Tax, investment, employment and operating-licence compliance support for foreign-invested enterprises in Vietnam.
Part of Viettonkin's Global Company Registration services
As of 31 December 2025, Vietnam had 45,416 valid foreign direct investment projects with total registered capital of about USD 529.6 billion, according to the Foreign Investment Agency. The companies behind those projects work to a compliance calendar that has changed in ways that make older checklists unreliable: the business licence fee has not been collected since 1 January 2026, and social insurance obligations now follow Law 41/2024/QH15. Reusing an inherited calendar can mean doing work that is no longer required while missing work that is.
Viettonkin coordinates compliance for foreign-invested enterprises in Vietnam around the company’s actual tax profile, investment project, workforce and licensed activities. We assign each recurring submission and each business change to a named owner, prepare or coordinate the agreed filings, and keep the evidence together so the compliance position can be shown when it is needed.
Four domains make up the recurring work. Each has its own authority, its own reporting cycle and its own trigger events.
Tax is usually the most frequent cycle. Depending on the company’s profile, it covers VAT and personal income tax reporting, provisional and annual corporate income tax, and invoicing requirements, all of which depend on accurate accounting records. The filing frequency is not the same for every company, so the calendar starts by confirming how the tax authority treats this entity.
Investment obligations follow the investment project and the enterprise records. They include periodic reporting on the project and formal amendments when the company changes its capital, location, legal representative or activities. Employment obligations begin with the first employee and grow with the workforce, while operating permissions depend on what the business actually does, which may go beyond the activities listed at registration.
None of these domains stands still, so our review checks the rules in force and the current receiving authority for each obligation before it enters the calendar. Where an obligation depends on facts only the company holds, such as turnover, headcount or a planned change, the calendar records the question and the person who needs to answer it.
The retainer defines preparation, submission, coordination and specialist responsibilities. Where your accountant, payroll provider or legal adviser already handles part of the work, the scope shows where their responsibility ends and ours begins.
We assess the applicable VAT and personal income tax reporting, provisional and annual corporate income tax work, and invoicing requirements for the entity. Preparation, payment and approval responsibilities are confirmed with the accounting team so nothing depends on an assumption, and year-end finalisation is coordinated with the audit timetable where an audit applies.
We review the investment documents and identify the periodic reports and project-monitoring work that apply. Enterprise-record amendments and investment-project changes are treated as distinct processes, each with its own form and receiving authority. Planned changes are assessed early so the right filing is prepared before the change takes effect.
We coordinate employee information, social insurance obligations and applicable labour reporting with the HR and payroll teams. The calendar sets out the information we need for new hires, leavers and salary changes. Foreign-worker and sector-specific requirements are reviewed where they fall within the agreed scope.
We review the company’s actual operations against its registered activities and current permits. Conditions, expiry dates and reporting requirements attached to sector permits are tracked alongside other obligations, and a new location, product or business line is assessed before it starts so any additional permission can be scoped in time.
These planning categories must be converted into a dated calendar for your entity, reporting period and current requirements. The table shows how the work is grouped, not the deadline that applies to a particular company.
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| Cycle | Workstream | Planning point |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly or quarterly | Tax returns and payments | Confirm each tax’s filing frequency and the company’s eligibility; do not assume all entities follow a monthly cycle. |
| Recurring | Investment and project reporting | Identify which reports apply to the project and use the current prescribed submission dates. |
| Recurring and on hiring | Employment and social insurance | Maintain the applicable registration, contribution and labour-reporting calendar. |
| Annual | Accounts, tax finalisation and applicable reports | Coordinate year-end records, audit needs and deadlines for the particular return or report. |
| Before or following a change | Enterprise, project and licence records | Assess the specific change, required approvals and filing window. |
Selected points to assess when reviewing existing processes and records. Each one comes up regularly when a calendar was set up several years ago or by a previous provider.
Collection and payment of the business licence fee ended from 1 January 2026, so calendars and budgets that still carry it as an annual obligation should be updated. This does not remove separate sector-licence or permit obligations, which still need their own tracking.
An investment activity report, a project-monitoring report and an enterprise amendment are different tasks, and combining them under one heading makes it easy to complete one and assume the others are done. Confirm the applicable form, responsible authority and deadline for each, and give each its own owner.
Recent changes show why an older calendar cannot be reused as it stands. Vietnam replaced its Law on Investment with Law 143/2025/QH15, in force from 1 March 2026, with the rules on conditional business lines applying from 1 July 2026, and the amended Law on Enterprises has required beneficial owner information in registration filings since 1 July 2025. Review each obligation against the rules in force and the current receiving authority, and record the date of that review.
