Concerns Remain Over Taxation of Foreign E-commerce Companies

June 2019

The amended Law on Tax Management has recently been passed by the National Assembly in an effort to improve taxation on ecommerce activities. The law will enter into force on July 1st 2020 involving several changes. Under the new rule, The Ministry of Industry  and Trade will need to collaborate with the Ministry of Finance to provide data and relevant information on e-commerce organizations and individuals.

Furthermore, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is required to create a nationwide e-payment for e-commerce platforms while reinforcing its supervision over electronic cross-border trade. The implementation of the new law necessitates close collaboration between tax agencies, ministries, and banks – the latter will also be required to change their data management policies in order to provide required information for tax agencies.

Concerns for foreign firms include complicated procedures for tax payment that drive buyers to seek other sources of supply, which at times are illegal. Another problem for foreign businesses is that they are not allowed to receive payments from Vietnamese individual buyers directly. For this reason, Vietnam has signed numerous multilateral trade agreements to simplify tax procedures for the e-commerce sector.

(Source: Vietnam News)

 

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