Legal Document Updates in English (31/2011)

REDUCE 30% ENTERPRISE INCOME TAX IN 2011, EXEMPT FROM
PERSONAL INCOME TAX TO THE END 2012
 

On August 06, 2011, the National Assembly course XIII approved the Resolution No. 08/2011/QH13 formally supplementing some of solutions of tax in order to untie difficulties for enterprises and individuals.

In particular, the National Assembly has agreed with the Government’s proposal to reduce 30% enterprise income tax amounts must pay in 2011 with respect to: Small and medium Enterprises Enterprises use many labors in manufacture, processing, agricultural product, forest product, sea product, textiles and garments, leather and shoes, electronic components, construction of social economical infrastructure works.

Tax reduction is not applied to tax calculated on income from business in lottery, real estate, securities, finance, bank, insurance and income from manufacture goods, services belong to special consume tax and exclude enterprises sorted rank 1, special rank under corporations, enterprises of companies organized according to model parent company - subsidiary company which parent companies are not Small and medium Enterprises hold over 50% owner capital of subsidiary company.

Reduce 50% presumptive tax amounts of value-added tax, personal income tax and enterprise income tax from quarter III of 2011 until the end of 2011 with respect to

individuals, households business guest-house, room for lease with workers, employees, students, pupils; households, individuals keep children; households, individuals, organizations supplying shift meals for workers with condition that these households, individuals, organizations keep stable the price of leasing  guest-house, room, price of keeping children and price of supplying shift meals like the end of 2010.

As to personal income tax, exemption personal income tax from August 01, 2011 until the end of December 31, 2012 for Dividend for individuals from activities invest in securities market, Capital contribution to buy shares of enterprises excluded Dividends of joint-stock banks, finance investment funds, credit organizations.

MAXIMUM CAR REGISTRATION FEE IS FORMALLY INCREASED TO 20%
 

Government issued the Decree No. 45/2011/ND-CP dated June 17, 2011 on registration fee and maximum car registration fee is formally increased to 20%.

Particularly: Passenger cars of under 10 seats (including driver): between 10% and 20%. Based on the registration fee level in this Clause, provincial-level People’s Councils shall set registration fee levels for passenger cars of under 10 seats (including driver) suitable to local realities.

Registration fee rates applied to other cases are remained as previous regulations: land and houses: 0.5%, hunting rifles and sports guns: 2%, ships, badges, motor boats, tug ships, push ships, boats, yachts, aircraft: 1%, motorcycles: 2%, automobiles, trailers or semi-trailers pulled by automobiles: 2%. The maximum registration fee level for each item of property specified in this Article is VND 500 million, except for passenger cars of under 10 seats (including driver), aircraft and yachts.

Registration fee calculation prices are prices issued by provincial-level People’s Committees instead of many ways in calculating registration fee as previous regulations; this will be helpful for managing agencies in defining registration fee.

As according to this Decree, aircraft is also added to objects subject to registration fee, registration fee rates for aircraft is 1%, therefore, list of objects subject to registration fee applied from September 01, 2011 will include 8 objects.

BUSINESSES THEMSELVES PROVIDE SPECIAL ALLOWANCES
NOT BE LOWER THAN VND 250,000 PER EMPLOYEE
 

On June 23, 2011, the Ministry of Finance issued the Circular No. 92/2011/TT-BTC guiding the provision of special allowances for business employees under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 471/QD-TTg of March 30, 2011.

Beneficiaries of special allowances under this Circular are employees who are named on businesses’ payrolls by March 30, 2011, and have a monthly income of VND 2.2 million or less (exclusive of bonuses paid from businesses’ after-tax profits, allowances for mid-shift meals, hazardous and dangerous jobs or extremely hazardous and dangerous jobs).

Businesses shall base themselves on their lawful financial funds and capacity to decide on specific levels of special allowances for their employees, which must not be lower than VND 250,000 per employee. Allowance amounts shall be excluded from employees’ salary amounts used to calculate social, health and unemployment insurance premiums and trade union dues.

Based on the number of employees eligible for special allowances, each business shall make a list of allowance beneficiaries and determine the total payable allowance amount.