When we review a company’s records at the start of an engagement, the same patterns tend to appear. Most come from the absence of a tracking system in the first year rather than from a decision to skip an obligation.
After licensing, teams often focus on operations and assume investment reporting was completed at setup. The calendar should confirm which reports continue to apply to the project and when each reporting period closes. Where earlier periods were missed, they are easier to address when found at the start of an engagement than during a later review.
Some companies pay little provisional corporate income tax and plan to settle everything at finalisation. The basis for provisional payments should be agreed with the accounting team and reviewed as the year’s results become clearer, which avoids a large, unplanned adjustment when the annual return is prepared.
Invoice formats and systems are sometimes left unchanged after requirements move on, particularly when a company inherits templates from its group or a previous provider. Supplier and customer invoices should be checked against the current invoicing rules before VAT is claimed or revenue is reported, because correcting invoices across several periods takes far more work than checking the setup once.
A new legal representative, a capital adjustment or an office move is implemented operationally, but the enterprise and investment records are not updated. The mismatch often surfaces later, when a bank, auditor or authority compares the records with the company’s actual position. Reviewing changes before they happen keeps the records and the business aligned.
Separate historical remediation from the routine work ahead. Routine filings should not wait while older issues are investigated, and older issues should not be hidden inside the routine calendar.
We collect registrations, licences, tax and payroll records, prior submissions and correspondence with authorities. From these we identify missing evidence and unresolved obligations and separate them from the routine work coming up. The review also shows which records other providers hold and how we will receive them.
We name the preparer, approver and submitter for each obligation. Document cut-off dates are set so approvals are not squeezed into the last days before a deadline, and dependencies on management, the auditor or other advisers are identified at this stage.
For each filing we retain the submitted version, the acknowledgement and payment evidence where relevant. Follow-up queries and changes to the agreed calendar are recorded against the obligation, so the file can support an audit, an authority review or due diligence without being rebuilt.
The calendar is reviewed when the company hires, changes ownership, adds an activity or receives an authority enquiry. Each review confirms that the scope still matches how the company operates and updates responsibilities where needed.
Coverage depends on the entity and the agreed engagement letter. The first column lists routine work to scope; the second lists work that is identified and quoted separately.
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| Routine work to scope | Specialist work to identify separately |
|---|---|
| Applicable return and reporting coordination | Full bookkeeping, audit or specialist tax advice. |
| Employer and investment compliance support | Employment disputes, tax investigations or litigation. |
| Licence tracking and agreed changes | New sector-licence applications and complex restructuring. |
| Documented compliance calendar | Historical remediation, transaction reviews or expanded entities. |
Since 2009, Viettonkin has supported 2,000+ businesses, including Fortune 500 and VNR500 companies. These engagements in Vietnam show the kind of regulatory and compliance questions we help foreign investors work through.
A Hong Kong garment manufacturer in Tay Ninh province was considering relocation to a new industrial zone in Tra Vinh. Viettonkin assessed the risks of acquiring industrial land, compared ownership structures and their tax implications, and set out the land acquisition procedure for foreign investors.
Read the case study
Two investors from China set up a joint venture company and factory in Vietnam. Under a retainership, Viettonkin advised on the legal process, compliance issues in construction and manufacturing and charter capital procedures, and supported adjustments to the Investment Registration Certificate and Business Registration Certificate.
Read the case study
A Singapore-based investment fund exploring Vietnam’s gaming sector needed clarity on the legal framework. Viettonkin researched the legal requirements and licensing procedures for online and offline games, the market landscape and the localisation practices required for the Vietnamese market.
Read the case studyPractical answers for your compliance planning.
No. The applicable obligations depend on tax status, legal form, activities, licences, workforce and reporting period. The engagement starts by mapping the company’s actual position.
Yes. The scope can assign responsibilities across your providers, with named owners for data, preparation, approvals and submission.
An initial review can establish the gaps and priorities. Any remediation, authority engagement and potential liabilities are assessed separately from ongoing routine support.
Not automatically. The engagement letter distinguishes coordination from specialist services such as statutory audit, transfer pricing advice or dispute representation.
Share the entity registrations, licences, current activities, tax and employment profile, prior filings and immediate deadlines or authority enquiries.
Regulatory points checked on 10 September 2026; market statistics checked on 11 September 2026. Requirements depend on the activity, investor and filing date.
Tell us your market, entity structure and immediate priorities. We will confirm the documents, responsibilities and scope of support.
