On January 01, 2020, Decree No. 100/2019/ND-CP of Vietnam’s Government officially came into effect. According to this Decree, the penalties for failure to register new vehicle owner have been significantly increased. In order to assist Customers and Members in understanding the procedures for registering the transfer of ownership when purchasing a used motorcycle to avoid penalties, LawNet is pleased to introduce the latest procedures for registering the transfer of ownership of used motorcycles in 2020 in the following article.
Article table of contents
1. Documents and procedures for registering the transfer of ownership of a used motorcycle
Case 1: Registration of vehicle title transfer within a province and centrally-affiliated city
According to Article 11 of Circular No. 15/2014/TT-BCA of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, any organization or individual who is a receiver or transferee of the vehicle must show their legal documents as stipulated in Article 9 of this Circular and submit the followings:
- A declaration of vehicle registration (the form 02 attached to this Circular).
- A certificate of vehicle registration.
- A documentation of vehicle ownership transfer.
- A documentation of payment for vehicle registration tax.
Documents of the legal owner being Vietnamese include:
- Identity Card. Where the identity has not been issued yet or the permanent residence in the Identity Card is not identical to the vehicle registration declaration, family record book must be shown instead.
- Letter of recommendation from head of agencies and units where they are working, attached to the Identity Card of the People’s Police; the Identity Card of the People’s Military (in compliance with the legal regulations of the Ministry of National Defence).
Where there is none of the aforementioned to be shown, the confirmation letter from the head of agencies and units must be submitted.
- With respect to Learner’s and student’s card of those who are attending the continuous full-time training at vocational schools, colleges, universities and institutes for a period of more than 2 years, the recommendation letter is required.
Notably, in terms of the registration of vehicle title transfer, the previous license plate (except for 3-digit or 4-digit ones that are required to change into 5-digit license plate under statutory regulations) shall be kept unchanged, and the certificate of vehicle registration shall be issued to the new legal owner.
- Authority to register the transfer of ownership of vehicles: According to Clause 3 Article 3 of Circular No. 15/2014/TT-BCA, this authority is of the Police of a district, town and provincial municipality (hereinafter referred to as the Police of a district).
Case 2: Title transfer and vehicle relocation in a different province, centrally-affiliated city
There are 02 stages:
* Stage 1: Title transfer and vehicle relocation in a different province, centrally-affiliated city
Any organization or individual who is a buyer, a receiver or a transferee of the vehicle shall complete their procedures at the competent registries specified in the certificate of vehicle registration. They do not need to take their vehicle there for inspection but must show the legal documents as stipulated in Article 9 of this Circular, as well as submit following documents:
- Two declarations of title transfer and vehicle relocation (the form 04 attached to this Circular).
- A certificate of license plate and vehicle registration.
- A documentation of vehicle ownership transfer as stipulated at Clause 1, Article 10 of this Circular.
Where the legal owner and his/her vehicle are completely transferred and relocated in other provinces and centrally-affiliated cities (hereinafter referred to as the province), a permit of his/her work transfer or his/her Family record book must be used as a substitute for the documentation of vehicle ownership transfer.
* Stage 2: Vehicle registration from different provinces
According to Article 13 of Circular No. 15/2014/TT-BCA, the legal owner must show relevant documents as stipulated in Article 9 of this Circular as well as submit the followings:
- A declaration of vehicle registration-.
- A documentation of payment for vehicle registration tax-.
- A declaration of title transfer and vehicle relocation (the form 04 attached to this Circular) and an attached slip of title transfer and vehicle relocation together with a documentation of vehicle ownership transfer.
- An original vehicle documentation in accordance with legal regulations.
Authority to register the transfer of ownership of vehicles: According to Clause 3 Article 3 of Circular No. 15/2014/TT-BCA, this authority is of the Police of a district, town and provincial municipality (hereinafter referred to as the Police of a district).
2. Fees and charges for transferring the ownership of a used motorcycle
- Registration charge:
According to Article 4 of Circular No. 301/2016/TT-BTC and Clause 3 Article 1 of Circular No. 20/2019/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, the registration transfer fee for motorcycles is 1% of the vehicle's value. To be specific:
Article 4. Rate of registration charge (%)
…
4. The rate of 2% applies to motorcycles. Except:
a) Motorcycles registered under organizations or individuals in centrally-affiliated cities, in provincial cities or in towns where the provincial People's Committee is based, to which the initial registration rate of 5% applies.
