Circular No. 257/2016/TT-BTC stipulates the rates of notarization fees; certification fees; fees for assessing standards and conditions for practicing notarization; fees for assessing conditions for operating Notary Public Offices; and stamp fees for issuing notary certificates.

CIRCULAR

REGULATIONS ON THE LEVEL OF COLLECTION, SYSTEM OF COLLECTION, PAYMENT, MANAGEMENT, AND USE OF NOTARIZATION FEES; CERTIFICATION FEES; FEES FOR QUALITY AND CONDITION ASSESSMENTS FOR NOTARY PRACTICE; FEES FOR QUALITY AND CONDITION ASSESSMENTS FOR NOTARY OFFICE OPERATIONS; LICENSE FEES FOR NOTARY CERTIFICATES

Pursuant to the Law on Fees and Registration Fees dated November 25, 2015;

Pursuant to the State Budget Law dated June 25, 2015;

Pursuant to the Notarization Law dated June 20, 2014;

Pursuant to Decree No. 120/2016/NĐ-CP dated August 23, 2016 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Fees and Charges;

Pursuant to Decree No. 215/2013/NĐ-CP dated December 23, 2013, promulgated by the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

At the proposal of the Director of the Department of Tax Policy,

The Minister of Finance issues this Circular to regulate the level of collection, system of collection, payment, management, and use of notarization fees; certification fees; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary practice; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary office operations; license fees for notary certificates, as follows:

Article 1. Scope of Regulation and Applicability

1. This Circular regulates the level of collection, system of collection, payment, management, and use of notarization fees; certification fees for copies from original documents, certification of signatures on documents; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary practice; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary office operations; license fees for notary certificates.

2. This Circular applies to:

a) Organizations and individuals requesting notarization of contracts, transactions, translations, requests for safekeeping of wills, issuance of copies of notarized documents; requests for certification of copies from original documents, certification of signatures on documents; requests for quality and condition assessments for notary practice, quality and condition assessments for notary office operations, individuals who have been issued notary certificates.

b)organizations collecting notarization fees; certification fees; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary practice; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary office operations; license fees for notary certificates;

c) Other organizations and individuals related to the collection, payment, management, and use of notarization fees; certification fees; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary practice; fees for quality and condition assessments for notary office operations; license fees for notary certificates.

Article 2. Fee and Charge Payers

1.organizations and individuals when requesting notarization of contracts, transactions, translations, safekeeping of wills, issuance of copies of notarized documents must pay notarization fees.

2. Organizations and individuals when requesting certification of copies from original documents, certification of signatures on documents must pay certification fees.

3. Individuals when submitting applications for examination of internship results for notary practice to appoint notaries or individuals when submitting applications for reappointment of notaries must pay fees for quality and condition assessments for notary practice.

4. Organizations when submitting applications for registration of notary office operations must pay fees for quality and condition assessments for notary office operations.

5. Individuals when obtaining new or replacement notary certificates must pay license fees for notary certificates.

Article 3. Organizations collecting fees and charges

1. Notary Offices are organizations collecting notarization fees and certification fees.

2. Notary Offices are organizations collecting notarization fees and certification fees.

3. The Department of Legal Aid (Ministry of Justice) is the organization collecting fees for quality and condition assessments for notary practice.

4. Departments of Justice of provinces and centrally administered cities (hereinafter referred to as Departments of Justice) are organizations collecting fees for quality and condition assessments for notary office operations and license fees for notary certificates.

Article 4. Rates of Fees and Charges

The levels of fees and license fees as prescribed in this Circular are as follows:

1. The level of notarization fees prescribed in this Circular shall be uniformly applied to Notary Offices and Notary Offices. In cases where the fee-collecting entity is a Notary Office, the notarization fees prescribed in this Circular already include value-added tax as stipulated by the Law on Value-Added Tax and its implementing regulations.

