On November 15, 2021, Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance issued Circular 100/2021/TT-BTC (Circular 100) which amended certain articles under Circular 40.

A significant element of Circulars 40 and 100 surrounds the issue of whether e-commerce platforms should declare and submit taxes from online transactions on behalf of businesses and individuals. Further, Circular 40 has set the threshold for the annual taxable revenue for households and individuals.   

What are the provisions under Circular 40?

Annual taxable revenue

Business households and business individuals with annual revenue of VND 100 million (US$4,364) or less will not be subject to PIT or VAT.

E-commerce players now subject to taxation

Individuals earning an income from e-commerce activities or those that provide digital products or services, and individuals having an income from the transfer of Vietnamese domains of ‘.vn’, are now subject to taxation.

Taxation calculation method

Under Circular 40, there are three methods of conducting the calculation and declaration of taxes for individuals; the periodic declaration method; the separate (ad-hoc) method; and the presumptive method.

The periodic declaration method is now applicable to:

• Large-scale businesses; and
• Businesses that are not considered large-scale but choose to pay tax under the declaration method.

The criteria for large-scale businesses are those that have 10 or more employees and revenue of VND 3 billion (US$131,160) or more if they are in the agriculture sector, and VND 10 billion (US$437,000) or more if they operate in commerce or services.

Organizations responsible for declaring and paying taxes on behalf of individuals

Circular 40 provides that certain income paying organizations must declare and pay tax on behalf of businesses and households and individuals in the following cases:

• Organizations entering business cooperation with individuals;
• Organizations that pay bonuses, trade discounts, sales promotions, or other discounts to business households applying the presumptive taxation method; and
• Organizations that are partners of overseas digital platforms that do not have a permanent establishment in Vietnam.

What are the amendments under Circular 100?

Under Circular 100, e-commerce organizations are not required to declare and pay taxes on behalf of individual sellers without authorization.  

Also, individuals who engage in property leasing with annual rental revenue of VND 100 million (US$4,364) or less are also not subject to PIT or VAT.

SOURCE: ASEAN Briefing