of marketing communication activities and well serve the needs of customers, besides establishing specific policies to attract customer; improve the efficiency of interactive channels; create a professional and friendly working environment; increasing investment in technical facilities and budget for marketing communication activities, the company needs to make annual marketing communacation plans for products and services; diversify marketing communication channels; especially need to promote marketing communications through the internet Diversified and regular marketing activities will help the company’s image and service activities to be widely advertised to businesses; attracting more and more people who are interested in and use the company’s product and services In addition, the company should periodically organize customer conferences to get feedback on the services they provide, thereby improving and further improving the business process, and at the same time grasp the new 72 needs of customer to develop more diverse types of advice In the conference, it is also necessary to invite businesses who are not customers of the company, thereby introducing them to tax consulting services, expanding customer opportunities to the company 3.2.6 Strengthening the coordination and support of the tax authorities in the process of providing tax advisory services to customers As an information link between tax authorities and taxpayers, strengthening coordination with the tax authorities in the process of providing consulting services to customers, on the one hand, will help the tax advisory services department timely grasp new tax policies, better understand the tax administration processes to implement the public more effective and accurate taxpayer counseling and assistance On the other hand, it also helps taxpayers communicate their wishes and views to tax authorities about inadequacies in tax policy, in other words, helping tax authorities to promptly handle arising problems and opportunities on time to approach difficulties from law enforcement earlier From there, it is possible to make decisions on tax reform and improvement in the future This is not only benefits both taxpayers and tax authorities but also helps the company to enhance its reputation in the market and have a great opportunity to develop its services 3.2.7 Combining the development of tax consulting services with other consulting services Tax consulting services is a part of the company, but it is not separated from other serveices In other words, it is linked to audit services, financical advisory services The company can find new clients for tax services while providing audit and financial advisory services In the process of auditing, the company may detect tax problems of customers if any, thereby introducing them to tax consulting services Financial consultancy also includes tax-related 73 services such as businesses purchase consultancy, comprehensive business review,etc Thus, a close link between service sectors will give tax department opprtunity to expand 3.3 Some recommendations to promote tax consultation and support activities of tax consulting companies 3.3.1 Proposing to functional agencies solutions to perfect tax law system Firstly, it is necessary to consider adjusting the current system of tax legal documents With the increasing number of legal documents being issued, some documents have unclear content, which has led to people misinterpreting regulations or conflicts between tax regulations in different areas This has caused many difficulties for businesses providing tax consulting services in guiding customers to comply with the State's tax regulations Therefore, the legal tax system must ensure simplicity, clarity, and transparency to create conditions for organizations and individuals to comply easily State management agencies need to control the consistency of the content between laws and decrees and circulars, especially, regulations at tax departments, tax departments must have consistency among provinces and cities to reduce the risk of mistakes in the process of taxpayers performing their tax obligations In addition, before promulgating, the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Taxation can survey opinions and listen to people's contributions to make appropriate adjustments, avoiding the issuance and addition of too many amendments making it difficult for taxpayers to track information and comply with the law Secondly, it is necessary to complete the legal regulations on the provision of tax consulting services by enterprises and tax agents The Government needs to issue a Decree detailing the standards and conditions for tax consulting practice In the Decree, it is necessary to clearly state the content, 74 principles of service performance as well as the rights of businesses when working with tax consulting companies for businesses to trust and use with peace of mind In fact, at present, the responsibility of tax consulting units is only limited to the scope of contract agreements with client enterprises, but there