Tax & Accounting - Recent updates and the way forward

Published on 9/16/2021 - Issue Q3/2021

To support businesses, individuals and business households facing difficulties due to being severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government allows the payment deferral of Corporate Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Personal Income Tax and land rental.

e-commerce activities

In early 2021, though, the Government also issued the Decree detailing the new Tax Administration Law, of which the highlight is the taxation of e-commerce activities. The new tax decree has introduced new regulations on the obligation to declare, withhold and pay tax on income earned from e-commerce activities for e-commerce suppliers, buyers, platform providers and local intermediaries. This Decree also officially regulates the collection of tax from C2C e-commerce activities.

Electronic tax transactions

Tax authorities continue to promote the reform of electronic tax transactions in 2021. Various online procedures have been introduced, including requests for a certificate of tax payment, validation of tax account information, tax credits, tax offsets, late payment penalties, deferral of tax payments etc.

Previously, only a few procedures were available online (e.g. tax registration and tax filing). For the remaining months of the year 2021, tax authorities will continue to provide detailed instructions to implement new tax policies.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

Year 2021 is also the last readiness preparation year in the roadmap to apply the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") in Vietnam which is targeted to be fully applied in 2025. From next year, the IFRS pilot implementation will be applied on voluntary basis for the consolidated financial statements of state-owned enterprises, listed companies or large-scale unlisted public companies and the separate financial statement of FDIs.