Nghiên cứu thuế giá trị gia tăng đối với hoạt động thương mại điện tử ở việt nam ttta

INTRODUCTION Urgency of the research topic Vietnam is becoming the second largest market in Southeast Asia, e-commerce activities have had strong developments with many models, many subjects and supply chains participating Data in the Vietnam E-Commerce White Paper 2022, published by the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade), estimates the number of online shopping consumers in Vietnam reached 60 million, accounting for nearly 74.8% of Internet users; The scale of the retail e-commerce market (B2C) in 2022 will reach 16.4 billion USD, times higher than in 2015 According to forecasts of Google, Temasek and Brain & Company on e-commerce activities in Southeast Asian countries, the speed Vietnam's e-commerce growth in the period 2015-2025 averages 29% It is forecast that by 2025, Vietnam's e-commerce scale will reach 43 billion USD and rank 3rd in ASEAN Thus, e-commerce increasingly asserts its role in promoting the digital economy, creating a favorable environment for the application of business models and becoming a new development trend in the future Besides the benefits that e-commerce contributes to the economy, this activity also entails many challenges for state management agencies, including tax authorities Ecommerce transactions take place in increasing numbers and become increasingly complex, using information technology (IT) intensively, while tax management for this activity in Vietnam is still in its infancy In the beginning phase, tax authorities still have limited management skills, human resources, and technology to be able to manage taxes on e-commerce transactions effectively and ensure fairness like traditional commercial transactions E-commerce activities often incur taxes such as: VAT; corporate income tax; personal income tax However, not all entities have to pay corporate income tax and personal income tax Accordingly, when a business enterprise does not make a profit or an individual has an income that has not yet reached the threshold for paying tax, there is no tax payable Unlike other taxes, VAT is an indirect tax, arising in all e-commerce transactions Therefore, VAT is the tax that tends to account for a large proportion in the tax structure of the state budget With the challenges posed by the nature of e-commerce, as well as difficulties in the management of tax authorities at all levels, it is relatively difficult to collect the correct and sufficient amount of VAT from ecommerce activities into the state budget In addition, among the taxes arising in e-commerce activities, VAT is the most difficult tax to manage, because it arises between many participating entities, such as: state agencies, suppliers of goods and services service (HHDV) and consumers Along with that, e-commerce activities take place in cyberspace, creating many loopholes for subjects to commit tax evasion and illegal acts Reality shows that with the continuous increase in revenue over the years of e-commerce activities, the amount of VAT collected from this activity must also be proportional and increase proportionately However, the amount of VAT collected from this activity is not commensurate with e-commerce revenue It is worth mentioning that the rate of VAT loss in e-commerce activities is increasing According to the General Department of Taxation (2022), the tax revenue loss can be up to 85% for online advertising service business models of foreign organizations that not establish legal entities in Vietnam such as Facebook, Google, or Youtube, That requires systematic research on VAT management for e-commerce activities in order to: (1) See the challenges of e-commerce's impact on VAT management to avoid That proposes a VAT policy suitable to the characteristics of e-commerce activities; (2) Create a clear policy foundation to promote the development of e-commerce activities; (3) Manage VAT on the basis of creating motivation to increase taxpayers' awareness of compliance with tax obligations; (4) Create a fair business environment among market participants according to the law Stemming from the above practice, I chose the topic: "Research on value added tax for ecommerce activities in Vietnam" as the research topic of my doctoral thesis in development economics Objectives, tasks and research questions of the thesis 2.1 Research goals and tasks 2.1.1 General research objectives The thesis proposes solutions to improve VAT management for e-commerce activities to ensure revenue for the state budget and promote the development of this activity 2.1.2 Research mission From the above general research objective, the thesis identifies specific research tasks as follows: - Research previous studies related to the thesis topic, find research gaps from which to pose research problems to improve VAT management in e-commerce activities in Vietnam - Synthesize and clarify the theoretical basis for VAT management for e-commerce activities through concepts, processes, management content, evaluation criteria, management experience and factors affecting management VAT management for e-commerce activities - Analyze the current status of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam, on that basis evaluate the effectiveness of VAT management and point out the causes of those limitations - Conduct surveys on: (1) Tax authorities' awareness of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam; (2) Identify factors affecting compliance with tax obligations of businesses that generate revenue from e-commerce activities in Vietnam - Forecasting e-commerce development trends in Vietnam and proposing solutions to improve VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam in the coming time to promote ecommerce growth and ensure sustainable revenue for State budget 2.2 Research question (1) To what extent has e-commerce activities developed in Vietnam recently? What is the legal framework for VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam? (2) What results have been achieved in the current status of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam in recent times? What problems and limitations are there? (3) What are the perceptions of tax officials regarding VAT management in e-commerce activities in terms of policies, processes, and solutions? (4) What is the level of impact of factors on tax compliance behavior of businesses that generate revenue from e-commerce activities in Vietnam? (5) What solutions need to be proposed to improve VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam? Subject and scope of research 3.1 Research subjects The research object of the thesis is theoretical and practical issues on studying VAT management for e-commerce activities 3.2 Research scope - Scope of content: The thesis researches VAT management for e-commerce activities carried out by tax authorities according to the content to find shortcomings to continue perfecting and developing e-commerce, not researching according to aspects of management implementation according to management functions - Scope of objects: The thesis focuses on researching VAT management in e-commerce activities for participants who are businesses with e-commerce activities with large revenues and operating in areas with potential risks of revenue loss High taxes - Time scope: secondary data from reporting and statistical sources to analyze the current status of VAT administration for e-commerce activities in Vietnam was collected in the period from 2016-2022, focusing on The period 2018-2022 is the period of the strongest development of ecommerce activities Survey data of two subjects, tax officials and businesses generating revenue from e-commerce activities, was conducted in 2022 Proposed solutions to improve VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam in the period 2023-2030 - Spatial scope: research the current status of VAT management for e-commerce activities across the country, but focus on analyzing tax management for e-commerce activities in Hanoi and City Ho Chi Minh These are the two cities with the fastest e-commerce development rate in the country and the largest VAT contribution from this activity in the country Research approach and methods 4.1 Approach * The thesis is carried out according to the following main approaches: (1) Approached from the perspective of the nature of VAT, which is levied on the added value of goods and services, the tax payers are consumers and the taxpayers are businesses that produce and provide goods and services (2) Approach from equity to development (3) Approach from the perspective of creating an environment to create conditions for all entities in the e-commerce business economy, moving towards inclusive digital economic development in Vietnam (4) Approach from theoretical research to practical assessment From there, the thesis provides the following research framework: Concepts related to the research topic Secondary data Theoretical basis for VAT management for e-commerce activities Current status of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam Overview of research situation Primary data Assessing the current status of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam Complete VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam Figure 1: Research framework of the thesis Source: Proposed research by PhD student 4.2 Research Methods The thesis uses two groups of research methods: (i) Qualitative methods; (ii) Quantitative method New contributions of the thesis The thesis has the following theoretical and practical contributions: 5.1 Theoretically Firstly, the thesis has explained and clarified theoretical issues related to VAT management for e-commerce activities and developed a set of indicators to evaluate the efficiency of VAT collection for this activity Second, the thesis stands on the perspective of aggregate supply - aggregate demand in the economy to explain the level of VAT revenue loss in e-commerce activities Third, the thesis points out that the nature of VAT is on the selling price of goods and services, so when consumers buy goods and services, they have paid tax, and the unit providing the goods and services is The subject is obliged to pay this tax to the state Therefore, the loss of VAT revenue from e-commerce may be due to the low awareness of taxpayers' compliance with tax obligations Fourth, the thesis believes that e-commerce or traditional commerce are both forms of business in the economy, so they need to be treated equally in fulfilling tax obligations 5.2 In terms of practice Firstly, from the secondary data collected and primary data from the survey of tax officials and businesses that generate revenue from e-commerce activities, the study has objectively analyzed the current situation VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam in the period 2016-2022, pointing out the achievements, limitations and causes in VAT management for e-commerce activities Second, Test and clarify the factors affecting VAT compliance behavior for businesses that generate revenue from e-commerce activities in Vietnam Assess the level of success and challenges in VAT management for e-commerce activities from tax officials Third, the thesis believes that to create conditions for all entities in the economy to participate in e-commerce business, moving towards the development of an