Conditions for establishing a tax agency company in Vietnam

Tax is a mandatory contribution for individuals and legal entities to the State with different levels and time limits. However, current tax regulations are quite complicated, leading to businesses and individuals hiring tax services. Therefore, many organizations today tend to establish tax agency companies to provide tax services to businesses and individuals. Viet An Law would like to send you the following article summarizing the legal regulations on conditions for establishing a tax agency company in Vietnam to help you gain accurate knowledge about this issue.

Legal basis

• Vietnam’s schedule of service commitments in the WTO;
• Law on Investment 2020;
• Law on Enterprise 2020;
• Law on Tax Administration 2019;
• Circular 10/2021/TT-BTC guiding the management of tax procedure service practice.

General overview of tax agents in Vietnam

What is the tax agent?

• A tax agent, also known as a tax procedure service business company, is an enterprise established and operating in accordance with the law on enterprises, performing services as agreed upon with taxpayers.
• Tax agents are businesses that provide conditional services.

What services do tax agents provide?

• Procedures for tax registration, tax declaration, tax payment, tax finalization, preparation of documents requesting tax exemption, tax reduction, tax refund, and other tax procedures on behalf of taxpayers;
• Tax consulting services;
• Accounting services for micro-businesses such as:
• Working as an accountant, chief accountant;
• Set up accounting system;
• Fostering and updating accounting knowledge and skills;
• Corporate financial consulting;
• Other accounting services.

Market access conditions for foreign investors in tax agents

Vietnam has committed in the Schedule of Specific Commitments on Services in the WTO with the code CPC 863 (Tax Services). As follows:

• Regarding the method of providing services across borders and consuming abroad, Vietnam has no restrictions on tax services.
• Regarding the method of commercial presence, Vietnam imposes two restrictions for 1 year from the date of accession, specifically:
• Within 1 year from the date of accession, licensing will be carried out on a case-by-case basis and the number of service providers will be decided by the Ministry of Finance depending on the needs and development situation of the Vietnamese market;
• Within 1 year from the date of accession, foreign-invested tax service providers are only allowed to provide services to foreign-invested enterprises and foreign-funded projects in Vietnam.

Therefore, currently, foreign investors are equal in terms of market access with domestic Vietnamese investors. According to the Investment Law 2020, tax procedure service is a conditional business line, so it must meet the conditions prescribed by Vietnamese law.

Conditions for establishing a tax agency business company in Vietnam

Personnel conditions and practice certificates

Tax agent staff need to meet the following conditions:

There are at least 02 people who are certified to practice tax procedure services and work full-time at the enterprise. In particular, conditions for tax agent employees are specified:

• Be a Vietnamese citizen or foreign citizen permitted to reside in Vietnam ;
• Have a tax procedure service practice certificate issued by the General Department of Taxation;
• Be a legal representative of a tax agent or have a labor contract working at a tax agent;
• Fully participate in the knowledge update program according to legal regulations;

Regarding services for micro-enterprises, the law requires at least 01 tax agent employee with an accountant certificate who works full-time at the enterprise in case of registration to provide accounting services.

It is noted that the following individuals are not allowed to work as tax agents:

• Officials and public employees; commissioned and non-commissioned officers, career military personnel, military workers, military public employees, non-commissioned police officers, and police workers.
• Any person who is being banned from providing tax, accounting, or audit services under an effective court judgment or court decision; people who are facing criminal prosecution;
• Any person who has been convicted of any of the crimes related to tax, finance, or accounting and has not have his/her criminal record expunged; any person who is put under supervision by commune authority or put into a correctional institution or rehabilitation center;
• Any person who incurs an administrative penalty for accounting- or audit-related offense over the last 06 months (for warnings) or 12 months (for other penalties).

Conditions for appropriate business registration

• A tax agency business company must be established as an enterprise and operate in accordance with the provisions of the Enterprise Law and related legal documents;
• People who establish businesses providing tax procedure services can refer to the registration Vietnamese industry code 6920: Activities related to accounting, auditing, and tax consulting ;
• In addition, depending on other business activities, businesses can register for other industry codes. Vietnamese law does not stipulate a limit on the number of registered occupational codes.

Procedures for establishing a tax agency company in Vietnam

Step 1: Prepare and submit the business establishment documents

The owner submits the application to the Department of Planning and Investment where the business is headquartered. The business establishment dossier includes:

• Application for business registration;
• Company charters;
• List of founding shareholders and shareholders who are foreign investors (for joint stock companies); List of members (for LLCs with two or more members);
• Legal documents of individuals, legal entities that are members, shareholders, or legal representatives of the company: Certified copy of identity card or citizen identification card or passport (if an individual); Establishment decision, Enterprise Registration Certificate or equivalent document and citizen identification card or identity card or passport with authorization document for the capital manager in Vietnam (if an organization) ;
• An Investment Registration Certificate has been issued.
• Power of Attorney for Viet An Law (in case of choosing the company’s services).

Processing time: 03 working days. If the application is complete and valid, an Enterprise Registration Certificate will be issued according to regulations. In case of refusal, the business registration agency will clearly state the reason in the written response sent to the tax service enterprise.

Step 2: Publish business information content

After being granted an Enterprise Registration Certificate, an enterprise must make a public announcement on the National Business Registration Portal within 30 days from the date of publication and must pay fees according to the provisions of law. The contents of the announcement include:

• Business registration certificate;
• Specific information about business sectors and professions;
• List of founding shareholders; List of shareholders who are foreign investors for joint stock companies (if any).
• Publication fee: The request to publish the business registration content and pay the fee to publish the business registration content are made at the time the enterprise submits the business registration application. In case the enterprise is not granted business registration, the enterprise will be refunded the fee for publishing the business registration content.

The announced fee is 100,000 VND according to regulations in Circular 47/2019/TT-BCT.

Step 3: Engrave the business seal

• Stamps include stamps made at a seal engraving facility or stamps in the form of digital signatures in accordance with the law on electronic transactions;
• The enterprise decides on the type of seal, quantity, form, and content of the seal of the enterprise, branches, representative offices, and other units of the enterprise;
• The management and storage of seals is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the company charter or regulations issued by the enterprise, branch, representative office, or other unit of the enterprise with the seal. Enterprises use seals in transactions according to the provisions of law.

Step 4: Request a Certificate of eligibility to provide tax services.

The owner shall submit documents to the Tax Department of the province. Documents to be submitted include:

• Application for issuance of a Certificate of eligibility to provide tax services;
• Scanned copy of the tax procedure service practice certificate of the individual working at the enterprise;
• Scanned copy of accountant certificate (if registering to provide accounting services for micro-enterprises);
• Scanned copy of the labor contract between the enterprise and the individual with a certificate to practice tax procedure services.

The time limit for issuing the certificate of eligibility is 05 working days from the date of receipt of complete and valid documents. If the application is rejected, the owner will receive a document clearly stating the reason.

If you want to receive advice and learn more information about the conditions for establishing a tax agency company in Vietnam, please contact Viet An Law Firm for the best support!