is no legal document specifying the consultant's responsibilities tax Therefore, it is necessary to specify administrative responsibilities or worse, criminal liability to prevent consulting firms from linking with clients to forge documents and invoices in order to evade tax obligations , causing significant loss to the revenue of the State In addition, the Ministry of Finance may consider studying and promulgating a set of rules on professional ethics to provide a compliance basis for tax consulting activities of businesses Thirdly, it is necessary to complete the legal regulations on the provision of tax consulting services by enterprises and tax agents The Government needs to issue a Decree detailing the standards and conditions for tax consulting practice In the Decree, it is necessary to clearly state the content, principles of service performance as well as the rights of businesses when working with tax consulting companies for businesses to trust and use with peace of mind In fact, at present, the responsibility of tax consulting units is only limited to the scope of contract agreements with client enterprises, but there is no legal document specifying the consultant's responsibilities tax Therefore, it is necessary to specify administrative responsibilities or worse, criminal liability to prevent consulting firms from linking with clients to forge documents and invoices in order to evade tax obligations, causing significant loss to the revenue of the State In addition, the Ministry of Finance may consider studying and promulgating a set of rules on professional ethics to provide a compliance basis for tax consulting activities of businesses 75 Fourthly, it is necessary to strengthen the coordination between tax consulting firms and state agencies such as the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Taxation Tax consulting businesses act as "arms" of the tax department in tax administration State agencies need to guide and quickly inform businesses about new regulations so that businesses can perform their necessary work more accurately and effectively On the contrary, through consulting activities of businesses, tax offices will better understand the difficulties and problems of businesses At the same time, during the consultation process, businesses will discover the inadequacies of tax policy, from which they will inform the management agency to make reforms, amend and supplement regulations accordingly with the current status of production and business activities of enterprises in Vietnam In addition, in order to promote tax consulting activities in Vietnam, it is necessary to consider implementing some specific benefits for businesses using tax consulting services to encourage organizations and individuals to learn and use tax consulting services Specifically, parties using tax consulting services can be given priority in the order and time to process dossiers or give preference to early answers to business questions submitted through a tax consulting company However, besides the priorities, to ensure the quality of tax advice, tax authorities also need to strengthen the inspection and examination of service providers to ensure that these businesses are qualified to practice and the right job Fifthly, it is necessary to focus on investment to develop the quality of resources For the group of tax consultants, tax authorities need to regularly organize seminars to exchange information as well as approach the reflections of consultants Tax authorities can also organize training courses to improve knowledge and improve professional skills for tax consulting service providers 76 For the training of human resources in the future, educational institutions need to design a curriculum that closely follows the actual work of the tax industry Current reality shows that, when recruiting new graduates, businesses often take a lot of time and effort to retrain employees methodically because the knowledge in the school is still too extensive and cannot be immediately applied to the working process In addition, during the teaching process, lecturers need to constantly update the content of the latest tax documents to ensure the authenticity of the information In addition, universities and colleges can also associate with businesses by providing tax consulting services to organize professional experience sharing sessions, career selection counseling or recruitment programs to Assist students with internships With early access to the working process as well as how to carry out tax operations, students after graduation will have more advantages when applying for jobs as well as quickly grasping and mastering the work at enterprises In addition to focusing on knowledge and professional training, the tax consulting job requires the counselor to have a high professional sense and good ethics, therefore, the school needs to organize training sessions on technical skills soft skills as well as teaching career ethics so that students have the right approach and not misunderstand about the consulting profession 3.3.2 Proposing