inclusive digital economy in Vietnam With the total revenue from VAT for e-commerce transactions of individuals and business households in e-commerce not being large, it is necessary to consider the issue of VAT collection for these activities of business entities that are individuals and households family, will influence attitudes to encourage a strong transition to the digital economy, while e-commerce has a strong catalytic role in this transition Fourth, Based on the viewpoints, goals, and orientations to perfect VAT management for e-commerce activities and on the basis of forecasting e-commerce development for the period to 2030, vision to 2045, combined with the remaining problems and results of regression model analysis, the thesis proposes 10 groups of solutions to improve VAT management policy for Vietnam's e-commerce by 2030, with a vision to 2045 (according to the Strategy socio-economic development in the 10 years 2021-2030, vision to 2045) Thesis structure In addition to the introduction, conclusion, list of references and appendices, the thesis is structured in four chapters as follows: CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH WORKS RELATED TO VALUE ADDED TAX MANAGEMENT FOR E-COMMERCE ACTIVITIES The birth of e-commerce has posed many challenges in the management of this specialized activity from state management agencies in countries around the world In recent times, there have been many studies focusing on different aspects of VAT and e-commerce activities, including: 1.1 Research on e-commerce content Typical of this research direction are the research works of Soon-yong Choi, Andrew Whinston, Dale Stahl (1997); Ravi Kalakota, Andrew B Whinston (1997); Thi Thanh Hong and Phan Van Thanh (2016);Tran Huu Linh (2015); Duong Thi Dung and Vu Huyen Trang (2020); Tran Linh Huan and Huynh Minh Phuong (2022); Tran Trong Huy and Nguyen Thi Khanh Chi (2022) ; Nguyen Thi Le (2023); Duc Phan (2023); Vu Khue (2023); … 1.2 Research on the impact of taxes in general and VAT in particular on e-commerce activities Typical studies include: PWC (1999); Tigre and Dedrick (2004); Bayrakdar et al (2015); Simkin et al (2017); Arinze et al (2018); Chou and Jin (1999); Ward & Sipior (2004); Sigit Setiawan (2018); Anis Wahyu Hermawan et al (2020); Dao Thi Hanh (2021); Nguyen Thi Lan Huong (2019); … 1.3 Research on approaches to tax management for e-commerce activities Typical studies include: Yarong Zeng and colleagues (2012); Li Cheng (2011); Niall Campbell (2014); Mansor, Muzainah (2016); Astrid Amalia Suntoro (2017); Gandy Wahyu Maulana Zulma (2020); Nguyen Xuan Son (2012); Trung Kien (2013); Do Thi Mai Hoang Ha (2015); Nguyen Thanh Trang (2018); Thai Nu Ha Uyen (2019); Vu Thi Yen Anh (2020); Mai Huong (2021); Thuy Linh (2022); etc… 1.4 Research on tax compliance and factors affecting value added tax compliance behavior In this research direction, there are typical works as follows: Kirchler (2007); Marandu et al (2015); Abdalwali Lutfi et al (2023); Nguyen Minh Ha and Nguyen Hoang Quan (2012); Dang Thi Bach Van (2014); Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy and colleagues (2020); Nguyen Thi Kim Trang and Bui Van Trinh (2022); etc… 1.5 Overall assessment of the research situation 1.5.1 Research results related to the thesis topic have been achieved From the analysis of studies related to VAT on e-commerce activities, it is shown that this is a topic that has attracted a lot of attention from domestic and foreign scholars from many different aspects and angles together The above research projects have achieved some values as follows: * Theoretical value Firstly, research by domestic and foreign scholars has approached and clarified the connotation of tax management in general for e-commerce activities such as: tax management concept, tax management process and content; Laws related to tax management for e-commerce activities, etc This is the theoretical foundation for the thesis to continue Second, some studies on the impact of taxes in general and VAT in particular on e-commerce activities These impacts are conditions to give an opinion on whether or not to tax e-commerce activities This perspective has helped the thesis have an approach to VAT on e-commerce in Vietnam based on the nature of VAT and placed in the context of international economic integration of an emerging economy like Vietnam * Practical value First, some studies on taxes on e-commerce activities have looked from the perspective of state management agencies based on the characteristics of e-commerce activities and the current status of these activities in the economy to improve tax collection policies to prevent loss of state budget revenue The results of these studies help the thesis summarize the current situation of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam as well as evaluate the level of VAT revenue loss in this activity Second, e-commerce is a relatively new activity in Vietnam, so in the early stages of research to access experience in tax management in general for e-commerce activities in some countries that are similar to Vietnam such as: Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia to provide policy implications for Vietnam in e-commerce tax management Lessons learned from these studies create a foundation for the thesis to propose feasible and scientific solutions Third, some studies have generalized the main factors affecting tax compliance behavior in general and VAT in particular, such as: operating characteristics of businesses, psychological characteristics of owners/managers business principles, industry characteristics of businesses, social factors, economic factors, and legal factors The results of these studies serve as the foundation for the next thesis in building a research model on VAT compliance behavior for ecommerce activities In general, although the above research works are not directly related to the thesis, they are basic issues and are a source of documents and experience for the author to approach and research the issue comprehensively more fully, can inherit and deepen our concept of VAT for ecommerce activities in Vietnam 1.5.2 Some issues need further research From the overview of research works related to the thesis topic, it can be seen that up to now there has been no direct research work on VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam Thus, the thesis is the first research work to address the issue of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam However, domestic and foreign research in related aspects partly helps the thesis inherit theoretical issues related to tax perspectives, tax management Within the scope of research, the thesis will clarify some of the following issues: Firstly, systematize and supplement the theoretical basis for VAT management for ecommerce activities, clarify the main factors affecting VAT management for this activity and the regulation of VAT collection in e-commerce activities to develop the digital economy in Vietnam Second, analyze and evaluate the current status of VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam, especially VAT management for businesses that generate revenue in e-commerce activities, because this is the group Generates large revenue in this activity but the tax payment is not commensurate Third, survey two groups of subjects, including: (i) Enterprises that generate revenue from ecommerce activities to see the level of impact of factors on tax compliance behavior in business activities their; (ii) Tax officials in assessing the current status of VAT policy; Difficulties in VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam Fourth, the thesis proposes solutions to improve VAT management for e-commerce activities in the strong development trend of Industry 4.0 and digital economy and digital society in all fields sector of the economy CHAPTER THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BASIS OF VALUE TAX MANAGEMENT INCREASE IN E-COMMERCE ACTIVITIES 2.1 Overview of e-commerce 2.1.1 E-commerce concept E-commerce is the use of electronic media and digital information processing technology in business transactions to create, transmit and redefine relationships to create value between organizations and between organizations organizations and individuals 2.1.2 Characteristics of e-commerce activities E-commerce takes place in the cyberspace environment, so there are certain differences compared to traditional commerce, in terms of: Form of implementation; Transaction scope and time; Participant; Transaction information; Trading products; Payment methods; Security issues in transactions; Business costs 2.1.3 Classification of e-commerce activities Currently, there are many different criteria to classify e-commerce activities to serve different management activities of state management agencies Classifications include: According to transaction subject; According to the form of implementation; According to scope of operation 2.2 Value added tax and its characteristics 2.2.1 Concept and characteristics of value added tax 2.2.1.1 Value added tax concept VAT is levied on the newly created value (VAT) during the production and business process Therefore, it is necessary to determine the VAT at each stage of production and business to be able to accurately calculate the VAT amount of that stage (VAT will be determined by the difference between the total value of goods sold and the total value of goods sold) corresponding purchases during the tax period) VAT = Total value of goods and services sold - Total value of goods and services purchased respectively VAT amount = VAT of taxable goods x VAT rate of that goods 2.2.1.2 Characteristics of value added tax VAT is a consumption tax, so it has all the characteristics of a consumption tax and its own characteristics, including: (i) VAT is an indirect tax levied on the act of consuming taxable goods and services VAT; (ii) VAT is a multi-stage, non-overlapping consumption tax; (iii) VAT is highly economically neutral; (iv) VAT has a clear territorial nature; (v) VAT is regressive compared to income 2.2.2 Basic content of value added tax 2.2.2.1 Objects subject to tax and paying value added tax Objects subject to VAT are all types of goods and services used for production, business and consumption in Vietnam, except for subjects not subject to tax according to the provisions of the VAT Law and legal documents guiding its implementation VAT payers are organizations and individuals that produce and trade taxable goods and services and other organizations and individuals that import taxable goods 2.2.2.2 VAT calculation method VAT calculation methods include: Deduction method; Direct method 2.2.2.3 Value added tax tax rate VAT rates are applied uniformly according to the type of goods and services at all stages of import, production and processing or commercial business Current VAT rates include 0%, 5% and 10% 2.2.3 The role of value added tax in e-commerce activities VAT plays a very important role not only in the tax system but also in commercial activities in general of the economy as well as e-commerce activities in particular, manifested in aspects, including: (i) Value added tax encourages investment and export activities, increasing ecommerce activities between countries; (ii) Flexible value-added tax policy, consistent with international practice, will promote international