What is Corporate Income Tax in Vietnam?

What is Corporate Income Tax in Vietnam?

Currently, there is no legal document that specifically defines corporate income tax. However, based on Article 3 of the 2008 Corporate Income Tax Law, amended by Clause 1, Article 1 of the Law No. 71/2014/QH13 on Amendments to Tax Laws 2014,

it can be inferred that corporate income tax (CIT) is a direct tax imposed directly on the taxable income of enterprises. CIT includes the income of enterprises from production, business activities of goods and services, and other types of income as regulated by law.

What is Corporate Income Tax in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

Which expenses are deductible and non-deductible in determining taxable corporate income in Vietnam?

Based on Article 9 of the 2008 Corporate Income Tax Law (amended and supplemented by Clause 5, Article 1 of the 2013 Amended Corporate Income Tax Law; amending and repealing certain contents by the 2014 Amended Laws on Tax), the determination of taxable corporate income includes which expenses are deductible and non-deductible as follows:

- Except for the expenses stipulated in Clause 2, Article 9 of the 2008 Corporate Income Tax Law, enterprises may deduct all expenses in determining taxable income if they meet the following conditions:

+ Expenses actually incurred related to the production and business activities of the enterprise; expenses for vocational education activities; expenses for executing the defense and security tasks of the enterprise as regulated by law;

+ Expenses have sufficient invoices and documents as prescribed by law. For invoices of purchasing goods and services valued at twenty million dong or more for each time, non-cash payment documents are required, except for cases where non-cash payment documents are not required as stipulated by law.

- Non-deductible expenses in determining taxable income include:

+ Expenses that do not meet the conditions stipulated in Clause 1, Article 9 of the 2008 Corporate Income Tax Law, except for the loss value due to natural disasters, epidemics and other force majeure cases that are not compensated;

+ Fines imposed for administrative violations;

+ Expenses offset by other funding sources;

+ Management expenses allocated by foreign enterprises to their permanent establishments in Vietnam exceeding the ratio computed by the distribution method as prescribed by Vietnamese law;

+ Expenses exceeding the limits prescribed by law on setting up provisions;

+ Interest expenses on loans for production and business activities from entities that are not credit institutions or economic organizations exceeding 150% of the basic interest rate announced by the State Bank of Vietnam at the loan time;

+ Depreciation expenses for fixed assets that are not compliant with the law;

+ Provisions set aside for expenses that are not compliant with the law;

+ Salaries, wages of private enterprise owners; remuneration paid to enterprise founders who do not directly participate in the operation of production and business activities; salaries, wages, and other recordable expenses to pay employees but are not actually paid or have no invoices and documents as required by law;

+ Interest expenses on loans corresponding to the deficit in charter capital;

+ Deductible value-added tax already deducted, value-added tax paid under the deduction method, corporate income tax;

+ Sponsorships, except for sponsorships for education, healthcare, scientific research, disaster recovery, building great unity houses, houses of gratitude, houses for policy object groups as regulated by law, and sponsorships under State programs for localities in areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions;

+ Contributions to voluntary retirement funds or social security funds, voluntary retirement insurance for employees exceeding the prescribed limit according to the law;

+ Expenses for business activities: banking, insurance, lottery, securities, and certain special business activities as specified by the Minister of Finance.

What are cases of corporate income tax distribution in Vietnam?

Based on Article 17 of Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC regulating tax declaration, tax calculation, tax finalization, tax distribution, and corporate income tax payment as follows:

Tax declaration, tax calculation, tax finalization, tax distribution, and corporate income tax payment

1. Cases eligible for tax distribution:

a) Business activities of digitized lottery;

b) Real estate transfer activities;

c) Dependent units, business locations as production establishments;

d) Hydropower plants located in multiple provinces.

2. distribution method:

a) distribution of corporate income tax payable for digitized lottery business:

The corporate income tax payable to each province where the digitized lottery business operates is equal to (=) the corporate income tax payable for the digitized lottery business multiplied (x) by the percentage (%) of the actual ticket sales revenue from the digitized lottery business in each province over the total actual ticket sales revenue of the taxpayer.

The actual ticket sales revenue from the digitized lottery business is determined according to the provisions at point a, clause 2, Article 13 of this Circular.

...

Thus, according to the above regulations, the cases eligible for corporate income tax distribution include:

- Digitized lottery business activities.

- Real estate transfer activities.

- Dependent units, business locations as production establishments.

- Hydroelectric plants located in multiple provinces.