The rate in central-affiliated cities, provincial cities or towns where the provincial People’s Committee is based shall be determined by governmental administrative division upon the declaration of the registration charge. A central-affiliated city comprises all urban, suburban and rural districts of the city. A provincial city or town where the provincial People’s Committee is based comprises all urban and suburban wards and communes in the city or town.
b) Motorcycles on which the registration charge is levied from the 2nd time forth (i.e. since their owners previously declared and paid the registration charge on such motorcycles in Vietnam, the subsequent declaration and payment of the registration charge is considered the second time onwards), to which the rate of 1% applies.
The rate of 5% applies to the motorcycles on which the previous owners declared and paid the registration charge at the rate of 2% before transferring such motorcycles to another organization or individual in an administrative division defined in Point a of this Section. The rate of 1% applies to subsequent transfers of the motorcycles for which the registration charge was paid at the rate of 5%.
The owner of a motorcycle for which the registration charge is declared for the 2nd time forth, when declaring the registration charge, has to present to the relevant tax authority the motorcycle registration card or the vehicle registration dossier recollected from the police division granting registration. The administrative division where the registration charge was declared previously is determined according to the “permanent address”, “permanent resident address" or “address” shown in the motorcycle registration card or the written declaration for vehicle registration or title transfer from the vehicle registration dossier and according to the relevant governmental administrative division upon the declaration of the registration charge.
The following examples illustrate the rate of registration charge upon the declaration of the registration charge from the 2nd time forth (in these situations, the administrative division A is in a central-affiliated city, provincial city or town where the provincial People’s Committee is based while the administrative division B refers to other divisions):
+ Situation 1: The rate of 1% applies to the subsequent declaration and payment of the registration charge, in the administrative division A, on a motorcycle for which the registration charge was previously declared and paid in the administrative division A.
+ Situation 2: The rate of 1% applies to the subsequent declaration and payment of the registration charge, in the administrative division B, on a motorcycle for which the registration charge was previously declared and paid in the administrative division A.
+ Situation 3: The rate of 5% applies to the subsequent declaration and payment of the registration charge, in the administrative division A, on a motorcycle for which the registration charge was previously declared and paid in the administrative division B.
+ Situation 4: The rate of 1% applies to the subsequent declaration and payment of the registration charge, in the administrative division B, on a motorcycle for which the registration charge was previously declared and paid in the administrative division B.
+ Situation 5: The rate of 5% applies to the subsequent declaration and payment of the registration charge, in the administrative division A, on a motorcycle for which the registration charge was declared and paid initially and successively in the administrative division B.
+ Situation 6: The rate of 1% applies to the subsequent declaration and payment of the registration charge, in the administrative division A, on a motorcycle for which the registration charge had been declared and paid initially in the administrative division A or the administrative division B before being declared and paid successively in the administrative division A.
Notably, organizations or individuals who receive the transfer of ownership of vehicles (cars or motorcycles) that were previously established as state-owned property (seized assets) according to the provisions of the law, when registering ownership rights, are required to pay the registration transfer fee for the second and subsequent times.
Organizations or individuals who receive the transfer of ownership of vehicles (cars or motorcycles) that were previously established as state-owned property (seized assets) according to the provisions of the law, but the vehicles do not have any previous ownership registration or there is no basis to determine if they were previously registered, are required to pay the initial registration transfer fee when registering ownership rights for the vehicles.
- Fee for issuance of license plate
According to Article 5 of Circular No. 229/2016/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, fees for granting of new registration and license plate, renewal of registration and license plate and reissuance of license plate are specified as follows:
Article 5. Rate of charge
1. The rate of charges for registration and license plate of the vehicles is defined below:
Unit: VND/time/vehicle
Note: For passenger automobiles with 9 seats or less or motorcycles transferred to a zone imposing higher charges than those of the previous zone (whether the owner is changed), the organizations and individuals shall pay the charge for new registration as defined in Point 2 (for automobiles) or Point 4 (for motorcycles), Section I of the schedule in Section 1 of this Article, except for the circumstance where the rate of charges on an individual's automobile or motorcycle registered and plated in a zone whose mandatory charges are lower than the zone to which the vehicle is relocated due to job relocation or change of permanent address shall be equal to that for revision of registration and license plate according to Section II of the schedule in Section 1 of this Article provided that the vehicle owner does not change and the formalities defined by police authorities are fulfilled upon registration.
Nguyen Trinh