trade cooperation and e-commerce development; (iii) Value added tax contributes to regulating income in society, expanding product consumption markets in cyberspace, contributing to promoting the digital economy and sustainable development of each country 2.2.4 Some related theories Some theories related to the thesis topic include: (1) Optimal tax theory; (2) Tax management theory; (3) Theory of aggregate supply and aggregate demand; (4) Theory of digital economy; (5) Behavioral theory of tax compliance 2.3 Management of value added tax for e-commerce activities 2.3.1 Objectives and principles of value added tax management for e-commerce activities 2.3.1.1 Concept of value added tax management for e-commerce activities VAT management for e-commerce activities is understood as "State management activities of tax authorities affecting VAT payers in e-commerce activities to ensure enforcement of VAT laws for the purpose of collecting VAT" correctly, fully and promptly collect VAT for the state budget 2.3.1.2 Objectives of value added tax management in e-commerce activities VAT management in e-commerce activities requires main goals, including: (1) It is necessary to ensure correct, complete and timely collection of VAT amounts into the state budget; (2) Manage subjects participating in e-commerce transactions to determine VAT obligations of taxpayers; (3) Ensuring sustainability in revenue generation; (4) Raise awareness of law compliance for economic organizations and residents in tax compliance 2.3.1.3 Principles of value added tax management for e-commerce activities Basic principles in e-commerce tax management, including: Neutrality; Efficiency; Solidity and simplicity; Efficiency and fairness; Flexibility; Comply with the law; Transparency; Comply and conform to international standards and practices 2.3.2 Tools and methods for value added tax management for e-commerce activities 2.3.2.1 Value added tax management tool for e-commerce activities To be able to collect the correct and sufficient amount of VAT into the state budget, tax administration agencies must use a combination of different tools, including: (i) Legal tools; (ii) Policy tools; (iii) Planning tools 2.3.2.2 Value added tax management methods for e-commerce activities VAT management methods for e-commerce activities identified in this study include: (i) Administrative methods; (ii) Economic method; (iii) Educational psychology methods 2.3.3 Value added tax management for e-commerce activities 2.3.3.1 Value added tax management process for e-commerce activities The implementation of VAT management follows steps and this process is applicable to both e-commerce and traditional trade transactions The steps of the process include: (1) Management of taxpayer information → (2) Management of tax bases → (3) Management of tax collection and payment and inspection and examination → (4) Management of tax debt and enforcement Tax debt relief → (5) Tax debt support services 2.3.3.2 Organize value added tax management in e-commerce activities Organize the VAT management apparatus at the Tax Department level, including: focal points of units However, depending on the conditions of each locality, each Tax Department may or may not have a Propaganda - Support team At that time, the Declaration - Tax Accounting General team will perform the work of the Propaganda - Support team Each department has its own functions and tasks in VAT management 2.3.3.3 Content of value added tax management in e-commerce activities Based on the VAT management process for e-commerce activities, tax management content includes: (i) Employee information management; (ii) Management of VAT calculation bases; (iii) Management of VAT collection, payment and inspection; (iv) Tax debt management and tax debt enforcement; (v) Management of employee support services 2.3.3.4 Criteria for evaluating value added tax management for e-commerce activities To evaluate VAT management for e-commerce activities, the following basic criteria can be used: Table 2.2: Criteria for evaluating value added tax management in e-commerce activities Criteria Target Proposed basic Level of employee information management in e-commerce activities (%) Level of compliance, declaration and payment of VAT in e-commerce (%) Level of VAT inspection and examination in e-commerce (%) 100% Proportion of arrears and fines from ecommerce inspection (%) 60%70% Ratio of VAT paid to VAT payable (%) 75%85% In principle, tax collection management needs to ensure the management of all tax payers to be included in tax calculation Vietnam has deployed electronic tax declaration services and in fact, businesses have applied it at a rate of 99.61% With a large tax loss for e-commerce transactions, especially B2C transactions and transactions from foreign suppliers, the level of inspection and examination needs to reach 70-80% to ensure arrears collection tax amounts payable by these entities Besides, with limited resources, especially human resources knowledgeable in information technology, they have not yet met the requirements in VAT management in e-commerce activities, and the technology system to detect e-commerce transactions has not yet met the requirements of VAT management in e-commerce activities efficiency, the cost of conducting inspections is still high, etc Therefore, the level of inspection and examination of VAT in ecommerce cannot reach an absolute value The level of arrears and fines from inspection activities has not reached the absolute level due to limited resources of tax authorities in inspection and examination work In principle, tax collection management needs to ensure the management of all tax payers to be included in tax calculation 100% 70%80% Source: author researched and developed 2.4 Factors affecting value added tax management for e-commerce activities E-commerce activities develop in the strong development trend of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the trend of deep integration with the world economy and domestic economic development Therefore, VAT management for this activity is influenced by many factors, both internal and external (Figure 2.2) Objective factors Subjective factors Impact from the 4.0 industrial revolution Overlapping functions in the tax administration apparatus Competitiveness in international economic integration The tax management process is still complicated Economic, political and social situation State orientation in developing e-commerce activities Factors affecting VAT management for e-commerce activities System of legal documents on taxes Limitations in qualifications, capacity and professional ethics of tax officials Inadequacies in facilities and conditions for applying IT in tax management Coordination of state management agencies in tax administration The level of knowledge and awareness of law compliance of taxpayers Figure 2.2: Factors affecting value added tax management for activities ecommerce Source: Author proposed and diagrammed Objective factors belong to external influences, such as: economic environment, integration trends, taxpayer awareness that impact VAT management on e-commerce activities On the contrary, the subjective factor belongs to the organization and management of the tax authority, from the structure of the management apparatus, management processes, quality of management resources and coordination of government agencies together 2.4.3 Model and hypothesis to study factors affecting value-added tax compliance behavior of businesses generating e-commerce revenue Based on the inheritance of theories and practical research with the research goal of identifying factors affecting tax compliance behavior of businesses with revenue in e-commerce business, a research model is proposed as follows: VAT registration, declaration and collection management Technology application in VAT management on ecommerce activities H1 H2 Tax service quality H3 H8 H5a Tax inspection and examination Support for VAT payment H4 Communication about VAT collection on e-commerce activities H5b Characteristics of VAT collection for e-commerce activities Handling violations of VAT laws on e-commerce activities Enterprise awareness H6 H9 Tax compliance behavior of enterprises with e-commerce business revenue H7a H7b Figure 2.3: Proposed research model Source: Author's compilation The research hypotheses are as follows: Hypothesis H1: Tax registration, declaration and collection management have a positive impact on tax service quality Hypothesis H2: Technology application in VAT management has a positive impact on tax service quality Hypothesis H3: Tax inspection and examination have a positive impact on tax service quality Hypothesis H4: Support for VAT payment has a positive impact on tax service quality Hypothesis H5a: Communication about VAT collection has a positive impact on tax service quality Hypothesis H5b: Communication about VAT collection has a positive impact on businesses' awareness Hypothesis H6: Characteristics of VAT collection for e-commerce activities have a positive influence on the awareness of businesses Hypothesis H7a: Handling violations of VAT laws has a positive impact on the awareness of businesses with e-commerce revenue Hypothesis H7b: Handling violations of VAT laws has a positive impact on tax compliance behavior of businesses with e-commerce revenue Hypothesis H8: Tax service quality has a positive impact on business awareness Hypothesis H9: Enterprise awareness has a positive influence on tax compliance behavior of enterprises with e-commerce business revenue 2.5 Experiences of some countries on value added tax management for e-commerce activities and lessons for Vietnam 2.5.1 Experience of some countries in value added tax management for e-commerce activities Based on research on VAT management experience for e-commerce activities from groups of countries: (i) From developed countries in the G7 group - where there is outstanding ecommerce development as well as VAT policy has been improved adjusted through many stages to suit e-commerce; (ii) From countries in the Asian region with the level of development of ecommerce, VAT policy has many similarities with Vietnam from which to draw experience in applying VAT policy to activities E-commerce in Vietnam Lessons learned include: First, ensure the principle of neutrality when developing tax policies in general and VAT in particular for e-commerce activities; Second, it is necessary to clearly build lists of goods and services subject to tax VAT and apply fair tax rates between domestic and foreign enterprises; Third, develop the e-commerce tax service system to create convenience for taxpayers in general and 10 100 50 74 68 51 41 5760 28 52 36 Website/Sàn E-commerceTMĐT platform 5056 4247 3331 79 78 74 525757 Social network Diễn đàn MXH forum Year Year 2020 2020 Năm Year2021 2021Năm Year2022 2022 Năm2016 2016Year Năm2017 2017 Year Năm 2018 2018 Year Năm 2019 Năm Mobile Các ứngapplications dụng di động Otherthức forms Hình khác Graph 3.3: Online shopping channels of consumers (%) 3.1.2.3 E-commerce business form is popular in Vietnam Currently in Vietnam, there are many diverse and abundant forms of e-commerce business Some popular forms include: Online advertising; Trading in digital content products; Sharing economic model (online services); Retailing goods through online sales system 3.2 Current status of value