Circular No. 302/2016/TT-BTC guiding the business license fee

CIRCULAR

Guidelines on business registration fees

On the basis of Law on Fees and Charges No. 97/2015/QH13 dated November 25, 2015;

On the basis of Law on Tax Administration No. 78/2006/QH11 dated November 29, 2006; Law No. 21/2012/QH13 dated November 20, 2012 amending and supplementing certain articles of the Law on Tax Administration; Law No. 71/2014/QH13 dated November 26, 2014 amending and supplementing certain articles of tax laws; Law No. 106/2016/QH13 dated April 6, 2016 amending and supplementing certain articles of the Law on Value Added Tax, Special Consumption Tax Law, and Law on Tax Administration;

Decree No. Decree No. 139/2016/NĐ-CP dated October 4, 2016 of the Government on business registration fees;

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

At the proposal of the Director General of the State Revenue Administration,

The Minister of Finance issues this Circular to provide guidelines on business registration fees as follows:

Article 1. Scope of Regulation

This Circular provides guidelines on persons paying business registration fees, exemptions from business registration fees, rates of business registration fees, and declaration and payment of business registration fees.

Persons paying business registration fees are organizations and individuals engaged in production and business activities of goods and services as specified in Article 2 of Decree No. 139/2016/NĐ-CP dated October 4, 2016 of the Government on business registration fees, except for cases stipulated in Article 3 of Decree No. 139/2016/NĐ-CP dated October 4, 2016 of the Government on business registration fees and guided at Article 3 of this Circular.

Article 3. Exemptions from Business Registration Fees

Cases exempted from business registration fees shall be implemented according to the provisions of Article 3 of Decree No. 139/2016/NĐ-CP dated October 4, 2016 of the Government on business registration fees. Specifically, the cases exempted from business registration fees as stipulated in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Article 3 of Decree No. 139/2016/NĐ-CP shall be determined as follows:

1. Individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities with annual revenue of up to 100 million VND. The annual revenue of up to 100 million VND to determine individuals, groups of individuals, households eligible for exemption from business registration fees is the total income subject to personal income tax as prescribed by the law on personal income tax.

2. Individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities that are not regular; without a fixed place of business.

Non-regular business activities; without a fixed place of business shall be implemented according to the guidance provided in Point a Clause 1 Article 3 of Circular No. 92/2015/TT-BTC dated June 15, 2015 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of value added tax and personal income tax for resident individuals with business activities; guiding the implementation of certain amended and supplemented contents of the personal income tax law as stipulated in the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Articles of Tax Laws No. 71/2014/QH13 and Decree No. 12/2015/NĐ-CP dated February 12, 2015 of the Government detailing the implementation of the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Articles of Tax Laws and Amending and Supplementing Certain Articles of Tax Decrees.

Individuals, groups of individuals, households without a fixed place of business as guided in this clause include cases where individuals are cooperative members and cooperatives have paid business registration fees according to regulations applicable to cooperatives; individuals directly signing contracts to act as lottery agents, insurance agents, and agents selling at retail prices implementing withholding tax at source; individuals cooperating in business with organizations under the provisions of the law on personal income tax.

Article 4. Amount of Business License Fee Collection

1. The amount of business license fee collection for organizations engaged in production and business activities of goods and services shall be as follows:

a) Organizations with charter capital or investment capital exceeding 10 billion VND: 3,000,000 (three million) VND/year;

b) Organizations with charter capital or investment capital up to 10 billion VND: 2,000,000 (two million) VND/year;

c) Branches, representative offices, business locations, public institutions, other economic organizations: 1,000,000 (one million) VND/year.

The amount of business license fee collection for organizations referred to in this clause shall be based on the charter capital recorded in the business registration certificate or the enterprise registration certificate or the cooperative's articles of association. In cases where there is no charter capital, it shall be based on the investment capital recorded in the investment registration certificate or the investment decision document.

For organizations mentioned in points a and b of this clause, if there is a change in charter capital or investment capital, the basis for determining the amount of business license fee shall be the charter capital or investment capital of the preceding year immediately before the year for which the business license fee is calculated.

If the charter capital or investment capital recorded in the business registration certificate or investment registration certificate is denominated in foreign currency, it shall be converted into Vietnamese dong at the buying rate of the commercial bank or credit institution where the business license fee payer has an account at the time the payer pays the money into the state budget.

a) Individuals, groups of individuals, households with annual revenue exceeding 500 million VND: 1,000,000 (one million) VND/year;

b) Individuals, groups of individuals, households with annual revenue from 300 to 500 million VND: 500,000 (five hundred thousand) VND/year;

c) Individuals, groups of individuals, households with annual revenue from 100 to 300 million VND: 300,000 (three hundred thousand) VND/year.

The revenue serving as the basis for determining the amount of business license fee collection for individuals, groups of individuals, and households referred to in this clause is the total income subject to personal income tax according to the laws on personal income tax.

For individuals, groups of individuals, and households mentioned in this clause, if there is a change in revenue, the basis for determining the amount of business license fee shall be the revenue subject to personal income tax of the preceding year immediately before the year for which the business license fee is calculated.

For newly established individuals, groups of individuals, and households that start business operations within the year, the revenue serving as the basis for determining the amount of business license fee shall be the revenue subject to personal income tax according to the laws on personal income tax.

Organizations, individuals, groups of individuals, and households engaged in production and business activities but failing to declare the business license fee shall pay the full-year business license fee regardless of whether the discovery occurs in the first six months or the last six months of the year.

Organizations, individuals, groups of individuals, and households currently engaged in production and business activities and have notified the tax authority of their intention to suspend business operations for the entire calendar year shall not be required to pay the business license fee for the year of suspension. In cases of partial suspension of business operations within the calendar year, they must still pay the full-year business license fee.

1. Declaration and payment of business registration fee for organizations engaged in production and business activities of goods and services.

a) Declaration of business registration fee

a.1) Declare the business registration fee once when the organization starts its business operations, at the latest on the last day of the month it begins production and business activities;

a.2) In case the payer has dependent units (branches, representative offices, business locations) operating in the same province-level administrative unit, the payer shall submit the declaration form for the business registration fee of these dependent units to the direct tax management agency of the payer;

a.2) In case the payer has dependent units (branches, representative offices, business locations) operating in different province-level administrative units from where the payer's main office is located, the dependent units shall submit the declaration form for the business registration fee of these dependent units to the direct tax management agency of the dependent units;

a.3) In case the payer establishes a business premises but has not yet commenced production and business activities, the payer must declare the business registration fee within thirty days from the date of issuance of the business registration certificate or investment registration certificate, tax registration, or business registration certificate; the date of issuance of the branch activity registration certificate; the date of issuance of the investment approval decision.

b) Payment of business registration fee

The deadline for paying the business registration fee is no later than January 30 each year. For organizations that start production and business activities or establish new business premises, the deadline for paying the business registration fee is no later than the last day of the period for submitting the declaration form for the business registration fee according to Clause 1, Article 5 of Decree No. 139/2016/ND-CP dated October 4, 2016 of the Government on business registration fees.

2. Declaration and payment of business registration fee for individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities of goods and services

a) Declaration of business registration fee

a.1) Individuals, groups of individuals, households conducting business under the turnover tax method are exempted from declaring the business registration fee. Tax authorities will base on the database of total revenue of individuals, groups of individuals, households to determine the level of business registration fee for each production and business location.

a.2) Individuals, groups of individuals, households leasing real estate shall declare the business registration fee once per lease contract for real estate. In case the lease contract for real estate spans multiple years, the business registration fee shall be paid annually corresponding to the number of years the individual, group of individuals, household declares and pays value-added tax and personal income tax. In case the individual, group of individuals, household declares and pays value-added tax and personal income tax once for a lease contract spanning multiple years, they shall pay the annual business registration fee.

a.3) In case individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities do not directly declare and pay taxes to the tax authority but have an organization declare and pay taxes on their behalf, the organization responsible for paying taxes on behalf shall also be responsible for paying the business registration fee on behalf of the individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities when these individuals, groups of individuals, households have not yet paid.

b) Payment of business registration fee

Individuals, groups of individuals, households shall pay the business registration fee no later than January 30 each year.

In case the payer of the business registration fee is an individual, group of individuals, household starting production and business activities under the turnover tax method, the deadline for paying the business registration fee is no later than the last day of the month following the month in which the obligation to declare taxes arises according to the law on personal income tax.

Article 6. Effectiveness

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

2. This Circular abolishes Article 17 of Circular 156/2013/TT-BTC dated November 6, 2013 of the Ministry 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 and replaces the following Circulars:

a) Circular No. 96/2002/TT-BTC dated October 24, 2002 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of Decree No. 75/2002/NĐ-CP dated August 30, 2002 of the Government on adjusting the business registration fee rate;

b) Circular No. 113/2002/TT-BTC dated December 16, 2002 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the supplementation of Circular No. 96/2002/TT-BTC dated October 24, 2002 of the Ministry of Finance;

c) Circular No. 42/2003/TT-BTC dated May 7, 2003 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the amendment and supplementation of Circular No. 96/2002/TT-BTC dated October 24, 2002.

Article 7. Implementation Organization

1. Each year, the Provincial Tax Department, City Tax Department shall be responsible for directing the Tax Branches under their jurisdiction to carry out:

a) Establishing and approving the ledger, issuing notifications of annual business registration fees payable for individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities simultaneously with establishing and approving the turnover tax ledger, notifying the turnover tax payable according to the law on personal income tax;

b) Reviewing organizations, individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities within their jurisdiction to classify taxpayers who are currently operating stably, new taxpayers starting production and business activities, determining the collection rate and collecting the business registration fee as prescribed.

2. Tax authorities at all levels shall be responsible for disseminating, popularizing, and guiding organizations, individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities to implement this Circular.

3. Organizations, individuals, groups of individuals, households engaged in production and business activities of goods and services shall be responsible for declaring and paying the business registration fee in accordance with the regulations.

4. During the implementation process, if related documents referred to in this Circular are amended, supplemented, or replaced, they shall be implemented according to the newly amended, supplemented, or replaced documents.

During the implementation process, if there are difficulties or obstacles, relevant agencies, units, organizations, and individuals shall promptly report to the Ministry of Finance for consideration and resolution./.