2. The level of notarization fees for contracts and transactions is determined based on the value of assets or the value of the contract or transaction:

a) The level of fees for notarizing the following contracts and transactions is calculated as follows:

a1) Notarization of contracts for transfer, gift, donation, division, separation, merger, exchange, contribution of land use rights: Calculated based on the value of the land use rights.

a2) Notarization of contracts for transfer, gift, donation, division, separation, merger, exchange, contribution of land use rights with attached property including houses and construction works on the land: Calculated based on the total value of the land use rights and the value of the attached property, the value of the houses and construction works on the land.

a3) Notarization of contracts for sale, gift of other assets, contribution of other assets: Calculated based on the value of the asset.

a4) Notarization of agreements for division of inheritance, declarations of acceptance of inheritance: Calculated based on the value of the inheritance.

a5) Notarization of loan contracts: Calculated based on the value of the loan amount.

a6) Notarization of mortgage contracts, pledge contracts: Calculated based on the value of the asset; in cases where the mortgage contract or pledge contract specifies the loan amount, it is calculated based on the loan amount.

a7) Notarization of economic, commercial, investment, business contracts: Calculated based on the value of the asset or the value of the contract or transaction.

b) The level of fees for notarizing rental contracts for land use rights; rental contracts for housing; rental and sub-rental contracts for assets:

c) The fee level for notarizing contracts for the sale of auctioned assets (based on the asset value) shall be calculated as follows:

d) For contracts and transactions regarding land use rights and assets with values prescribed by competent state agencies, the value of land use rights and assets subject to notary fees shall be determined according to the agreement between the parties in such contracts or transactions; if the price of land or asset agreed upon by the parties is lower than the price prescribed by competent state agencies at the time of notarization, then the value for calculating notary fees shall be determined as follows:

Value of land use rights and assets subject to notary fees = Area of land, quantity of assets recorded in the contract or transaction (x) Price of land or asset prescribed by competent state agencies.

3\. Fee levels for notarizing contracts and transactions that do not follow the value of assets or the value of contracts or transactions:

4\. Collection level for receiving and keeping wills: VND 100,000 per case.

5\. Collection level for issuing certified copies of notarized documents: VND 5,000 per page, from the third (3rd) page onwards, each page is charged VND 3,000 but the maximum charge does not exceed VND 100,000 per copy.

6\. Notarization fee for translation: VND 10,000 per page for the first translation.

In cases where the person requesting notarization needs multiple translations, from the second translation onwards, the first and second pages are charged VND 5,000 per page, and from the third page onwards, each page is charged VND 3,000 but the maximum charge does not exceed VND 200,000 per translation.

7\. Certification fee for certified copies from original documents: VND 2,000 per page for the first and second pages; from the third page onwards, each page is charged VND 1,000 but the maximum charge does not exceed VND 200,000 per copy.

8\. Certification fee for signatures on documents and papers: VND 10,000 per case (a case may involve one or more signatures on a document or paper).

9\. Fees for assessing standards and conditions for practicing notarization; assessing conditions for operating Notary Offices and registration fees for Notary Certificates:

Article 5. Declaration, Payment of Fees and Charges

1\. By the 5th day of each month at the latest, the organization collecting fees, which is the Legal Aid Bureau, Department of Justice, Notary Office, must deposit the collected fees of the previous month into the fee account awaiting submission to the State Treasury opened at the National Treasury.

2\. The organizations collecting fees and registration fees, which are the Legal Aid Bureau, Department of Justice, Notary Office, shall declare and pay the collected fees and registration fees into the State Treasury in accordance with the provisions of Clause 3, Article 19, Clause 2, Article 26 of Circular No. 156/2013/TT-BTC dated November 6, 2013, issued by the Minister of Finance guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Tax Administration; the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Law on Tax Administration and Decree No. 83/2013/NĐ-CP dated July 22, 2013 of the Government.