added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam 3.2.1 Legal framework for value added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam 3.2.1.1 Legal framework Tax administration is currently applying regulations under the Tax Administration Law 2006 and the Laws amending the Tax Administration Law 2012, 2014, 2016 However, in those documents there are no separate regulations on management Tax on e-commerce activities, due to the context of the early years of the 20th century, doing business on technology platforms is not yet popular in Vietnam However, in recent years, with the vibrant development of ecommerce activities, the law on tax administration is required to be amended and supplemented to suit the practical situation Some regulatory content for e-commerce activities has also been vaguely mentioned in a few legal documents in some aspects; including: Firstly, tax obligations; Second, responsibility for tax registration; Third, tax regulations for e-commerce; Fourth, regarding tax declaration and payment for e-commerce activities; Fifth, on how to determine the tax amount payable and tax collection method; Sixth, regulations on electronic invoices; Seventh, regulations on implementation of management work by tax authorities 3.2.1.2 Challenges posed in value added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam The inherent characteristics of e-commerce activities and the increasing scale of all types of ecommerce have created many challenges for tax administration agencies to correctly and fully collect the VAT amount arising in this activity Some challenges include: (1) Some e-commerce activities are not included in the list of business lines; (2) Regarding business registration and tax declaration and payment; (3) Regarding the issue of using invoices in e-commerce transactions; (4) Challenges in collecting employee information; (5) Difficulties in determining the nature of ecommerce transactions to implement VAT tax; (6) Difficulty in determining tax bases; (7) Lack of legal basis in VAT management for non-border e-commerce transactions and specific ecommerce transactions; (8) Limited IT skills of tax officials 3.2.2 Current status of value added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam 3.2.2.1 Organizing the VAT management apparatus for e-commerce activities in Vietnam VAT management for e-commerce activities is the same as traditional commercial activities The tax administration apparatus is a collection of administrative agencies that have an organic relationship with each other based on functions, tasks, and powers clearly defined in the tax law The tax management apparatus at the tax agency is organized vertically with levels: General Department of Taxation, Tax Department, and Tax Branch In addition, in 2012 the General Department of Taxation established a working group to study tax management for e-commerce activities, also known as the e-commerce group, and a permanent division in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, under the Reform Committee and Modernizing the General Department of Taxation The working group has directed the entire Industry to review and evaluate to identify and put into management organizations and individuals participating in e-commerce activities nationwide 3.2.2.2 Manage taxpayer information E-commerce has specific characteristics, such as: wide scale of operations on the borderless 12 internet environment, easy to change, hide or delete transaction data Therefore, managing information for employees is relatively difficult In 2012, the General Department of Taxation established a Working Group to study tax management for e-commerce activities located at the General Department and permanent departments in Hanoi and City Ho Chi Minh The working group is responsible for researching and finding information about types of e-commerce businesses to identify organizations with e-commerce activities in Vietnam After its establishment, the E-commerce Team reviewed, classified, and compiled a list of 872 businesses doing business in the fields of telecommunications, internet access, advertising, games, data processing, and brokerage agents , auctions, risk analysis and inclusion in the management of subjects with e-commerce activities It can be seen that the proportion of tax obligations fulfilled in the group that collects from foreign organizations such as Google, Facebook and the online sales business group has the lowest level of tax payment, 47% and 47% respectively 39% The remaining groups have a higher level of compliance with tax obligations, all reaching 100% For the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, taxpayer information management is conducted with two groups of subjects: (i) Organizations and individuals doing e-commerce business on websites, Facebook, and (ii) Organizations and individuals residing in Vietnam provide crossborder services regularly and strictly to ensure control of all entities generating e-commerce activities that are obliged to pay VAT (Table 3.4) Table 3.4: Status of taxpayer information management at Hanoi Tax Department in 2022 Target Industrial number, business registration number, organization with tax payment obligation (person, organization) Business number, business registration number, organization that has paid tax (person, organization) Tax amount payable to state budget (billion VND) Proportion of number of employees, business owners, and organizations that have paid taxes/Number of employees, business employees, and organizations with tax payment obligations (%) The group Online Group of Group of collects Online sales house rental organizations and businesses information business business individuals paying operating from foreign group group via for electronic the eorganizations (online) application services of foreign commerce such as Google contractors trading floor and Facebook 1,161 4,065 60 1,736 545 1,585 60 1,447 42 14 1.3 5.5 2.3 47 39 100 100 100 (tìm tiếng Việt nguồn vào đây) In addition, the management of taxpayer information also includes the participation of ecommerce transaction products Decree No 91/2022/ND-CP (amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No 126/2020/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Tax Administration) stipulates the responsibilities of organizations As the owner of an ecommerce trading floor, you must provide information to the tax authority In 2022, there were 258 e-commerce trading floors providing information on the e-commerce portal with detailed information about 14,883 organizations and 53,212 individuals registered to sell on e-commerce trading floors 13 Status of taxpayer information management at the Tax Department of Ho Chi Minh City in 2022 Organizations and individuals doing ecommerce business on websites, Facebook, Target Organizations and individuals residing in Vietnam providing cross-border services Number of organizations and branches subject to 1,310 5,487 tax (person) Number of organizations and branches 72 4.279 voluntarily declaring (person) Number of organizations and individuals 697 122 violating tax payment obligations (person) Additional tax amount paid (billion VND) 2.19 42.2 Amount of tax arrears and penalties for violations 20.3 14.5 (billion VND) Proportion of organizations and branches voluntarily declaring/number of organizations 5.5 78 and branches subject to tax (%) 3.2.2.3 Manage tax bases Currently, in Vietnam e-commerce transactions are divided into the following groups: (1) Providing smart search and online advertising services such as google, yahoo, youtube, facebook ; (2) Providing e-commerce trading platforms such as lazada.vn, sendo.vn, zalora.vn, tiki.vn; Online promotional websites such as hotdeal.vn, muachung.vn, lingo.vn ; (3) Online auctions ebay.vn, sohot.vn; iv) Providing securities, financial and legal services (FPT securities, Misa, Fast Accounting ); (4) Intermediate payment services for e-wallets and card codes; vi) Providing digital products of music, movies, ebooks ; (5) Online game business (selling virtual items in games, gift codes, placing online ads; (6) Data processing services, cloud computing storage, domain name transfer; (7) ) Applying technology solutions to traditional business activities such as Uber and Grab taxi Among these e-commerce groups, tax base management is focused on groups with high tax risks , such as: online game business; online advertising and application of technology solutions - For online advertising on Google and Facebook Enterprises often under-declare or incorrectly declare VAT revenue, and not declare contractor tax on services of some multinational companies such as Google and Facebook that generate services in Vietnam Advertising revenue through Google and Facebook has been increasing in recent times and accounts for a large proportion of total domestic advertising revenue Advertising revenue from Google and Facebook has increased over the years, in 2018 it reached VND 8,835 billion, increasing to VND 1,342.3 billion Although advertising revenue has increased over the years, the amount of VAT collected is not commensurate, and the loss of revenue is relatively high The rate of VAT payment in the period 2018-2022 averages 43.2%, the rate of revenue loss averages 56.8% For this model, tax authorities perform tax management on income generated through partners or advertising agencies or businesses that purchase services directly from these companies in Vietnam - For online game business Vietnam's game market revenue ranked 4th in Southeast Asia and 27th in the world in 2019 According to a report by the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, the industry's revenue Online games have increased from 4.968 trillion VND in 2015 to 11.5 trillion VND in 2019 and reached 12 trillion VND in 2021 The online game market is growing strongly in two big cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Bright With this level of revenue, the amount of VAT this industry paid to the state budget in 2015 was 490 billion VND and increased to 1,150 and 1,200 billion VND in 2019 and 2021, respectively However, this number does not reflect the amount of VAT must be paid into the state budget compared to the extremely large revenue scale 14 of this market (graph 3.5) - For business forms that apply technology Technology applications in business activities in Vietnam have recently developed strongly, especially applications in hotel booking and car booking such as the business models of Agoda, Uber, and Grab Currently, in Vietnam there are many technology car companies operating, of which Grab, GoViet and Be have the largest market share and sales have grown over the years However, in recent times, ride-hailing applications such as Grab, Uber or Go-Viet are considered a new business model, and there is still much debate about whether they are connection services or transportation services There is no appropriate legal framework for management, so the Ministry of Finance as well as tax authorities have applied Circular 103/2014/TT-BTC to collect taxes calculated on the revenue or income of this businesses 3.2.2.4 Manage tax collection, payment, payment and inspection of value added tax E-commerce market revenue in Vietnam is increasing, with B2C e-commerce revenue alone increasing from 188,845,800 billion VND in 2018 to 387,236,000 billion USD in 2022 E-commerce revenue has increased