Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

The paper aims to test the impact of tax structure on economic growth in the localities of Vietnam. In the paper, it is assumed, that tax structure is measured through the annual growth rate of tax revenue of 63 provinces and cities of Vietnam in terms of three groups: consumption tax (CT), income tax (IT), and property tax (PT) during the period of 11 years from 2007 to 2017; the research data was collected from the General Department of Taxation of Vietnam. Economic growth is a dependent variable, represented by the annual growth rate of the gross domestic product of each locality with the data source from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam. With the regression analysis according to the GMM method, the research results showed that consumption tax (CT) and income tax (IT) had a positive impact on economic growth in the localities of Vietnam, and property tax (PT) was not statistically significant. In addition, the study has achieved great success by identifying the consumption tax components that had significantly positive impacts on economic growth (GDP), namely export and import taxes (CT1), value added tax (CT2); meanwhile, excise tax (CT3) had a negative effect on economic growth (GDP). For income tax, personal income tax (IT2) also had a positive effect on economic growth (GDP). The research results are the first empirical evidence in Vietnam on the impact of the tax structure on economic growth in the localities, which is important for the Government of Vietnam to have a basis to manage tax policies in order to stimulate economic growth in a sustainable manner