Value added tax, foreign contractor tax and corporate income tax filings for foreign-invested companies in Vietnam, prepared from the same books and updated for the tax administration rules in force since 1 July 2026.
Part of Viettonkin's Accounting and Tax services
Vietnam recorded 195,100 newly registered enterprises in 2025, up 24.1 percent on 2024, with total registered capital of VND 1,919 trillion, according to National Statistics Office data. Each of them joined a tax calendar that runs every month and every quarter, and that calendar was rewritten in the middle of 2026 when a new tax administration law and its implementing rules came into force.
Tax compliance in Vietnam is a recurring cycle rather than an annual event. Value added tax is declared monthly or quarterly, foreign contractor tax arises each time a Vietnamese company makes a qualifying payment to a foreign supplier, corporate income tax is paid provisionally every quarter and finalised after the year closes, and wage withholding feeds its own declarations. Late payment interest accrues daily, and a record of corrections and late filings is part of the risk picture the tax authority builds of each company.
The rules moved repeatedly in 2025 and 2026. A new value added tax law has applied since 1 July 2025, a new corporate income tax law since the 2025 tax period, and the business licence fee was abolished from 1 January 2026. On 1 July 2026 the Law on Tax Administration 108/2025/QH15 came into force together with Decree 252/2026/ND-CP and Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC, which replaced the previous implementing decrees and circulars, including the long standing guidance on foreign contractor tax. A compliance process designed around the old instruments needs to be checked line by line.
The authority changed shape as well. On 1 March 2025 the Tax Department under the Ministry of Finance replaced the General Department of Taxation, organised on a three level model from central to local offices. Internal procedures, contract clauses and manuals that still refer to the former bodies are worth updating, because correspondence and filings now run through the new structure.
The table sets out the recurring obligations for a typical foreign-invested operating company. Exact deadlines are confirmed against the regulation in force for each period, because several of them changed on 1 July 2026.
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| Tax | How it arises | Cadence under current rules |
|---|---|---|
| Value added tax | Output tax on sales less input tax supported by valid invoices. The standard rate is 10 percent, with a reduced 8 percent rate on qualifying goods and services until 31 December 2026. | Monthly where revenue in the preceding calendar year exceeded VND 50 billion; companies at or below that level may elect to declare quarterly. |
| Foreign contractor tax | Arises when a Vietnamese company pays a foreign organisation for services, royalties, interest and other income sourced in Vietnam, and combines a value added tax element with a corporate income tax element. | Obligations arise payment by payment under Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC, with any treaty relief application filed with the first declaration dossier. |
| Corporate income tax | Tax on taxable profit at the standard rate of 20 percent, with lower rates for small companies and preferential rates for qualifying projects. | Provisional payments each quarter, due by the last day of the first month of the following quarter, then an annual finalisation after the financial year closes. |
| Personal income tax on wages | Withheld by the employer from employment income through the payroll. | Organisations paying salaries and wages declare quarterly under Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC; handled within our payroll engagements. |
| Business licence fee | Formerly an annual charge set by reference to charter capital. | Abolished from 1 January 2026 under Resolution 198/2025/QH15, so nothing is payable for 2026 or later years. |
Value added tax is the return that most directly reflects the quality of the books. It is also the one where the 2025 law changed the most day to day detail.
Each period starts from the accounting records. Output tax is checked against the electronic invoices issued, input tax against the invoices received, and every input credit is tested against the conditions for deduction before it is claimed. Where an invoice from an earlier period has been adjusted or replaced, the correction is reflected in the way the current rules require rather than netted off quietly in the next return.
The value added tax law in force since 1 July 2025, Law 48/2024/QH15 with Decree 181/2025/ND-CP, tightened several of those conditions. The value above which a purchase needs evidence of non-cash payment for its input tax to be credited fell from VND 20 million to VND 5 million, which brings a large number of routine purchases into scope. Separately, the reduced 8 percent rate continues until 31 December 2026 under Resolution 204/2025/QH15 and Decree 174/2025/ND-CP, but it does not apply to every line currently taxed at 10 percent: telecommunications, finance, banking, securities, insurance, real estate business, metal products, mining products other than coal and goods and services subject to special consumption tax other than petrol are excluded, so the rate on each invoice line is checked rather than assumed.