sharply over the years, but the amount of VAT collected is quite modest and has hardly increased The proportion of VAT declared and paid compared to the amount of VAT payable is 39.64% on average This shows that the loss of VAT revenue in this activity is very large Therefore, it is necessary to improve tax management efficiency and compliance with tax obligations of taxpayers who generate e-commerce revenue in business activities Through the audit and inspection process, tax authorities have discovered a number of tax fraud acts by subjects, including: (1) E-commerce business organizations not make payments through banks and collect money Cash sales through delivery units; (2) E-commerce business organizations selling products and goods make payments via banks with many accounts opened at different banks but not registered with tax authorities; (3) Business organizations that use personal accounts to pay foreign service fees not declare taxable revenue; (4) Some businesses providing cross-border services that generate income from social networking sites have not yet declared and paid taxes, or if the declaration is incorrect A typical example is VAT 3.2.2.6 Debt management and value added tax debt enforcement VAT debt management for entities with e-commerce activities is part of the general tax debt management content that tax authorities must perform Every year, based on assigned tax debt collection targets and the list of subjects with outstanding tax debt as of December 31 of the previous year, the General Department of Taxation assigns local Tax Departments to review and urge debt collection taxes and implement enforcement measures in accordance with regulations In tax debt enforcement, local tax authorities strictly and resolutely implement enforcement measures in cases where tax debt must be enforced or must move to the next measure to promptly recover tax debt to the state budget 3.2.2.7 Manage taxpayer support services Currently, e-commerce activities are a relatively new type of business, tax authorities only focus on tax management stages such as: tax registration, tax declaration and payment, taxpayer information management, taxpayer inspection Regarding the content of resolving tax complaints and disputes, there are currently not many cases arising in practice The service to support employees doing e-commerce business is no different from the service to support employees doing traditional commerce However, the Tax industry has made efforts to promote propaganda and dissemination of tax policies to all taxpayers with e-commerce activities on mass media channels to ensure that taxpayers clearly understand tax policies and make their own tax declarations and paying 3.3 Results of surveying factors affecting taxpayers' compliance with value-added tax obligations and assessing the current status of value-added tax management for e-commerce activities of tax officials 3.3.1 Survey results of factors affecting taxpayers' compliance with value-added tax obligations in e-commerce business Within the scope of this thesis, sample selection is very important in determining the quality of 15 a scientific research For a questionnaire with 48 observations, the sample size is 577 However, due to time and budget limitations when carrying out the research topic, the author followed the convenience sampling method through interviews Directly survey subjects with official questionnaires and send survey questionnaires via email or Google form tool After months of surveying, with 650 ballots issued, after screening, cleaning and removing, the author obtained 577 votes, corresponding to a rate of 88.8% meeting the standards for analysis A valid survey questionnaire meets the necessary sample size for the study 3.3.1.2 Survey results and discussion a) Research sample statistics * Type of business surveyed in the sample Of the total 350 enterprises, 34.2% are joint stock companies; LLCs account for 36.9%, state-owned enterprises account for 1.4%, private enterprises account for 23.4%, partnerships account for 0.8%, other types of enterprises account for 3.3% * Size of assets and labor of enterprises in the sample Enterprises with assets ranging from 20 to 100 billion account for a large proportion (59.7%) and enterprises with workforce from 10 to 200 people account for 60.5% * Business field of the enterprise in the sample Most of the enterprises in the survey sample operate in the field of goods production accounting for 35.8%, the field of trade and services accounting for 41.3%, the field of wholesale, retail and distribution accounting for 15.8% and other fields accounted for 7.1% b) Test the reliability of the scale Cronbach's Alpha test is used to evaluate the quality of the developed scale In the research, the author has built scales that reflect the factors Rechecking the reliability of the scale to eliminate indicators that are not really consistent with reality c) Exploratory factor analysis The analysis results after eliminating the observed variables that converge to other theoretical factors but are not suitable (QLT4, HTNT3) in terms of internal value show that the observed variables converge into main components as shown in theoretical model KMO coefficient > 0.5 (0.932), the explained variance is greater than 50% (78.918%), the factor loading coefficients of the main components are all greater than 0.5 This shows that using exploratory factor analysis is appropriate The measurement structure of the factors is established from observed variables similar to the theoretical model without adjustment Analysis results with the dependent variable of VAT compliance behavior of businesses with e-commerce business revenue show that the KMO coefficient is > 0.5 (0.876), the Bartlett test is statistically significant (p–value < 0, 05), observed variables have factor loading coefficients greater than 0.5, explained variance greater than 50% (76.484%) Observed variables converge into a single factor This shows that using exploratory factor analysis is appropriate d) The results of the analysis confirm the factor Figure 3.2: Results of confirmatory factor analysis with variables Source: Results from AMOS software The results of confirmatory factor analysis with variables show that the model is compatible with real data: Chi-square/df = 2,873 < 3, CFI = 0.939, TLI = 0.932, IFI = 0.939 are all greater than 0.9, and RMSEA = 0.057 (Figure 3.2) e) Structural model and testing of research hypotheses To test the research hypotheses, the thesis uses analysis using linear structural modeling 16 (SEM) The analysis results show that the proposed research model is compatible with real data: Chi-square/df = 2.879 is less than 3, CFI = 0.922; TLI = 0.917; IFI = 0.923 is greater than 0.9, RMSEA = 0.057 is smaller than 0.08 (Figure 3.3) Figure 3.3: Results of SEM model analysis Source: Results from AMOS software f) Discussion and policy implications - The factor of sanctioning violations of VAT laws for e-commerce activities has the greatest influence on VAT compliance behavior of businesses with revenue from e-commerce business with a standardized Beta coefficient of 0.660 That means that if the management of penalties for violations of VAT laws is strengthened and improved, businesses' VAT compliance behavior will also be correspondingly improved - The tax service quality factor affects the awareness of businesses generating revenue from ecommerce with a standardized Beta coefficient of 0.630 This factor has the same impact and the second largest influence in the research model When the quality of tax services is more highly appreciated by businesses, the awareness of compliance with tax obligations of businesses will increase accordingly To improve the quality of tax services, tax agencies need to: (i) focus on building and renovating tax agency headquarters and working equipment to be advanced, modern, and synchronous; (ii) conduct specific research, regularly survey and discuss with businesses to understand their needs, especially newly established businesses - The awareness factor of businesses affects the VAT compliance behavior of businesses that generate revenue from e-commerce activities with the third largest standardized Beta coefficient of 0.546 This shows that when businesses' awareness increases, their VAT compliance behavior also increases To increase the awareness of businesses, it is necessary to improve the quality of tax services, especially propaganda work to support taxpayers in grasping and understanding new legal documents, circulars, and decrees on taxes, simplifying tax payment procedures - The VAT collection communication factor affects the awareness of businesses generating revenue from e-commerce with the fourth largest standardized Beta coefficient of 0.344 This factor has the same influence as the awareness of businesses, meaning that when tax collection communication increases, the awareness of businesses also increases From there, we propose policy implications to improve the communication factor of VAT collection - The factor of technology application in tax management affects the quality of tax services with a standardized Beta coefficient of 0.147 This is the 5th most influential factor and is in the same direction as tax service quality When increasing the application of technology in VAT management, the quality of tax services will also be improved Tax authorities need to build a complete, accurate, centralized and unified taxpayer database nationwide; Develop IT applications in tax management activities with high connectivity and automation, closely linked to the process of reforming tax administrative procedures and applying electronic tax; Build IT technical infrastructure, advanced, modern and synchronous equipment - Tax inspection and audit factors affect the quality of tax services with a standardized Beta coefficient of 0.142 This is the sixth most influential factor and is in the same direction as tax service quality When tax inspection and examination work is enhanced, the quality of tax services will also be improved Issues that need to be focused on to strengthen tax inspection and examination for businesses include: (i) improving the quality and sense of responsibility and professional ethics of the team of inspection and auditing civil servants tax investigation; (ii) apply risk management methods in all stages of inspection and testing; (iii) comprehensively 17 innovate inspection and examination activities towards unity, modernity and regularity; (iv) there needs to be connection and unity, avoiding cases of inspection and examination with the same year and content 3.3.2 Survey results assessing the current status of value added tax management for ecommerce activities of tax officials A survey was conducted to assess the current status of VAT administration for e-commerce activities; Level of success of VAT policy; The level of influence of factors on the management of VAT collection for e-commerce activities; Causes of VAT revenue loss for e-commerce activities in Vietnam; Level of VAT management risk for e-commerce business areas; Level of difficulty arising in VAT management for e-commerce activities and some solutions to improve VAT policy for this activity By convenient non-probability sampling method (sample units are selected at a certain location and at a certain time) Specifically, as follows: (1) Survey subjects: tax