Circular No. 13/2020/TT-BTTTT stipulates the determination of software product production activities that meet the process.

CIRCULAR

Regulations on determining software production activities that meet the process requirements

Pursuant to the Law on Information Technology dated June 29, 2006;

The Minister of Information and Communications promulgates this Circular amending and supplementing Circular No. 09/2013/TT-BTTTT dated April 8, 2013 of the Minister of Information and Communications on the List of software and hardware, electronic products.

Pursuant to Decree No. 17/2017/NĐ-CP dated February 17, 2017, issued by the Government, on the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Information and Communications;

Pursuant to Decree No. 218/2013/NĐ-CP dated December 26, 2013 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on Corporate Income Tax;

Article 1. Amending and supplementing Circular No. 09/2013/TT-BTTTT dated April 8, 2013 of the Minister of Information and Communications on the List of software and hardware, electronic products as follows:

The Minister of Information and Communications issues this Circular on determining software production activities that meet the process requirements to be eligible for corporate income tax incentives.

Article 1. Scope of Regulation

This Circular stipulates the determination of software production activities that meet the process requirements to be eligible for corporate income tax incentives.

Article 2. Applicability

This Circular applies to management agencies, organizations, and enterprises related to software product production activities listed in the Software Product Catalogue as prescribed by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Article 3. Software Production Process

The stages in the software production process include:

1. Requirement definition, including one or more tasks such as: proposing or refining ideas for software product development; describing the characteristics (requirements) of the product and its usage contexts; suggesting, surveying, and clarifying requirements for the software product; business process analysis; developing complete requirements for the software product; consulting to adjust the process; agreeing on requirements, reviewing requirements, controlling compliance with requirements, and the basis for confirming compliance with requirements.

2. Analysis and design, including one or more tasks such as: specifying requirements (functional and non-functional, issues to be resolved); setting up the development problem; implementing appropriate techniques to optimize solutions, analyzing the correctness and testability of the software, assessing the impact of software requirements on the operational environment, prioritizing, accepting, and updating requirements as necessary; data modeling; functional modeling; information flow modeling; determining the software solution; designing the solution, system software design; data design, software architecture design, component module design of the software; security and information protection design; customer experience interface design.

3. Programming, writing code, including one or more tasks such as: writing software programs; programming software modules; modifying, customizing, fine-tuning software; integrating software modules; integrating the software system.

4. Testing and software verification, including one or more tasks such as: building testing scenarios, testing software modules; software testing; system software testing; software function testing; quality assessment; fault tolerance evaluation; security and information protection testing for software; customer requirement satisfaction confirmation; software acceptance.

5. Completing and packaging the software product, including one or more tasks such as: preparing product documentation, installation guide (in case of transferring a complete package product), user guide for the software product (for users or service lessees); packaging the software product; registering trademarks; registering intellectual property rights.

6. Installation, transfer, guidance on use, maintenance, and warranty of the software product, including one or more tasks such as: transferring (complete package product or usage rights under lease); guiding installation of the software product (in case of transferring a complete package product); deploying the software product installation (on the customer's system in case of transferring a complete package or on the service-providing system in case of leasing the software product); training and guidance (users or service lessees); post-transfer product testing or software product testing on the service-providing system; fixing post-transfer product defects or software product defects on the service-providing system; post-transfer support during the service lease period; warranty of post-transfer products or during the service lease period; maintaining the software product (on the customer's system or on the service-providing system).

7. Distribution and sale of the software product, including one or more tasks such as selling, leasing, distributing, and releasing self-produced software products.

Article 4. Determining software product production activities that meet the process

1. The production activity of a software product by organizations and enterprises as prescribed in Article 3 of this Circular shall be determined as a software product production activity that meets the process when for such product, the organization or enterprise implements at least one of the two stages: Requirement determination, Analysis and design as stipulated in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Article 3 of this Circular.