We prepare the declaration, send it for your review with the reconciliation that supports it, file it electronically once approved and keep the submission receipt and payment evidence with the working papers. The tax entries are booked in the same cycle, so the value added tax accounts agree with the returns at every month end rather than only when the auditor asks.
Foreign contractor tax is where foreign-invested companies most often find exposures they did not know they had. It attaches to the payment, so it is missed whenever a payment to a foreign supplier is processed without anyone asking the tax question.
The starting point is the full list of payments to foreign organisations: group recharges, management and technical service charges, software and cloud subscriptions, royalties, interest and one off consultancy. Each is reviewed for whether Vietnamese tax arises, not only the payments the finance team already recognises as contractor payments.
Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC repealed the long standing foreign contractor tax circular and now carries the declaration rules, while the value added tax and corporate income tax elements are each calculated under their own guidance. Purchases from foreign suppliers made through qualifying e-commerce and digital platforms follow the separate withholding mechanism in Decree 252/2026/ND-CP.
Circular 89 continues to allow the declaration methods that applied before, but it no longer sets out the conditions for choosing between them. The method is therefore agreed and documented contract by contract, so that the position taken can be explained if it is examined.
Where a double taxation agreement reduces the tax, the application for treaty relief is submitted with the first declaration dossier, supported by a consular legalised certificate of residence for the relevant year and a copy of the contract. Treaty relief is best documented when the contract is signed rather than reconstructed after the payment has been made.
The tax withheld is recorded against the underlying expense and the supplier balance in the same period, so the tax declared, the amount paid to the supplier and the expense in the accounts all agree. That consistency is also what a transfer pricing review expects to find for payments to related parties.
Corporate income tax is paid on account through the year and settled after it closes. The work is in keeping the provisional position close to the real one and in making the annual adjustments defensible.
Provisional corporate income tax is calculated each quarter from the accounting results and paid by the last day of the first month of the following quarter, the deadline Decree 252/2026/ND-CP set from 1 July 2026. We calculate the amount, advise on the payment and track the cumulative position against the expected annual liability, so the finalisation does not bring an unexpected balance.
The standard rate under the Law on Corporate Income Tax 67/2025/QH15 is 20 percent. Based on total revenue in the preceding tax period, companies with revenue up to VND 3 billion pay 15 percent and those above VND 3 billion and up to VND 50 billion pay 17 percent, but these rates do not apply to a subsidiary or affiliate where the enterprises in the group relationship do not meet the conditions, while qualifying projects may hold preferential rates and exemption or reduction periods.
The finalisation starts from the audited financial statements and works from accounting profit to taxable income: non-deductible expenses, timing differences, income that qualifies for incentives and losses brought forward. The provisional payments are then reconciled to the final liability and any balance settled.
Where a company holds preferential treatment, the conditions attached to it are tracked year by year, so that income from activities outside the incentive is separated and the entitlement can be evidenced when it is questioned.
Companies in groups with consolidated revenue of EUR 750 million or more in at least two of the four preceding years may also have supplementary corporate income tax obligations under the global minimum tax rules, which run on their own filing timetable. We coordinate those filings with the group's advisers so that the local return and the global minimum tax position use the same figures.
The new Law on Tax Administration is the largest procedural change for companies in several years. These are the points that change what a finance team actually does.
Law 108/2025/QH15 was passed on 10 December 2025 and took effect on 1 July 2026, with Decree 252/2026/ND-CP and Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC, both dated 30 June 2026, in force from the same day. The decree replaced several earlier decrees, including Decree 126/2020/ND-CP. New declaration forms apply to tax periods from 1 July 2026, while earlier periods continue to use the previous forms.
A supplementary declaration can no longer be filed once five years have passed since the deadline for the original return. Errors therefore have to be found and corrected within a defined window, which puts more weight on periodic reviews of past filings.