industry civil servants; (2) Survey location: Tax authorities at all levels in two major cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Due to time constraints and the survey subjects in this study being tax officials, access was difficult Therefore, the author sent 200 surveys via email and online questionnaire via link using Google Forms tool The result was 180 valid votes 3.3.2.1 Statistical results of the research sample The statistical results of the research sample are presented in terms of aspects, including: gender; workplace; work tasks; number of years of work 3.3.2.2 Survey results a) Evaluate the level of success of tax policy for e-commerce activities in Vietnam today Tax officials believe that VAT management policies for e-commerce activities have achieved certain successes, in which the greatest success of tax administration has been developing in a simple direction, helping businesses save money Save costs and time for declaring and paying taxes (highest average score is 4.12) Besides, there is success in tax policy transparency and improvement in the direction of encouraging the development of e-commerce activities in Vietnam (average scores are 3.76 and 3.66 respectively) b) Value-added tax revenue loss in e-commerce activities Survey results for tax officials when assessing the level of VAT revenue loss in e-commerce activities show that the majority of tax officials believe that about 30-50% of VAT is lost (accounting for a proportion of VAT revenue) the largest is 40.3%), followed by about less than 15-30% of VAT revenue lost (accounting for 35.6%) This shows that compared to the amount of tax payable, the amount of VAT arising from e-commerce activities paid into the state budget is still quite modest c) The level of influence of factors on the management of value added tax collection for ecommerce activities in Vietnam Factors affecting VAT management for e-commerce activities rated by tax officials with the highest scores are ineffective management processes (average score 4.16) and inadequacies in revenue collection Collect data on tax payment transactions for e-commerce (average score 4.11) d) Assess the current status of factors in the management of value added tax collection in the e-commerce sector The current situation of tax administration through management aspects has been implemented but the efficiency is not high Some tasks are identified that have not been done or will be done This shows that tax authorities need to implement measures to enhance management efficiency e) Assess the level of causes of value added tax revenue loss for e-commerce activities in Vietnam The cause of VAT revenue loss in e-commerce activities is assessed by tax officials to be largely due to taxpayers' willingness to comply with tax obligations (the highest average score is 4.22), followed by tax policy Value added value for e-commerce is not synchronized (average rating is 4.16) The force and qualifications of tax officials that meet the requirements and tax industry facilities are also identified as the causes leading to relatively high VAT revenue loss for 18 e-commerce This implies that in the coming time, tax authorities need to raise taxpayers' tax compliance awareness through promoting more effective propaganda and support measures for taxpayers f)Level of value-added tax management risk for current e-commerce business areas in Vietnam According to the assessment of tax officials, the field of e-commerce business with the most potential risks in VAT management is providing smart search services and online advertising such as google, yahoo, youtube, facebook and providing digital music products, movies, ebooks, online game business (selling virtual items in games, gift codes, placing online ads) with average scores of 4.23 and 4.11 respectively g) Assess the level of difficulties arising in value added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam The results of the tax officer survey in table 3.23 show that the factors mentioned are all difficulties in VAT management for e-commerce activities In particular, the biggest difficulty comes from business registration of businesses and individuals with e-commerce activities (the highest average score is 4.16) and there are no tools to control and monitor the amount of goods as well as revenue arising from e-commerce activities (average score reached 4.23) h) Assessing the feasibility of solutions to improve value-added tax collection management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam Solutions to improve VAT management for e-commerce activities were all evaluated by tax officials with a score of agreement Among them, the solution with the highest average rating is improving employee awareness (agree rating 4.24), followed by enhancing IT applications in finding information and detecting fraud in e-commerce business Develop smart internet search tools on websites with e-commerce activities to identify e-commerce activities that have not been declared tax (4.23), establish tax management processes (4.21) 3.4 General assessment of the current status of value added tax management for ecommerce activities in Vietnam 3.4.1 Collecting value-added tax with e-commerce activities in management criteria Table 3.11: Comparison of the current situation of VAT collection in e-commerce with evaluation criteria Criteria Level of employee information management in e-commerce activities (%) Level of compliance, declaration and payment of VAT in e-commerce (%) Level of VAT inspection and examination in e-commerce (%) Proportion of arrears and fines from e-commerce inspection (%) Proportion of VAT amount paid to VAT amount payable (%) Current situation of VAT collection 39-47% 99.61% 40% 10-20% 40-50% Level achieved not achieved achieved not achieved not achieved not achieved 3.4.2 Achieved result VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam in recent times has achieved certain results expressed in aspects, including: First, the tax management document system in general and tax VAT in particular for e-commerce activities is relatively complete; Second, for the organizational and management apparatus, the Tax Authority established an E-commerce Team in 2012 under the Reform and Modernization Board of the General Department of Taxation; Third, the VAT management process for e-commerce activities is implemented strictly and methodically, creating smooth coordination between departments in the tax administration; Fourth, VAT management for e-commerce activities has initially achieved certain positive results when a number of tax fraud cases were detected and collected by tax authorities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City relatively large amount of tax into the state budget; Fifth, to manage e-commerce transactions on digital platforms, on March 21, 2022, the Ministry of Finance officially opened an electronic information portal for foreign suppliers without a fixed business establishment in Vietnam Vietnam and deploying electronic tax application on mobile device platform (eTax 19 Mobile) for individuals; Sixth, the revenue rate from the e-commerce sector has always grown over the years, averaging 130% in the period 2018 - 2021 3.4.3 Some limitations and reasons 3.4.3.1 Limitations Besides the initial results achieved in VAT management for e-commerce activities, this work also revealed certain limitations, including: (i) Organization of the tax management apparatus in general in general and VAT in particular for e-commerce activities are still unreasonable; (ii) The scale of the e-commerce market in Vietnam since 2015 has had a breakthrough development and revenue has continuously increased, but the actual VAT collected from e-commerce activities is not commensurate with the increase that revenue; (iii) Tax authorities have not fully determined the nature of e-commerce transactions to build a database for taxpayer management; (iv) Tax authorities have difficulty determining tax bases in e-commerce activities; (v) Limitations in the management and control of foreign enterprises that not have a permanent establishment in Vietnam but generate very large revenues, while tax collection is mainly through contractor taxes paid by domestic enterprises implementing country; (vi) Inspection and inspection activities for e-commerce activities not have appropriate methods 3.4.3.2 Cause of existence, limitation Firstly, the strong development of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution has created many new forms of e-commerce activities Second, the legal document policy system in Vietnam has recently been amended and supplemented to update and keep up with the development of e-commerce, but there are still many loopholes Third, the level of understanding and awareness of compliance with the law of taxpayers is not high Fourth, Vietnam's current payment system still uses mainly cash payments CHAPTER COMPLETE SOLUTION FOR VALUE ADDED TAX MANAGEMENT FOR E-COMMERCE ACTIVITIES IN VIETNAM 4.1 Forecasting e-commerce development and orientation for perfecting value-added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam 4.1.1 E-commerce development trends in Vietnam 4.1.1.1 Context of digital economic and digital society development in Vietnam - Regarding the goal of developing the digital economy and digital society Table 4.1: Goals for developing the digital economy and digital society in different stages Target Digital economy Digital society, close digital distance To 2025 To 2030 Digital economy accounts for 20% of GDP Digital economy accounts for 30% of GDP The proportion of digital economy in each industry The proportion of digital economy in each industry and field reaches at least 10% and field reaches at least 20% Annual labor productivity increases at least 7% Vietnam belongs to the group of 50 leading countries in IT (IDI) Vietnam belongs to the group of 50 leading countries in terms of competitiveness index (GCI) Vietnam belongs to the group of 35 leading countries in innovation (GII) Fiber optic broadband network infrastructure covers over 80% of households and 100% of communes; Universalize 4G/5G mobile network services and smart mobile phones Percentage of population with electronic payment accounts over 50% Vietnam is in the group of 40 leading countries in cyber safety and security (GCI) Annual labor productivity increases at least 8% Vietnam belongs to the group of 30 leading countries in IT (IDI) Vietnam belongs to the group of 30 leading countries in terms of competitiveness index (GCI) Vietnam belongs to the group of 30 leading countries in innovation (GII) Universal fiber optic broadband Internet service Universalize 5G mobile network services The proportion of the population with electronic payment accounts is over 80% Vietnam is in the group of 30 leading countries in cyber safety and security (GCI) The goals of developing the digital economy and digital society at different stages show that 20 expanding these goals will help Vietnam quickly and successfully transform digitally in all fields - About implementation solutions For digital economic development: Promoting digital economic development with a focus on developing digital technology enterprises, shifting from IT assembly and processing to making digital technology products, industry 4.0, developing digital content, creative industries, platform economy, sharing