to the Vietnam Tax Consultants Association to facilitate the development of tax consultancy services in Vietnam On March 13, 2008, the Minister of Home Affairs signed Decision No 242/QD-BNV allowing the establishment of the Vietnam Tax Consultant Association Up to now, the Association has received applications from nearly 70 organizations and over 600 individuals applying to join the Association Affiliate members will be encouraged to participate after the General Meeting approves the official Charter, which clearly defines the standards, conditions 77 and responsibilities of the Associate members Although in a short time, the Association has not been born, but many collectives and individuals have participated, proving that the establishment of a professional association on tax advice is completely consistent with the general trend, ensuring the interests of the tax consultant taxpayers at the same time strictly comply with tax laws [12] VTCA is currently playing the role of a bridge between members (Enterprises providing tax consulting services and tax procedures) with agencies, departments and sectors Government high VTCA operates with the motto: of representing - protecting its members' legitimate rights and interests, aiming to perfect and develop Vietnam's tax consulting activities to match other regions in the world To achieve the set goals, VTCA needs to take many specific actions such as: Firstly, focus on propagating, informing and guiding enterprises to implement current policies and regulations of tax law VTCA should also regularly open tax training courses to assist members inaccurately updating new contents in tax policy, giving notes as well as answering members' problems during the implementation process perform Secondly, developed a network of services and enhanced the taxpayer division to meet as the demand of the current businesses through training, educating their classes and preparing for practice certification exams tax agent Thirdly, maintain relationships and expand cooperation with federations, organizations, and tax advisory associations in the region and the world to exchange knowledge and learn experiences on related issues to tax policy or how to deal with new problems In addition, VTCA can also learn more about tax management, tax consulting, and tax agency development directions from other organization members to further improve tax work in Vietnam 78 Fourthly, create links between members and encourage cooperation for mutual development In addition, VTCA should also organize a program to introduce new and large-scale members to businesses in need so that members of the association have the opportunity to develop stronger At the same time, VTCA also needs to regularly exchange and listen to opinions and information from members to avoid conflicts of interest and unfair competition, to ensure that the tax environment in Vietnam is developed pole actively Fifthly, Vietnam has been actively negotiating and signing free trade agreements (FTAs) with other economies globally, causing many domestic consulting firms to face many obstacles Faced with the competitive situation of Vietnamese enterprises with foreign enterprises in the same field that are investing and expanding their business in Vietnam, the Vietnam Tax Consultants Association needs to improve its domestic enterprise position Specifically, VTCA may consider applying a number of preferential and preferential policies for domestic tax consulting companies to further develop the tax consulting market in Vietnam and aim to bring a number of consulting firms to Vietnam Vietnam's tax to the world area Sixthly, the Vietnam Tax Consultants Association should have letters of sharing, encouragement and encouragement sent to businesses when the COVID-19 situation is still prolonged, making consulting activities difficult The encouragement of the Association may not have a material meaning, but these simple and small things will create motivation for businesses to strive and develop and, at the same time, show their sympathy and concern The focus of high-level organizations comes to businesses operating in the field of tax consulting 79 CONCLUSION Until now, Vietnam's tax system has undergone a comprehensive reform Tax policy has been modernized in line with global regional trends and is supportive and responsive to the rapidly growing private sector’s needs to facilitate tax compliance However, no tax system is perfect, only the tax system that best suits the economic circumstances of each country Therefore, the tax system still has major challenges that need to be reformed and resolved With the reduction of the work of the tax authorities, the increased supervision with businesses becomes more closely and the tax regulations are constantly changing daily, hourly, then finding the support of experienced tax advisors and experts Therefore, tax advice is always an essential field because it provides legal support to organizations, businesses and individuals on various issues related to tax payment and the application of management measures legal