Decree 252 provides that a foreign investor may remit annual profits only after the financial year has ended, the audited financial statements and corporate income tax finalisation have been submitted and all tax, late payment interest and penalties have been settled. No remittance may be made for a profitable year if the audited statements still show accumulated losses after loss carry forward.
Organisations paying salaries and wages now declare personal income tax quarterly instead of monthly. Payroll and tax calendars built on monthly declarations need to be reset, even though tax is still withheld with every pay run.
The implementing decree sets thresholds for temporarily suspending exit from Vietnam over overdue tax, including debts of VND 500 million or more that are more than 120 days overdue, for the legal representative of an enterprise. An unresolved liability is no longer only a balance sheet matter.
Compliance is a service that should be predictable. These are the routines that make it so for each client, whether we also keep the books or work from books kept in house.
Each engagement runs on a tax calendar with internal preparation dates, a window for your review and the filing date for each obligation. You receive draft returns on a predictable schedule and confirmation once each one is filed.
Nothing is filed without your approval. Each draft comes with the reconciliation that supports it, so the reviewer can see how the figures tie to the books rather than approving a single total.
The Ministry of Finance issues decrees, circulars and official letters throughout the year. We assess the changes that affect your transactions and explain what they mean for the next filing, rather than forwarding the text.
Your finance team can raise tax questions as they arise: whether a new contract triggers foreign contractor tax, how an invoice should be issued, whether an expense will be deductible. Answering them before the transaction is recorded is simpler than correcting a return afterwards.
Returns, payment evidence, submission receipts and working papers are kept together for every period, so that a tax examination can be answered from the file rather than reconstructed from email.
Since 2009, Viettonkin has supported 2,000+ businesses, including Fortune 500 and VNR500 companies. In the engagements below, tax compliance and tax review work formed part of a wider mandate for the client.
A Canadian corporation established a legal entity in Vietnam for an aircraft components production line. The engagement extended to factory rental, staff recruitment and accounting and tax procedures, with Viettonkin acting as legal representative and dealing with the accounting and tax requirements.
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A Singaporean company with an established presence in Southeast Asia and America sought advice on dissolving a business. Viettonkin proposed the approach for the dissolution together with the payroll administration, accounting and tax work that has to be completed alongside it.
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Before signing, Viettonkin ran a focused pre-closing review of a Vietnam-side acquisition target. The work covered hidden tax exposures, employment liabilities, intellectual property ownership chains and undisclosed related-party contracts.
Read the case studyPractical answers on filing frequency, the 2026 rules and the taxes that apply to foreign-invested companies.
It depends on revenue. Under Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC a company whose revenue in the preceding calendar year exceeded VND 50 billion declares value added tax monthly, and a company at or below that level may elect to declare quarterly. If a new company's revenue in its first year exceeds the threshold, it declares monthly from the following calendar year.
No. Resolution 198/2025/QH15 abolished the business licence fee from 1 January 2026, so no licence fee is payable for 2026 or later years. It no longer needs a place in the annual compliance calendar.
Quarterly, by the last day of the first month of the quarter following the quarter concerned, as set by Decree 252/2026/ND-CP from 1 July 2026. The provisional payments are reconciled to the actual liability in the annual finalisation after the financial year closes.
Only if they fall within the reduction. Resolution 204/2025/QH15 and Decree 174/2025/ND-CP apply the reduced rate until 31 December 2026 to goods and services otherwise taxed at 10 percent, but excluded lines include telecommunications, finance, banking, securities, insurance, real estate business, metal products, mining products other than coal and goods and services subject to special consumption tax other than petrol. The rate is checked line by line against the decree's lists rather than assumed.
Yes. Some clients keep bookkeeping in house and engage us for the returns, and others engage us for both. The division of responsibility is agreed in writing at the start, and the returns are always reconciled to the books that are maintained, because inconsistency between the two is what an examination looks for first.
Regulatory points checked on 17 September 2026; market statistics checked on 11 September 2026. Requirements depend on the entity, its activities and the period concerned.
Tell us which taxes your company files today, who prepares them and where the books are kept. We will map the calendar that applies under the 2026 rules and how the preparation, review and filing cycle would run.
