31 March 2017 is the deadline for lodgement of 2016 Financial Statements and tax finalisations for most entities in Vietnam. Further to this, foreign invested enterprises and specified other enterprises are required to have their Financial Statements audited prior to lodgement to the relevant authorities.
Entities requiring audited financial statements
- Foreign invested companies;
- Credit institutions established and operating in accordance with the Law on Credit Institutions, including foreign bank branches in Vietnam; – Finance and insurance enterprises;
- Public companies, issuing organisations and securities business organisations; and
- Specified other enterprises and organisations as directed under laws by relevant authorities.
Lodgement of audited financial statements
Pursuant to Article 110, Circular 200/2014 dated 22 December 2014 issued by the Ministry of Finance (“MoF”) providing guidance on the Vietnamese Accounting System, audited Financial Statements are required to be submitted to four authorities: (i) Provincial Tax Department; (ii) Department of Planing and Investment; (iii) Department of Statistics and (iv) Department of Finance Management.
Certain businesses may also be required to submit audited reports to additional authorities (for example, those located in Industrial Parks). Unaudited Financial Statements are sufficient for taxpayers not required to prepare audited Financial Statements.
Deadline for submission of financial statements
On 16 January 2017, The Ministry of Finance (“MoF”) published OL 610/BTC-CST relating to applicable VAT rate on the provision of transportation services to enterprises (“EPEs”) which are located in Export Processing Zone (“EPZ”).
The annual deadline for submission is within 90 days after the end of the Tax year, which is also the deadline for annual tax finalization submissions i.e. Corporate Income Tax (“CIT”) and Personal Income Tax (“PIT”). Fines for failing to lodge audited Financial Statements range from VND 20,000,000 to VND 30,000,000, in accordance with clause 2, article 15, Decree 105/2013/ND-CP.
Essentially, certain documents i.e. services contracts with the enterprises, valid payment vouchers for the transportation services and additional relevant dossiers are required to be available in order to apply the 0% rate.