Mazars in Vietnam Newsletter - Tax & Legal Update - Issue March 2022 (Issue 02)

1. Official Letter 13983/BTC-TCT responding to constituents' petitions on temporary payment of Corporate Income Tax (“CIT”) for the first three quarters of the year

According to Official Letter 13983/BTC-TCT issued by the Ministry of Finance on 7 December 2021, due to the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic in the first three quarters of the year, the revenue and income of enterprises have been affected. In order to facilitate support for enterprises, Ministry of Finance has reported in writing to the Prime Minister on amendments to the regulation of temporary CIT payment for the first three quarters of the year, which must not be lower than 75% of the payable CIT amount in year-end CIT finalization, in the direction of creating favorable conditions for enterprises and not being more disadvantageous compared to the previous regulations.

This point is being concretized in the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 126/2020/ND-CP, whereby this regulation is proposed to be revised as the total amount of temporary CIT settlement for four quarters must not be less than 80% of the payable amount according to the annual finalization. If there is the shortage in temporary CIT settlement, taxpayers must pay the corresponding interest on late payment.

2. Official Letter 104/CTBNI-TTHT on CIT deductible expenses for payments of unused annual leave

According to Official Letter 104/CTBNI-TTHT issued by the Tax Department of Bac Ninh province on 14 January 2022, the Labour Code does not require the enterprise pays wages for the unused annual leave for their employees still working at the enterprise then such payment will not be treated as deductible expenses when calculating CIT.

3. Official Letter 108/CTBNI-TTHT on Personal Income Tax (“PIT”) declaration period in case of conversion from an ordinary enterprise to an export processing enterprise

According to Official Letter 108/CTBNI-TTHT issued by the Tax Department of Bac Ninh Province on 14 January 2022, in case of an enterprise converts into an export processing enterprise in the year the enterprise is not required to declare Value Added Tax (“VAT”) and if PIT is being declared quarterly, the enterprise continues to declare PIT on quarterly basis stably for the whole calendar year. From January of the next year, enterprises will change to monthly PIT declaration.

4. Official Letter 158/CTBNI-TTHT on capital contribution for business establishment and creditable VAT, deductible CIT expenses for payments made on behalf before business establishment

According to Official Letter 158/CTBNI-TTHT issued by the Tax Department of Bac Ninh province on 24 January 2022, in case the company registers to contribute capital in cash, the company is responsible for paying the full committed amount in accordance with the regulations. In case the company is a foreign-invested enterprise (not a foreign investor) settling a number of expenses in the pre-investment period to establish a new enterprise, this amount shall not be converted to charter capital of the new enterprise. The company is still responsible for fully contributing the charter capital in cash as prescribed above.

5. Official Letter 199/CTBNI-TTHT on accounting and deductible expenses when calculating CIT with trial production costs

According to Official Letter 199/CTBNI-TTHT issued by the Tax Department of Bac Ninh province on 27 January 2022, in case an enterprise incurs expenses for trial production, such expenses must satisfy the conditions in Clause 1, Article 6, Circular 78/2014/TT-BTC (amended and supplemented in Article 4 of Circular 96/2015/TT-BTC) to be treated as deductible expenses when calculating CIT. Additionally, the enterprise must prepare sufficient supporting documents of the trial production process (including from plan or decision on the trial production of new products; purchasing raw materials, producing, stockpiling the finished products, evaluating the finished products, revoking the products; supporting documents on forced destruction of unqualified products, unsuitable/non-reusable/unsaleable trial production materials) to present to the tax authority upon request.

6. Official Letter 798/CTBDU-TTHT on expenses of damaged goods during transportation

According to Official Letter 798/CTBDU-TTHT issued by the Tax Department of Binh Duong province on 19 January 2022, in case the enterprise has goods with low quality/wrong specifications and do not meet the requirements of the contract due to damage during transportation, the expenses of such goods when destroyed do not fall in the case of a force majeure event hence corresponding expenses are not included in deductible expenses when calculating CIT.

7. Decision 206/QD-BTC on the application of e-invoices in the remaining 57 provinces and municipalities

According to Decision 206/QD-BTC dated 24 February 2022 of the Minister of Finance, from April 2022, e-invoices will be applied in the remaining 57 provinces and municipalities. Thus, the implementation of e-invoices will be carried out nationwide from April 2022, which is 3 months earlier than the plan and effective date of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP guiding on the implementation of e-invoices.

Disclaimer:

We do trust the above points are notable and sufficient, but should you have any questions or need a deeper discussion on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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