economy, e-commerce and smart manufacturing For digital society development Promote social digital transformation, focus on skills conversion, provide open online mass courses, cooperate with large organizations and businesses around the world to train, coach and improve knowledge, skills in digital technology and digital transformation, forming digital culture The development orientation of digital economy and digital society has created a foundation in policy, technology, infrastructure for e-commerce activities to develop 4.1.1.2 Trends in the development of e-commerce activities in Vietnam On May 15, 2020, the Government issued Decision No 645/QD-TTg approving the National E-commerce Development Master Plan for the period 2021-2025 The plan has set out goals for e-commerce development in Vietnam on all aspects (Table 4.2) Table 4.2 E-commerce growth goals in Vietnam for the period 2021-2025 Target Content E-commerce market size 55% of the population participates in online shopping, with the value of online purchases of goods and services reaching an average of 600 USD/person/year; B2C e-commerce sales (calculated for both online consumer goods and services) increased by 25%/year, reaching 35 billion USD, accounting for 10% of the total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue nationwide Regarding infrastructure Non-cash payments in e-commerce reach 50%, of which payments made through of supporting services for payment intermediary service providers account for 80% e-commerce The average cost for delivery and last-mile order fulfillment accounts for 10% of the product cost in e-commerce 70% of purchase transactions on e-commerce websites/applications have electronic invoices Build and operate a shared database on e-commerce Regarding the correlation Localities outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City account for 50% of the country's of e-commerce B2C e-commerce transaction value; development between 50% of communes and equivalent administrative units across the country have economic regions traders selling goods or providing services online About e-commerce applications in businesses 80% of e-commerce websites have integrated online ordering function 50% of small and medium-sized enterprises conduct business activities on ecommerce trading floors, including social networks with e-commerce trading floor functions 40% of businesses participate in e-commerce activities on mobile applications; 70% of electricity, water, telecommunications and media service providers deploy electronic contracts with consumers Regarding human 50% of higher education and vocational education institutions deploy e-commerce resource development for training e-commerce 1,000,000 businesses, business households, state management officials, and students participated in training courses on e-commerce application skills In addition, Decision 1163/QD-TTg approving the Strategy "Developing domestic trade in the period to 2030, with a vision to 2045" also clearly states the goal of developing trade in general and e-commerce in particular by 2045 Accordingly, the goal of e-commerce development in the period 2021 - 2030 is to develop e-commerce quickly with a complete legal corridor, applying modern technology and technical infrastructure along with full support facilities, ensure safety and convenience for businesses and consumers during transactions; By 2030, e-commerce exchange revenue accounts for about 10.5 - 11% of total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in the whole economy, achieving an average growth rate of about 21 20 - 21%/year; strive to reach over 40 - 45% of small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the commercial sector (including small and medium-sized commercial enterprises, enterprises converting from commercial and individual economic establishments) creative startups) participating in major domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms 4.1.1.3 Digital transformation roadmap for the tax industry The tax industry's transformation roadmap includes: Digital transformation of technical infrastructure; Develop applications to serve taxpayers 4.1.2 Orientation to perfect value added tax management for e-commerce activities 4.1.2.1 Perspectives on perfecting value-added tax policy for e-commerce activities a) Complete value added tax policy with e-commerce activities The solutions built are based on a unified viewpoint, such as: (1) VAT policy must be built on a simple, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-implement basis to help both taxpayers and tax administration agencies easy to implement, easy to monitor; (2) Complete VAT policy in accordance with international practices, meeting the requirements of deep integration of the economy; (3) Completing VAT on e-commerce activities must ensure compliance with the tax system reform process; (4) Completing the tax system associated with the process of digital transformation of the economy, especially the digital transformation of the financial system; (5) Vietnam needs to gradually build a simple tax system with few taxes and tax rates that limit tax exemptions and reductions b) Perspectives on perfecting value added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam These viewpoints include: Firstly, with the characteristics of e-commerce, in order to regulate and manage effectively, it is necessary to pay attention to the relationship between e-commerce activities and traditional commercial activities; Second, when applying taxes on e-commerce, we must pay attention to equality in obligations between domestic and foreign suppliers, avoid domestic incentives to create discrimination, but at the same time not refuse Removing the right to tax foreign suppliers leads to missed revenue sources and unfair competition; Third, tax management for e-commerce activities must be synchronized using electronic means and modern management methods to avoid inhibiting the speed of e-commerce development; Fourth, the Government has issued Decree 15/2022 regulating tax exemption and reduction policies according to Resolution 43/2022/QH15 of the National Assembly on fiscal and monetary policies to support the economic recovery and development program socio-economic 4.1.2.2 Orientation for managing value-added tax work in accordance with the growth rate of ecommerce General goals include: (i) Completing the VAT law to contribute to promoting production and business and socio-economic development; (ii) VAT policy must not only ensure a reasonable level of mobilization into the state budget but also ensure the mobilization of resources to promote production and business development, increase the competitiveness and accumulation of enterprises; (iii) Tax policy must ensure an equal and fair legal environment, applied to all taxpayers, ensuring fairness among economic sectors; (iv) Tax policy must ensure reasonable, selective, and time-limited protection for key economic sectors; (v) Tax administrative procedures are simplified; Administrative procedures and management processes of tax authorities are made public to facilitate taxpayers' knowledge and participation in the process of supervising tax officials' enforcement of tax laws; (vi) For e-commerce activities, tax policies need to be transparent, clear, and strict to cover all new behaviors arising in e-commerce transactions; (vii) Increase the use of electronic invoices, online tax registration and declaration via the Internet Strictly control invoices and documents as the legal basis for determining tax bases Specific objectives in the management of VAT collection for e-commerce activities include: (i) Strengthening VAT management for e-commerce activities to limit tax evasion and reform administrative procedures, the management process is consistent with the operational characteristics of e-commerce; (ii) Reform and build the tax system in general and VAT in ecommerce activities synchronously and in accordance with international practices; (iii) Improve 22 the tax calculation method, moving towards implementing the tax deduction method; (iv) Reasonably encourage VAT revenue from e-commerce activities to create equality between ecommerce and traditional commerce, and encourage and create a motivational mechanism for startups in the field of e-commerce to develop 4.2 Complete solution for value added tax management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam 4.2.1 Complete legal regulations on value added tax management for e-commerce activities With the inherent special characteristics of e-commerce activities, tax authorities must issue a number of guiding regulations to make VAT management for this activity more convenient and effective Solutions include: (i) Developing criteria to determine permanent establishments in ecommerce transactions; (ii) Regulations that foreign enterprises need to register for taxes in Vietnam before providing services to Vietnamese consumers; (iii) Issue a Circular detailing VAT policies for a number of specific e-commerce activities; (iv) Issue sanctions against businesses, individuals, and business households that conduct e-commerce transactions but intentionally cheat or not pay VAT to the state budget; (v) Clear regulations on VAT rates for domestic and foreign enterprises in the direction that there should be no discrimination and create equality; (vi) Completing the legal basis for amendments to the VAT law, Tax administration law, implementation guidance documents and related legal documents to deploy VAT collection at source for activities e-commerce activity; (vii) Build a legal basis for commercial banks and credit institutions to make deductions from foreign suppliers' income arising in Vietnam 4.2.2 Complete the value added tax management process for e-commerce activities The requirements for this operational management process require specialization in some departments such as the tax declaration and payment department and the tax inspection and examination department Specific solutions are as follows: Firstly, the tax declaration and payment department must identify businesses, businesses and business households with ecommerce activities to include in VAT management; Second, based on these sources of information, the tax declaration department will base on the defined criteria to put businesses, individuals, and business households that have e-commerce activities into management and monitoring; Finally, the inspection department inspects the organization of inspection activities and checks that taxpayers have generated e-commerce revenue 4.2.3 Build taxpayer information data in e-commerce activities Building a data warehouse of entities participating in e-commerce business is very necessary for employee information management This data warehouse needs to be collected completely, accurately and updated The process of building big data includes basic content, including: Initial information provided by taxpayers is obtained through voluntary declaration by taxpayers; In many cases where taxpayers often not easily share information or share information that is not authentic, tax authorities must get information from other relevant parties such as: Commercial banks, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Information and Communications or from international organizations and other sources 4.2.4 Establish a specialized tax management department