basis for each type of taxpayer Tax advice helps to control cash flow, solvency and financial management - which are essential features in all economic activities and corporate financial control If a company is financially stable and has the ability to pay, it will be easier for them to be prioritized in choosing an investment, lending capital, choosing suppliers, and attracting high-quality and capable personnel easier The topic “ Tax consulting services at VACO Auditing Company Limited” was implemented to systematize and develop the theory of tax advisory services at VACO Advisory Company, on that basis, analyzing and evaluating the quality of tax advisory services of VACO in the past time, from there, propose some solutions to improve the efficiency of tax advisory services including conditional and business management solutions Due to the limited scope of time, the dissertation is difficult to avoid the limitations and shortcomings I look forward to receiving valuable comments 80 from teachers and people interested in this topic to make the dissertation more complete and practical when applied in practice Finally, I would like to sincerely thank Assoc Prof PhD Le Xuan Truong and the leader of VACO Advisory Co., Ltd enthusiastically helped me complete this topic 81 REFERENCES Vietnamese documents Nguyen Viet Ha (2019), “ Tax consulting services at Gia Khanh Tax Consulting Service Co., Ltd”, Academy of Finance Dam Thi Huong (2014), “Taxpayers' satisfaction with service quality of tax department of Na Hang district, Tuyen Quang province", Thai Nguyen University Dao Nguyen Huong (2016), “Factors affecting the quality of propaganda to support taxpayers in District 10” Master dissertation, Hong Bang International University Nguyen Hong Nhung (2014), “Improving the quality of tax consulting services at Vietnam Tax Solution Co., Ltd”, Academy of Finance Hoang Phe (1999), Vietnamese Dictionary, Culture Information Publisher Le Xuan Truong, Nguyen Hong Phuc and Le Thi Diem Quynh (2022), "Healthy development of tax services in Vietnam", Financial Magazine The Government of Vietnam (200), Decree 87/200/ND-CP on the provision and use of consulting services VACO (2018), Transparency report for fiscal year 2018, VACO Vietnam Auditing Co., Ltd VACO (2019), Transparency report for fiscal year 2019, VACO Vietnam Auditing Co., Ltd 10 VACO (2020), Transparency report for fiscal year 2020, VACO Vietnam Auditing Co., Ltd 11 VACO (2021), Transparency report for fiscal year 2021, VACO Vietnam Auditing Co., Ltd 82 12 Vietnam Tax Consultants' Association (2018), “The process of forming the Vietnam Tax Advisory Association” English documents 13 Ha Thi Hai Anh (2019), “Tax consulting services at KPMG Vietnam”, Academy of Finance 14 K.Bahia and J.Nantel (2000), “A Reliable and Valid Measurement Scale for the Perceived Service Quality of Banks”, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol 18, pp 84-91 15 Gosal, G G and Utami, C W (2020), “The Effect of Service Quality Dimension on Taxpayers’ Satisfaction (Study at Howard Tax Consultant”.Primanomics: Jurnal Ekonomi & Bisnis, No 3, Vol 18, pp 62-70 16 H.Rina and N.Muhammad (2019), “Factors That Influence The Interest In Using Tax Consultant Services”, Jurnal Akuntansi, Vol 23, pp 77-94 17 Park Sang-Hyup, Gwon Hyeok-Je and You Yen-Yoo (2016), “A Study on the Characteristics of Quality Elements of Consulting Service Using AHP Model”, Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol Website http://vaco.com.vn/ https://tapchitaichinh.vn/ https://thuvienphapluat.vn/ NHẬN XÉT CỦA NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC Họ tên người hướng dẫn khoa học: PGS.TS Lê Xuân Trường Nhận xét trình thực tập tốt nghiệp sinh viên: Phạm Anh Đức Khóa: CQ56 Lớp: 02.01 Đề tài: Tax consulting services at VACO Auditing Company Limited Nội dung nhận xét: Về tinh thần thái độ thực tập sinh viên Về chất lượng nội dung luận văn - Sự phù hợp tên nội dung đề tài với chuyên ngành - Độ tin cậy tính đại phương pháp nghiên cứu Hà Nội, ngày… tháng… năm 2022 Điểm: - Bằng số - Bằng chữ Người nhận xét (ký tên) NHẬN XÉT CỦA NGƯỜI PHẢN BIỆN Họ tên người phản biện: Nhận xét trình thực tập tốt nghiệp sinh viên: Phạm Anh Đức Khóa: CQ56 Lớp: 02.01 Đề tài: Tax consulting services at VACO Auditing Company Limited Nội dung nhận xét: - Sự phù hợp tên nội dung đề tài với chuyên ngành - Đối tượng mục đích nghiên cứu - Độ tin cậy tính đại phương pháp nghiên cứu - Nội dung khoa học Hà Nội, ngày… tháng… năm 2022 Điểm: - Bằng số - Bằng chữ Người nhận xét (ký tên) ... THE STATUS OF TAX CONSULTING SERVICES AT VACO AUDITING CO., LTD 31 2.1 Overview of VACO Auditing Company Limited 31 2.1.1 Process of formation and development of VACO Auditing Company. .. VACO Auditing Company Limited 41 2.2 Tax consulting services of VACO Auditing Company Limited 44 2.2.1 Form of tax consulting services provided by VACO Auditing Company Limited ... Tax consulting services at VACO Auditing Company Limited ” to have a deeper understanding of the factors affecting tax consulting services, analyze and evaluate the current status of tax consulting