During suspension of business operations in Vietnam, do I have to file a tax declaration dossier in Vietnam?

During suspension of business operations in Vietnam, do I have to file a tax declaration dossier in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 4 of Decree 126/2020/ND-CP stipulates as follows:

2. During business suspension:

a) The taxpayer is not required to submit tax declaration dossiers, unless the suspension begins in the middle of a monthly/quarterly/annual tax period, in which case the tax declaration dossier of that month/quarter/year must be submitted.

b) For household businesses and individual businesses paying presumptive tax, tax authorities shall decide the tax payable upon their suspension in accordance with regulations of the Minister of Finance.

c) The taxpayer must not use invoices and are not required to submit invoice use reports. In case the taxpayer is permitted by the tax authority to use invoices in accordance with invoice laws, the taxpayer shall submit the tax declaration dossier and invoice use reports as per regulations.

d) The taxpayer shall implement the tax authority’s decisions and notices of debt collection, enforcement of tax decisions, inspection of compliance to tax laws and administrative penalties for tax offences in accordance with the Law on Tax administration.

According to Point d, Clause 3, Article 7, Decree 126/2020/ND-CP stipulates:

d) The taxpayer’s business suspension is suspended as prescribed in Article 4 of this Decree.

Thus, if your business is not in the case of taxpayers suspending operations or not doing business for an entire month, quarter, calendar year or fiscal year, you do not have to submit a tax declaration in Vietnam.

During suspension of business operations in Vietnam, do I have to file a tax declaration dossier in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

Do taxpayers who resume business before the registered deadline have to notify the tax authority in Vietnam?

In Clause 3, Article 4, Decree 126/2020/ND-CP stipulates that during the time the taxpayer suspends operations and business:

3. If the taxpayer is not required to send a notice of business resumption to the tax authority to which the business suspension notice is submitted if business operation is resumed as planned.

If the taxpayer shall send a notice of business resumption to the tax authority to which the business suspension notice is submitted, implement tax laws, submit tax documents and invoice use reports if business operation is resumed ahead of schedule.

In the cases specified in Point c Clause 1 of this Article, the notice shall be sent to the supervisory tax authority at least 01 working day before the resumption date.

According to this Article, businesses that return business tax before the registered deadline must notify the tax authority and comply with tax regulations in Vietnam, submit tax declaration documents, and submit reports on invoice usage. 

When suspending business, do I have to pay license fees in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Point c, Clause 2, Article 1 of Decree 22/2020/ND-CP stipulates:

5. An operating payer of the license fee that has notified its supervisory tax authority in writing of its suspension of production/business in a calendar year must not pay the license fee for that year of production/business suspension if it has sent a written notification of production/business suspension to its supervisory tax authority before the prescribed deadline for paying the license fee (January 30 annually) and has made no payment of the license fee for the planned year of suspension.

It must pay the license fee for the whole year if it does not meet the abovementioned conditions for production/business suspension.

According to the above regulations in Vietnam, if an enterprise has carried out the procedure for notification of suspension of operations before January 30 of each year and has not paid the license fee for the year requesting suspension of production and business activities, it will not have to pay license tax for that suspended year.

Best regards!