2. The software product production activity that meets the process as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article shall be evidenced by one or more of the following documents, corresponding to each operation within the stages that the organization or enterprise has implemented:

a) Documents proving each operation of the Requirement determination stage: Description of ideas on the method of developing the product; description of the characteristics (requirements) of the product, usage contexts of the product; description of proposals, survey results, clarification and completion of requirements for the product; detailed business analysis description; complete requirement description for the product; description of content adjusting the process; minutes of requirement consensus, review of requirements, description of control capability and bases for confirming compliance with product requirements; or other similar documents.

b) Documents proving each operation of the Analysis and design stage: Description of requirements; description of the development problem; description of appropriate techniques performed to optimize the solution, analysis of the correctness and testability of the software, analysis of the impact of software requirements on the operational environment, listing of prioritized, accepted and updated requirements as necessary; description of data models, functional models, information flow models; description of software solutions; design of solutions, system software design, data design, architecture design, design of software components; security and information safety design for software; customer experience interface design; or other similar documents.

c) Documents proving each operation of the Programming, writing code stage: Some key source code segments demonstrating that the enterprise has written software code; description of the integrated software system; or other similar documents.

d) Documents proving each operation of the Testing, software trial stage: Test scripts for software units and modules; description of software testing results, system software testing results, software function testing results, quality assessment results; description of fault potential evaluation; description of software security and information safety testing results; confirmation that the software meets customer requirements; acceptance minutes for software; or other similar documents.

đ) Documents proving each operation of the Completion, packaging stage: Full introduction of the software product; installation guide (in case of transferring a complete product), user guide or service guide (for users or service lessees); copy of registration certificate for trademark (if any); copy of registration certificate for intellectual property rights (if any); or other similar documents.

e) Documents proving each operation of the Installation, transfer, user guidance, warranty, maintenance stage: Minutes or transfer contract (complete product or right to use the product as a lease); installation guide for software products (in case of transferring a complete product); description of installation results for software products (on the customer's system in case of transferring a complete product or on the service provision system in case of leasing software products); training and guidance content (for users or service lessees); description of post-transfer software product testing activities or software products on the service provision system; description of post-transfer software product error correction activities or software products on the service provision system; description of post-transfer support activities during the service lease period; description of post-transfer warranty activities for products or during the service lease period; description of software product maintenance activities (on the customer's system or on the service provision system).

State-owned enterprises that have been assigned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to conduct offshore wind power project surveys before the effective date of this Circular shall continue to implement according to the assigned documents; any new matters arising after the effective date of this Circular shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of this Circular.

1. The Department of Information Technology shall be responsible for:

a) Implementing this Circular.

b) Collecting relevant information from organizations and enterprises as prescribed in point b Clause 2 of this Article to serve state management work.

2. Organizations and enterprises participating in software product production activities as prescribed in this Circular shall be responsible for:

a) Bearing full responsibility for the authenticity of the information in the tax incentive application dossier for software production activities and self-determining software production activities that meet the process.

b) Sending and updating information about software products, stages in software product production activities that meet the process, and the tax deduction rate to the Ministry of Information and Communications (Department of Information Technology) for consolidation.

c) Ensuring that their software production activities and software products do not violate intellectual property laws and related regulations.

Article 6. Transitional Provisions

Software production activities that have been determined to meet the process according to the provisions prior to the effective date of this Circular shall continue to be considered as meeting the software production process until the expiration of the approved investment project term.

Article 7. Implementation Provisions

1. This Circular takes effect from August 19, 2020.

2. This Circular replaces Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BTTTT dated November 18, 2014 of the Ministry of Information and Communications on determining software production activities.

3. During implementation, if any issues arise, organizations and enterprises shall send documents to the Ministry of Information and Communications (Department of Information Technology) for handling, resolution, guidance, or amendment and supplementation as appropriate.

4. The Director of the Office, the Head of the Information Technology Department, the Heads of agencies and units under the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Directors of Provincial Departments of Information and Communications under the Central Government, and relevant organizations and enterprises are responsible for implementing this Circular./.