Article 6. Management of fees and charges

1\. For organizations collecting fees, which are the Legal Aid Bureau, Department of Justice, Notary Office:

a) The organization collecting fees shall remit all collected fees into the State Treasury except in the cases provided for in point b of Clause 1 of this Article. The cost of expenses for assessment and collection of fees shall be covered by the State budget within the organizational budget according to the State budget expenditure regulations.

b) In cases where the costs of operations are allocated according to the regulations of the Government or the Prime Minister on the mechanism of self-management and self-responsibility in personnel management and administrative management expenses for state agencies, the following management and use of fees shall be implemented:

b1) AGAINST The Legal Aid Bureau, Department of Justice may retain 90% of the collected fees to cover costs for the contents specified in Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 120/2016/NĐ-CP; remit 10% of the remaining collected fees into the State Treasury.

b2) For Notary Offices:

- Notary Offices that self-fund regular and investment expenditures may retain 75% of the collected fees to cover costs for the contents specified in Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 120/2016/NĐ-CP. Remit 25% of the remaining collected fees into the State Treasury.

- Notary Offices that partially self-fund regular expenditures may retain 60% of the collected fees to cover costs for the contents specified in Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 120/2016/NĐ-CP; remit 40% of the remaining collected fees into the State Treasury.

- Notary Offices fully funded by the State for regular expenditures may retain 50% of the collected fees to cover costs for the contents specified in Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 120/2016/NĐ-CP; remit 50% of the remaining collected fees into the State Treasury.

2\. For Notary Offices: Collected fees constitute the revenue of the Notary Office. The Notary Office may retain 100% of the collected fees to cover the costs of collection and must declare and pay value-added tax and corporate income tax according to the law. The Notary Office shall issue and deliver invoices to the fee payer according to the current regulations of the Ministry of Finance on the issuance, management, and use of invoices.

3\. Organizations collecting registration fees shall remit 100To the state budget. The source of funds to cover the collection of fees shall be allocated from the state budget within the organizational collection's budget estimate according to the state budget expenditure regulations and standards.

Article 7. Implementation Organization

1. This Circular takes effect from January 1, 2017.

2. From the date this Circular takes effect, the following provisions cease to be effective:

a) Joint Circular No. 08/2012/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated January 19, 2012, issued by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Justice guiding the fee collection levels, collection procedures, payment, management, and use of notarization fees;

b) Joint Circular No. 115/2015/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated August 11, 2015, issued by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Justice amending and supplementing certain provisions of Joint Circular No. 08/2012/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated January 19, 2012, guiding the fee collection levels, collection procedures, payment, management, and use of notarization fees;

c) Circular No. 54/2015/TT-BTC dated April 21, 2015, issued by the Ministry of Finance stipulating the examination fee for the appointment of notaries; the notary card issuance fee, and the registration certificate issuance fee for Notary Offices;

3. Applications for notarization, certification, standard and condition verification for notary practice, activity condition verification for Notary Offices, and notary card issuance submitted before this Circular takes effect and processed after it takes effect shall be subject to the fee and charge levels prescribed in Joint Circular No. 08/2012/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated January 19, 2012, issued by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Justice, Joint Circular No. 115/2015/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated August 11, 2015, issued by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Justice, and Circular No. 54/2015/TT-BTC dated April 21, 2015, issued by the Ministry of Finance.

4. Other matters related to the collection, payment, management, use, receipt documentation, and publicizing of fee and charge collection procedures not addressed in this Circular shall be implemented in accordance with the Law on Fees and Charges, Decree No. 120/2016/NĐ-CP dated August 23, 2016, issued by the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Fees and Charges; Circular No. 156/2013/TT-BTC dated November 6, 2013, issued by the Minister of Finance guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Tax Administration, the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Law on Tax Administration, and Decree No. 83/2013/NĐ-CP dated July 22, 2013, issued by the Government; Circulars of the Minister of Finance stipulating the printing, issuance, management, and use of various types of receipts for fees and charges under the state budget, and any amendments, supplements, or replacements thereof (if any).

5. During the implementation process, if there are any difficulties, organizations and individuals are requested to promptly reflect them to the Ministry of Finance for research and supplementary guidance.