for e-commerce activities from central to local levels In the immediate future, it is necessary to expand the functions, powers and tasks of the Ecommerce Working Group or the E-commerce Working Group can be placed in a Department within the General Department of Taxation However, the most reasonable and comprehensive thing is to place it in the Tax Accounting and Declaration Department to cover all content in ecommerce tax management, such as: taxpayer information, tax declaration and payment In the long term, when If tax management for e-commerce activities has enough necessary resources in terms of experience, people, technology, etc., it is possible to establish a separate Management Department for e-commerce activities under the General Department of Taxation Department of Taxation 4.2.5 Training and improving the quality of tax industry human resources to meet the requirements of tax management in general and value added tax in particular for e-commerce activities 23 E-commerce activities take place in the cyberspace environment, so the diversity and complexity in management is relatively large Therefore, it is required that tax administrators need to be equipped with e-commerce knowledge and improve their qualifications and skills in information technology and foreign languages to be able to grasp and keep up with the development of e-commerce Accordingly, if from the beginning the tax industry has set criteria for recruiting tax formula officers for e-commerce operations management positions but it is difficult to meet the set standards, it can continue to deploy additional training for them these officers Training is not only for newly recruited officials, but also tax officials who have worked for a long time in charge of e-commerce also need to be periodically trained to update their knowledge 4.2.6 Changing tax management tools through modernizing tax industry facilities to improve the quality of tax services, meeting value-added tax management requirements for e-commerce activities A characteristic of e-commerce activities is the application of IT in transactions Therefore, to manage this activity effectively, tax authorities need to change appropriate management tools through completing and upgrading tax industry facilities and enhancing IT applications in each management process tax on this activity Specifically: Firstly, upgrade the system providing electronic tax services because this system is sometimes overloaded, congested or slow to process; Second, complete and add IT applications to authenticate all electronic invoices; applications to recover information for electronic inspection and testing; applications to search for information about taxpayers doing e-commerce activities; Third, in particular, the Tax industry focuses on building a database to manage risks for e-commerce; Apply artificial intelligence to process data, issue warnings in cases of exceeding risk thresholds and propose risk-based tax management measures for e-commerce activities Continue to modernize tax administration; Upgrade information technology infrastructure, connect and store information to support taxpayers electronically 4.2.7 Improve the quality and diversify forms of propaganda and dissemination of tax laws in general and value added tax for e-commerce activities in particular Currently, there are many forms of propaganda and dissemination of tax legal knowledge for e-commerce activities to support taxpayers in fulfilling their tax obligations, specifically the following measures: (i) Periodic tax authorities Organize discussion sessions between tax authorities and entities with e-commerce activities, other relevant parties such as Commercial Banks, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Information and Communications to discuss and resolve problems and difficulties difficulties of subjects participating in e-commerce activities; (ii) Tax administration agencies should improve the quality of tax services through the application of artificial intelligence such as virtual assistants - chatbots to solve taxpayers' permanent questions in e-commerce activities; (iii) In the long term, it is necessary to build a "Data processing center in electronic transactions" with the role of receiving and controlling tax records and automatically checking and returning automatic notifications to taxpayers 4.2.8 Strengthen coordination between tax authorities and other domestic and foreign agencies to effectively implement tax management in general and value added tax in particular for e-commerce activities In the immediate future, it is possible to deploy a State-controlled electronic information portal for e-commerce activities in general In addition to cooperation between domestic agencies on the management of e-commerce activities, tax authorities need to strengthen coordination with tax authorities in countries around the world, expressed in aspects including: Firstly , learn from the experiences of countries with similarities in tax management for e-commerce activities like Vietnam to learn their tax management models and methods; Second, increase support from international organizations such as: SGATAR (Asian Tax Administration and Research Association); OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in transferring experience and supporting the training of tax industry officials in the field of management of ecommerce activities; Third, exchange information with tax authorities of countries and territories 24 that have signed double taxation avoidance agreements with Vietnam to thereby capture information about revenue and income arising in Vietnam of businesses selling goods to Vietnamese consumers to determine tax obligations and prevent fraud and tax evasion in Vietnam 4.2.9 Complete tax inspection and audit work for e-commerce activities The tax inspection and examination department needs to conduct inspections and inspections of businesses and individuals conducting e-commerce businesses according to the following contents, including: (1) Develop inspection and inspection plans; (2) Implement inspection and examination plans; (3) Handle violations of subjects after conducting inspections; (4) Besides, it is necessary to research and effectively apply inspection and examination skills 4.2.10 Some other measures to manage value added tax for cross-border e-commerce activities Firstly, build a legal basis for commercial banks and credit institutions to make deductions from foreign suppliers' income arising in Vietnam Second, in addition to building a database system to manage information of domestic e-commerce transactions, it is necessary to build a database system of foreign entities operating e-commerce activities in Vietnam that generate business large revenue and high tax risk Facing the strong development trend of e-commerce, tax policy and management in general and VAT in particular for e-commerce activities need a comprehensive change to keep up with the ever-changing development trend of e-commerce activities This action aims to manage tax collection properly and sufficiently for the state budget, while creating the best conditions for ecommerce development With the analyzed content, the thesis has answered the research questions and made certain contributions, specifically as follows: (1) The thesis has explained and clarified theoretical issues related to VAT management for ecommerce activities and developed a set of indicators to evaluate the efficiency of VAT collection for this activity (2) The thesis stands on the perspective of aggregate supply - aggregate demand in the economy to explain the level of VAT revenue loss in e-commerce activities Accordingly, the study shows that, regardless of the way goods are supplied from manufacturers to consumers, traditional or e-commerce, the total amount of VAT collected is still guaranteed based on the quantity of goods consumed by the consumer economy This is the basis for determining the level of VAT revenue loss from e-commerce activities In other words, this revenue loss level is the difference between the amount of VAT receivable from the amount of goods and services provided and consumed and the tax amount Actual VAT payable of e-commerce transactions (3) The thesis points out that, the nature of VAT is levied on the selling price of goods and services, so when consumers buy goods and services, they have paid tax, and the unit providing the goods and services is The subject is obliged to pay this tax to the state Therefore, the loss of VAT revenue from e-commerce may be due to the low awareness of taxpayers' compliance with tax obligations Researching factors that affect VAT compliance behavior of businesses generating e-commerce revenue is very important, in order to find out the level of impact of the factors and propose solutions to further improve their tax compliance awareness (4) The thesis believes that e-commerce or traditional commerce are both forms of business in the economy, so they need to be treated equally in fulfilling tax obligations Only when we create equality and ensure the contribution of these forms of business will we create a driving force for economic development and maximize the role of tax policy in general and VAT in particular (5) From the secondary data collected and primary data from the survey of tax officials and businesses that generate revenue from e-commerce activities, the study objectively analyzed the current situation VAT management for e-commerce activities in Vietnam in the period 20162022, pointing out the achievements, limitations and causes in VAT management for e-commerce activities (6) Test and clarify factors affecting VAT compliance behavior for businesses that generate revenue from e-commerce activities in Vietnam Assess the level of success and challenges in VAT management for e-commerce activities from tax officials (7) The thesis believes that to create conditions for all entities in the economy to participate in 25 e-commerce business, moving towards inclusive digital economic development in Vietnam With the total revenue from VAT for e-commerce transactions of individuals and business households in e-commerce not being large, it is necessary to consider the issue of VAT collection for these activities of business entities that are individuals and households family, will influence attitudes to encourage a strong transition to the digital economy, while e-commerce has a strong catalytic role in this transition (8) Based on the viewpoints, goals, and orientations to perfect VAT management for ecommerce activities and on the basis of forecasting e-commerce development in the coming period, combined with remaining issues and conclusions As a result of regression model analysis, the thesis proposes 10 groups of solutions to improve VAT management policy for Vietnam's e-commerce by 2030, with a vision to 2045 (according to the Socio-Economic Development Strategy) 10 years 2021-2030, vision to 2045) Besides the results achieved, the thesis has not yet analyzed the level of tax revenue loss on the household side as well as how tax collection in the form of trading tax for e-commerce business households will impact the promotion of e-commerce promote e-commerce development and spread in national digital economic growth These are issues that are considered suggestions for further research on VAT for e-commerce activities in Vietnam./ 26