On October 30, 2022, the Government issued Decree 91/2022/ND-CP amending and supplementing several articles of the Government’s Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 (“Decree 126”) stipulating detailing several articles of the tax administration law (“Decree 91“). Decree 91 aims to solve some outstanding problems in the field of tax administration, by adding many new regulations, facilitating tax declarations, as well as ensuring the interests of taxpayers.

1. General issues:

Compared with the previous regulations, Decree 91 has added an end-of-time limit for the submission of tax declaration dossiers and the time limit for tax payment: Time limits for submission of tax declaration filings, time limits for tax authorities to process applications, effective periods of decisions on enforcing the implementation of tax decisions shall comply with regulations of the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14 and this Decree. In case the expiration date of any of these time limits falls on a statutory day off, the expiration date will be the working day succeeding the day off.

Decree 91 also stipulates that tax return files are not required when the personal income tax (“PIT”) declarant is an organization or individual paying income in the case of monthly or quarterly PIT declaration but in that month or quarter, there is no withholding of PIT of the recipient.

In addition, in case of individuals who receive dividends in the form of securities, those who are existing shareholders that are receiving bonuses in the form of securities recorded in securities accounts of the investors until December 31, 2022, and have not had their tax declared and paid on their behalf by securities companies or commercial banks where their depository accounts are opened, fund management companies where their investment portfolios are managed, or securities-issuing organizations shall declare and pay PIT themselves in accordance with PIT laws, and be exempted from incurring administrative penalties for late submission of tax declaration dossiers and the imposition of late payment interest

2. Important things businesses need to notice:

(a) Corporate income tax (“CIT”) that is temporarily paid quarterly and makes an annual finalization declaration when temporarily paid for four quarters, must not be less than 80% of the payable CIT amount according to the annual finalization. Late payment interest is calculated on the underpaid tax amount from the day following the last day of the time limit for the temporary payment of CIT of the 4th quarter to the day immediately preceding the date of payment of the outstanding tax amount into the State Budget. According to experts, compared with previous regulations, enterprises must temporarily pay CIT quarterly, and the total CIT temporarily paid in 3rd quarters must not be less than 75% of the payable tax amount according to the annual finalization. With the above adjustment, enterprises will not have to complete the temporary tax payment for the whole year from the 3rd quarter, before the end of the calendar year, or the fiscal year for two months. It creates resources for enterprises in the year-end period to deploy their production and business activities.

(b) Total post-tax profit that remains after making contribution funds of wholly state-owned enterprises for 4 quarters must be at least 80% of that under the annual finalization dossier. As a result, the estimate of the payable tax amount will be closer to business reality, and not detrimental to enterprises. In case taxpayers pay less than the amount that must be temporarily paid for 4 quarters, they must pay late payment interest calculated on the underpaid amount from the day following the last day of the time limit for temporarily paying the remaining after-tax profit after making deductions of funds from the 4th quarter to the day immediately preceding the date of payment of the remaining after-tax profits after appropriating the deficit funds into the State Budget.

(c) Amend the regulations on the location of submission of environmental protection tax declaration dossiers for coal which has been mined and consumed domestically. Accordingly, enterprises that exploit and consume domestic coal through the form of management and assign it to subsidiaries or dependent units to exploit, process, and consume, the consume unit shall perform the following:

• Shall declare tax for the entire amount of environmental protection tax incurred for taxable mining coal and submit a tax declaration dossier to the tax authority directly managing it, enclosed with a table determining the payable tax amount. for each locality where a coal mining company is headquartered according to the regulations of the Minister of Finance.

(d) The owner of e-commerce platforms must declare to the tax agency the information of the seller. Organizations that are established and operating under Vietnam’s law and own e-commerce platforms shall provide tax authorities with full, accurate, and timely information about traders, organizations, and individuals whose goods or services are entirely or partially traded on their e-commerce platforms, including:

• Seller’s name;
• Tax code or personal identification number or identity card, or citizen identification or passport, address, contact phone number;
• Sales revenue through e-commerce platforms.

Information shall be provided electronically every quarter by the last day of the first month of the succeeding quarter via the web portal of the General Department of Taxation. Thus, e-commerce platforms do not have to pay tax on behalf of the seller. They only have the responsibility for providing information to the competent authorities

3. Impact of Decree 91:

Decree 91  solves the outstanding problems of Decree 126 with the issuance of these regulations, businesses can more easily fulfill their tax obligations, help remove tax problems for businesses, and create conditions for businesses to have more resources for business recovery.