What entities are value-added taxpayers in Vietnam in 2025?

What is value-added tax?

According to Article 2 of the Law on Value-Added Tax 2008, value-added tax is a tax calculated on the added value of goods and services that arises during the process from production and circulation to consumption.

What entities are value-added taxpayers in Vietnam from January 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025?

Prior to the Law on Value-Added Tax 2024, which takes effect from July 1, 2025, those required to pay value-added tax from January 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025, are specified in Article 4 of the Law on Value-Added Tax 2008 and guided by Article 2 of Decree 209/2013/ND-CP as follows:

[1] value-added tax payers are organizations and individuals engaged in the production, trading of goods, and services subject to value-added tax (hereinafter referred to as business establishments) and organizations and individuals importing goods subject to value-added tax (hereinafter referred to as importers).

[2] Organizations and individuals in Vietnam purchasing services (including cases of purchasing services associated with goods) from foreign organizations without a permanent establishment in Vietnam, and non-resident individuals in Vietnam, shall be the tax payers, except for cases not required to declare, calculate, or pay value-added tax specified in section [3].

The provisions on permanent establishments and non-resident individuals abroad in this Clause shall comply with the law on corporate income tax and personal income tax.

[3] Cases not required to declare, calculate, or pay value-added tax:

+ Organizations and individuals receiving compensation, bonuses, support payments, emission right transfer funds, and other financial incomes.

+ Organizations and individuals in Vietnam purchasing services from foreign organizations without a permanent establishment in Vietnam, and non-resident individuals abroad, including cases such as: repairing means of transport, machinery, equipment (including materials, replacement parts); advertising, marketing; investment and trade promotion; brokerage of goods and services; training; sharing postal and international telecommunication service charges between Vietnam and abroad, where these services are performed outside of Vietnam.

+ Organizations and individuals not engaged in business, who are not value-added taxpayers, selling assets.

+ Organizations and individuals transferring investment projects for the production and trading of goods and services subject to value-added tax to enterprises, cooperatives.

+ Products from cultivation, husbandry, and aquaculture not yet processed into other products or only through preliminary processing sold to enterprises, cooperatives, except as stipulated in clause 1 Article 5 of the Law on Value-Added Tax 2008 (amended by clause 1 Article 1 of the Law on Value-Added Tax, Special Consumption Tax Law, and Law on Tax Administration amended 2016).

What entities are value-added taxpayers in Vietnam in 2025? (Image from the Internet)

What entities are value-added taxpayers in Vietnam from July 1, 2025?

From July 1, 2025, those required to pay value-added tax are defined in Article 4 of the Law on Value-Added Tax 2024 as follows:

[1] Organizations, households, individuals engaged in the production, trading of goods and services subject to value-added tax (hereinafter referred to as business establishments).

[2] Organizations and individuals importing goods subject to value-added tax (hereinafter referred to as importers).

[3] Organizations and individuals in Vietnam purchasing services (including cases of purchasing services associated with goods) from foreign organizations without a permanent establishment in Vietnam, and non-resident individuals abroad, except as specified in sections [6], [7];

[5] Organizations in Vietnam purchasing goods and services to conduct oil and gas exploration, development, and extraction activities from foreign organizations without a permanent establishment in Vietnam, and non-resident individuals abroad.

[6] Foreign suppliers without a permanent establishment in Vietnam engaged in e-commerce business and digital platform-based business with organizations and individuals in Vietnam (hereinafter referred to as foreign suppliers);

+ Organizations managing foreign digital platforms shall deduct and pay on behalf of foreign suppliers;

+ Business organizations in Vietnam applying the value-added tax deduction method purchasing services from foreign suppliers without a permanent establishment in Vietnam through e-commerce channels or digital platforms shall perform deductions, paying on behalf of foreign suppliers.

[7] Organizations managing e-commerce trading platforms and digital platforms with payment functions shall deduct, pay tax on behalf of, and declare deducted tax amounts for business households and individuals operating on these platforms.

Note: The Government of Vietnam provides regulations regarding tax payers in cases where foreign suppliers provide services to purchasing organizations in Vietnam applying the tax deduction method stipulated in section [6].