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Financial Statement in Vietnam: What You Need to Know

Jan 16, 2018

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As an entrepreneur, the first quarter of a new calendar year is busy. On top of working on business strategies for the upcoming year, it is also time to start thinking about submitting your compliance reports for the past year. In this article, we will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about filing a financial statement in Vietnam.

This article was last updated in February 2019.

What is the deadline for submitting a financial statement in Vietnam?

The deadline for submitting your 2018 financial statement in Vietnam is 1 April 2019.

However, if your company’s financial year is not a calendar year, the deadlines will be different. In that case, contact us for more details via [email protected].

Also, not every company that was registered in Vietnam in 2018 has to submit a financial report yet. If you registered your company in or after October 2018, you are allowed to file your 2018 financial statement together with the financial report of 2019.

Companies that were registered before October 2018, on the other hand, must submit a financial statement for 2018.

What does a financial statement in Vietnam include?

Under the Vietnamese law on accounting, the financial statement in Vietnam must include the following:

Balance sheet

Profit and loss

Cash flow

Note of financial statement

If you have a local company in Vietnam, it is sufficient if you only submit the financial report for 2018. However, if your company is a foreign-owned company, an independent Vietnamese auditing company needs to audit your financial statement as well.

As for local companies, the financial statements will be submitted directly to the Department of Taxation, the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the Department of Planning and Investment and to other superior enterprises (e.g., the parent company).

If you have a foreign-owned company, on the other hand, you also need to submit the annual report to a financial institution, in addition to the departments mentioned above.

Other annual reports and compliance requirements in Vietnam

Besides submitting an annual report, companies in Vietnam have several other compliance requirements to follow at the beginning of a year.

#1 Business license tax in Vietnam

Businesses have to pay the business license tax annually. The deadline for the business license tax is 30 January 2019.

There are three levels of business license tax:

Categories	Business license tax in Vietnamese dong/year	Business license tax in US dollar/year*
Registered charter capital of the company is more than VND 10 billion	VND 3,000,000	~US$ 132.13
Registered charter capital is VND 10 billion or less	VND 2,000,000	~US$ 88.07
Branches, representative offices, public service providers, and other business organizations	VND 1,000,000	~US$ 44.04

*As of current exchange rates

#2 Tax declarations and payments for Q4 of 2018

By 30 January 2019, companies in Vietnam also need to declare and pay taxes for the last quarter of 2018:

Type of Tax	Declaration and payment due
Value-added Tax (VAT)	30 January 2019
Personal Income Tax (PIT)	30 January 2019
Corporate Income Tax (CIT)	30 January 2019 Paid on estimates, no declaration is required

#3 Other annual reports

In addition to the financial statement, other annual reports that need to be submitted are:

Corporate Income Tax settlement declaration for 2018
Personal Income Tax settlement declaration for 2018
Statistics report for 2018

Note that the company has to pay a larger sum of CIT and PIT after the settlement if the total tax amounts paid quarterly in 2018 are smaller than the total tax amount in the settlement.

The deadline for these settlement declarations and payments is 1 April 2019.

Note to self: important dates for companies in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2019

If you would like to know more about corporate compliance in Vietnam, including quarterly and biannual requirements, take a look at our previous article A Year in the Life of a Foreign Company.

What happens if I submit my financial report in Vietnam too late?

Companies that are unable to meet the deadline and submit their declaration late will face a fine. The fine for non-timely financial statements in Vietnam starts from VND 700,000 (~US$30) and can go up to VND 25,000,000 (~US$1,100).

Emerging markets, such as Vietnam, are known for their numerous regulations. Thus, getting to know all the local laws takes time. Moreover, the information you find might not even be up-to-date since laws in Vietnam tend to change frequently.

Avoid the risk of facing a fine by letting professionals handle your compliance. This way you will also optimize your activities and focus on what’s important – that is, to improve your business.

Emerhub offers various accounting and tax services in Vietnam, including: