LETTER

OF THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE NUMBER 7541 TC/TCT ON JULY 22, 2003
REGARDING THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING FINANCIAL REPORTS AND TAX FINALIZATION REPORTS
SETTLEMENT OF TAX

RESPECTED: Provincial and Central City Tax Departments

Recently, the Ministry of Finance received feedback from businesses and localities regarding the deadlines for submitting financial reports and tax finalization reports. In response to this issue, the Ministry provides specific guidance as follows:

According to Article 14 of the Law on Corporate Income Tax: "Within sixty days following the end of the calendar year or fiscal year, a business entity must submit its tax finalization report to the tax authority..."

According to Article 118 of the Enterprise Law regarding the submission of financial reports: "... Within thirty days for private enterprises and joint ventures, ninety days for limited liability companies and joint-stock companies, following the end of the fiscal year, the annual financial report of an enterprise must be submitted to the tax authority and the business registration authority with jurisdiction..."

Based on these provisions, the Tax Departments should urge taxpayers to submit their financial reports and tax finalization reports within the prescribed deadlines. However, in order to prepare a tax finalization report, taxpayers must first complete their financial report. Therefore, pending amendments to the Law on Corporate Income Tax, Circular No. 18/2002/TT-BTC dated February 20, 2002 of the Ministry of Finance has added provisions at point 6, section IV: Adjustment of figures for corporate income tax finalization, stipulating that if a business submits its tax finalization report within sixty days and subsequently discovers errors before the tax authority issues a notice, the business may submit an adjusted finalization report to replace the previously submitted one; The tax authority will not impose administrative penalties for late submission of financial reports within ninety days as prescribed by the Enterprise Law.

At its third session of the Eleventh National Assembly, the National Assembly passed the amended Corporate Income Tax Law and Accounting Law, which uniformly set the deadline for submitting tax finalization reports and financial reports at ninety days, effective from January 1, 2004. Given that the deadlines for submitting financial reports and tax finalization reports for the year 2002 have already passed, and considering that the amended Corporate Income Tax Law has just been approved by the National Assembly, the Ministry of Finance plans to draft a Government Decree detailing the implementation of the Corporate Income Tax Law and Accounting Law to take effect from January 1, 2004, applying the deadlines for tax finalization reports and financial reports for the calendar year or fiscal year 2003.

The Ministry of Finance hereby informs Provincial and Central City Tax Departments for their knowledge and implementation.