A business with insufficient lawful financial funds or without lawful financial funds as mentioned above to pay special allowances to employees at the decided levels may account the deficit amount, for which no funding sources are available, as its production and business cost. When determining its taxable income, the business may account this amount as reasonable expense at a level not exceeding VND 250,000 per employee.

EXPORT DUTY EXEMPTION FOR AGARWOOD DO BAU TREES
 

The Ministry of Finance issued the Circular No. 90/2011/TT-BTC guiding the export duty exemption for agarwood produced from or made of planted Do bau (Aquilaria crassna Pierre ex Lecomte) trees.

Accordingly, Upon carrying out customs procedures for exporting agarwood produced from or made of planted Do bau trees, a customs declarant shall submit or produce to the customs office a customs dossier comprising: a customs declaration; the goods purchase and sale contract; the goods purchase and sale contract; a CITES; the goods export entrustment contract, a list of documents of the dossier.

Duty payers shall calculate and declare the exempted duty amount for each customs declaration like in case of duty payment. Based on duty exemption dossiers, duty amounts requested to be exempted and current regulations, customs offices shall carry out procedures for duty exemption for each customs declaration under regulations.

In case customs offices determine, through inspection, that export goods are ineligible for duty exemption as declared, they shall assess duties and handle violations (if any) under regulations.

03 TYPES OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS GOODS NEED IMPORT LICENSES
 

On June 07, 2011, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued the Circular No. 14/2011/TT-BTTTT regarding goods subject to specialized management by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Accordingly, the Circular regulates 03 types of goods need import licenses including postage stamps, stamp publications and postage stamp items; radio transmitters and radio transmitter-receivers with a frequency band of between 9 KHz and 400 GHz and a capacity of 60 mW or more; radar apparatuses, radio aid apparatuses and radio remote-control apparatuses.

Postage stamp import licenses are valid once within one year from the date of signing and may not be extended. Radio transmitter and radio receiver-transmitter import licenses may be used once or more than once for the import of goods lots indicated in the licenses and are valid until such goods lots are completely cleared

from customs procedures with a quantity. Radio transmitter and radio receiver-transmitter import licenses may not substitute telecommunications network-establishing licenses or radio frequency use licenses.

Applicants for postage stamp import licenses shall directly submit or send by post dossiers to the Ministry of Information and Communications and take responsibility for the accuracy and truthfulness of the dossiers;

Other goods subject to specialized management by the Ministry of Information and Communications neither banned from import may be imported without Ministry of Information and Communications licenses but must comply with current regulations on regulation conformity certification and announcement.

LICENSE FOR REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES OF FOREIGN PUBLISHERS WITHIN 30 DAYS
 

On June 06, 2011, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued the Circular No. 13/2011/TT-BTTTT on Vietnam-based representative offices of foreign publishers and publication distributors.

Accordingly, A dossier of application for a license to establish a representative office (license) shall be made in one set in Vietnamese and English (in case of any inconsistency between a Vietnamese document and its English version, the Vietnam document prevails) and submitted directly, by post or delivery service to the Authority of Publication.

A dossier comprises an application for a license; certified copy or a copy of the contract for lease of the working office of the representative office or equivalent paper; a certified copy or a copy of the judicial record of the head of the representative office, issued by a competent Vietnamese agency.

Within 30 (thirty) days after receiving a complete dossier as required in Clause 1 of this Article, the Authority of Publication shall propose the Minister of Information and Communications to grant a license. The time for dossier supplementation is not

included in the licensing time limit. A license is valid for 5 (five) years after its signing and may be renewed with each renewal not exceeding 5 (five) years.

Within 30 (thirty) days after receiving a license from the Ministry of Information and Communications, the representative office shall send a notice to the provincial-level Information and Communications Department of the locality in which it will be located and make an announcement on a printed or an online newspaper lawfully operating in Vietnam (on 3 consecutive issues or for 3 consecutive days). A notice or announcement contains: name, address, telephone number and website; name, address and telephone number of the representative office and other details (if any); full name and nationality of the representative office head; serial number, date of issue and validity duration of the license and licensing agency; operations of the representative office as stated in the license; ate of commencement of operation.