Decree No. 139/2016/ND-CP dated October 04, 2016 of the Government on regulation on licensing fees

DECREE

Prescribing the business license fee[1]

Pursuant to the June 19, 2015 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the November 25, 2015 Law on Charges and Fees;

At the proposal of the Minister of Finance;

The Government promulgates the Decree prescribing the business license fee.

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Decree prescribes payers of, exemption from, and rates and declaration and payment of, the business license fee.

Article 2. Business license fee payers

Business license fee payers are organizations and individuals engaged in goods production and service provision activities, except the cases specified in Article 3 of this Decree, including:

1. Enterprises established in accordance with law.

2. Organizations established in accordance with the Law on Cooperatives.

3. Non-business units established in accordance with law.

4. Economic organizations of political organizations, social-political organizations, social organizations, socio-professional organizations and people’s armed forces units.

5. Other organizations engaged in production and business activities.

6. Branches, representative offices and business locations of the organizations specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article (if any).

7. Individuals, groups of individuals and households engaged in production and business activities.

Article 3. Exemption from the business license fee

Eligible for exemption from the business license fee are:

1. Individuals, groups of individuals and households engaged in production and business activities that have an annual turnover not exceeding VND 100 million.

2. Individuals, groups of individuals and households that irregularly carry out production and business activities or have no permanent business locations under the guidance of the Ministry of Finance.

3. Individuals, groups of individuals and households engaged in salt-making.

4. Organizations, individuals, groups of individuals and households engaged in aquaculture, fishing or fishing logistics services.

5. Communal postal-cultural points; press agencies (printed newspapers, radios, televisions and online newspapers).

6. Branches, representative offices and business locations of cooperatives providing technical services directly for agricultural production.

7. Communal people’s credit funds; cooperatives specialized in providing services for agricultural production; branches, representative offices and business locations of cooperatives and private enterprises operating in mountainous areas. Mountainous areas shall be identified according to regulations of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs.

Article 4. Business license fee rates

1. Business license fee rates for organizations engaged in goods production and service provision activities are specified as follows:

a/ VND 3,000,000 per year, for organizations having the charter capital or investment capital of over VND 10 billion;

b/ VND 2,000,000 per year, for organizations having the charter capital or investment capital not exceeding VND 10 billion;

c/ VND 1,000,000 per year, for branches, representative offices, business locations, non-business units, and other economic organizations.

Business license fee rates for organizations specified at Points a and b of this Clause shall be determined based on the charter capital stated in their business registration certificates. If these organizations have no charter capital, business license fee rates shall be determined based on the investment capital stated in their investment registration certificates.

2. Business license fee rates for individuals and households engaged in goods production and service provision activities are specified as follows:

a/ VND 1,000,000 per year for individuals, groups of individuals and households having an annual turnover of over VND 500 million;

b/ VND 500,000 per year for individuals, groups of individuals and households having an annual turnover of between over VND 300 million and VND 500 million;

c/ VND 300,000 per year, for individuals, groups of individuals and households having an annual turnover of between over VND 100 million and VND 300 million.

3. Organizations, individuals, groups of individuals and households engaged in production and business activities or just established and being granted tax registration certificates and tax identification numbers or enterprise identification numbers during the first half of a year shall pay the business license fee rate for the whole year; if they are established and granted tax registration certificates and tax identification numbers or enterprise identification numbers during the second half of a year, they shall pay 50% of the business license fee rate for the whole year.

Organizations, individuals, groups of individuals and households engaged in production and business activities that fail to make business license fee declaration shall pay the business license fee rate for the whole year, regardless of whether their failure is detected in the first half or second half of the year.

4. If organizations specified at Points a and b, Clause 1 of this Article change their charter capital or investment capital, the charter capital or investment capital of the year preceding the year of business license fee calculation shall be used to determine their business license fee rates.

In case the charter capital or investment capital is stated in a business registration certificate or an investment registration certificate in a foreign currency, it shall be converted into Vietnam dong for use as a ground for determining the business license fee rate at the buying rate applied by the commercial bank or credit institution where the fee payer’s account is opened at the time of paying the fee into the state budget.

5. If individuals, groups of individuals and households specified in Clause 2 of this Article change their turnover, the turnover of the year preceding the year of business license fee calculation shall be used to determine their business license fee rates.

Article 5. Declaration and payment of business license fee

1. Declaration of the business license fee is prescribed as follows:

a/ One-off declaration of the business license fee shall be made not later than the last day of the month in which fee payers commence business activities;

b/ Fee payers that have just founded their business establishments but not yet conducted production and business activities shall make business license fee declaration within 30 days after being granted the business registration certificate or investment registration certificate and tax registration certificate.

2. Business license fee declaration dossier is a business license fee return made according to a form in the Appendix to this Decree.

3. Business license fee payers shall submit business license fee declaration dossiers to their managing tax offices.

a/ In case a fee payer has its/his/her subsidiary units (branches, representative offices or business locations) that operate in the same provincial-level locality where the fee payer is headquartered, it/he/she shall submit business license fee declaration dossiers of such subsidiary units to its/his/her managing tax office;

b/ In case a fee payer has its/his/her subsidiary units (branches, representative offices or business locations) that operate in provincial-level localities other than where the fee payer is headquartered, such subsidiary units shall submit business license fee declaration dossiers to their managing tax offices.

4. The deadline for payment of the business license fee is January 30 every year. In case a fee payer has just commenced production and business activities or has just found a production and business establishment, the deadline for payment of the business license fee is the last day of the time limit for fee declaration dossier submission.

5. All collected business license fee amounts shall be remitted into the state budget in accordance with law.

Article 6. Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on January 1, 2017.

2. In case business license fee payers carrying out business activities declare and pay the business license tax before January 1, 2017, they are not required to submit business license fee declaration dossiers for the subsequent years if there is no change in the elements serving as grounds for determining payable business license fee rates.

Based on capital amount or turnover and business license fee rates, tax offices shall formulate business license fee brackets, notify payable business license fee rates to organizations, individuals, groups of individuals and households, and manage the business license fee collection in accordance with this Decree.

3. From the effective date of this Decree, the Government’s Decree No. 75/2002/ND-CP of August 30, 2002, adjusting business license tax rates, and Article 18 of the Government’s Decree No. 83/2013/ND-CP of July 22, 2013, detailing a number of articles of the Law on Tax Administration and the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Tax Administration, cease to be effective.

Article 7. Implementation responsibility

1. The Ministry of Finance shall guide the implementation of Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Decree.

2. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees and subjects of application of this Decree shall implement this Decree.-

On behalf of the Government
Prime Minister
NGUYEN XUAN PHUC

* The Appendix to this Decree is not translated.