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The Government is submitting to the National Assembly a draft Law amending and supplementing several articles of the Securities Law, expected to be considered for passage at the 2nd Session of the 16th National Assembly term. This is an early-stage draft, and the detailed content of the proposed amendments has not yet been published. Because the Securities Law governs securities issuance and trading, public companies, and capital markets, any amendment could affect listed companies, public companies, investors, and financial intermediaries. Business owners and accountants should monitor this draft's progress to prepare for potential changes to disclosure obligations, issuance conditions, or public company governance requirements. Since the specific text of the proposed amendments is not yet publicly available, RegHub will update this article once the detailed draft or the official enacted law is released.

The Government is submitting to the National Assembly a draft law amending and supplementing several provisions of three key financial and banking laws: the State Bank of Vietnam Law No. 46/2010/QH12, the Anti-Money Laundering Law No. 14/2022/QH15, and the Law on Credit Institutions No. 32/2024/QH15. The draft is expected to be reviewed and passed at the First Extraordinary Session of the 16th National Assembly. At this stage, only the draft title and procedural metadata (submitting authority, expected passage session) are publicly available; the detailed text of the proposed amendments has not yet been released. Because it touches three foundational laws governing the banking system and anti-money laundering framework, the amendments could affect credit institutions, commercial banks, finance companies, and businesses that transact through the banking system, particularly around anti-money laundering compliance requirements (KYC, suspicious transaction reporting). Businesses, especially credit institutions, fintech companies, and foreign-invested enterprises operating in the financial sector, should monitor this draft closely as it progresses. RegHub will provide a full update once detailed provisions or the final enacted text become available.

Vietnam's National Assembly is in the process of drafting and consolidating a State Budget Law, led by the Ministry of Finance with review by the Economic and Financial Committee. This draft law is expected to be presented at the First Extraordinary Session of the 16th National Assembly term. The official passage date has not yet been announced and remains pending. At this stage, the detailed content of the draft has not been fully published in the source material - only information about the drafting agency, the reviewing committee, and the expected submission timeline is available. The State Budget Law is a foundational legal instrument governing state revenue, expenditure, and fiscal management, with broad implications for tax policy, public resource allocation, and the overall business environment. Businesses, particularly those that transact with the public sector or are affected by fiscal policy, should monitor the progress of this draft law. RegHub will provide updates once the detailed content and specific provisions of the draft become available.

Vietnam's Ministry of Finance is leading the drafting of a law that would amend and supplement provisions of both the Accounting Law and the Law on Independent Audit. The draft will be reviewed by the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee before being submitted to the 16th National Assembly term. At this stage, the only public information available is the title of the draft law and the responsible agencies; no detailed article-by-article content has been released yet.

A company operating in trade and IT services asked the Ministry of Finance how to handle personal income tax (PIT) on commissions and fees paid to sales collaborators. These collaborators only find and refer customers and help negotiate terms; they do not sign contracts in their own name, do not issue invoices, do not collect payment from customers, and do not run an independent business. All contracts, invoices, and revenue belong to the company. The Hanoi Tax Department responded that commissions or fees paid to collaborators who are not business individuals qualify as wage and remuneration income under Point c, Clause 2, Article 2 of Circular 111/2013/TT-BTC. This covers sales agency commissions, brokerage commissions, and other service fees, all of which are subject to PIT. Because the collaborators have no labor contract with the company, under Point i, Clause 1, Article 25 of Circular 111/2013/TT-BTC, the company must withhold PIT at a flat rate of 10% on the income before payment, whenever a single payment reaches 2,000,000 VND or more. This is an important compliance point for any business using a collaborator or affiliate-style sales model, since misclassifying these payments can lead to under-withholding, back taxes, and late-payment penalties.

The Ministry of Finance (via the Hung Yen Provincial Tax Department) responded to an industrial cluster project investor asking how to treat money the company voluntarily pays to acquire an additional small plot of land lying outside the approved project boundary, after local households requested a sale and the commune People's Committee proposed an additional land recovery. Under Clause 2, Article 94 of the 2024 Land Law and Point d, Clause 2, Article 16 of Decree 103/2025/ND-CP, if a business voluntarily advances compensation, support, and resettlement funding under a plan already approved by the competent authority, the state budget reimburses that amount by offsetting it against the land use fee or annual land rent the business owes. The deductible amount cannot exceed the land use fee or land rent payable; any remaining balance is recorded as a reasonable investment cost of the project. District-level People's Committees are responsible for the accuracy of the compensation, support, and resettlement figures used as the basis for the tax authority's offset. The tax authority performs the offset against land use fees or land rent once it receives notice from the relevant People's Committees, and this also forms the basis for calculating the project's deductible costs. In short, the advanced payment is first offset against land rent obligations, and any un-offset portion is recognized as a deductible project cost.

The Ministry of Finance has responded to a query from an international freight forwarding agent about applying the 0% VAT rate to port handling fees and related charges (documentation fees, delivery order fees, cleaning fees, container balancing fees, container maintenance fees, agency fees) provided to an enterprise located in a non-tariff zone in connection with imported goods (machinery). Under Point b, Clause 1, Article 9 of VAT Law No. 48/2024/QH15 and Clauses 2, 4, and 5, Article 17 of Decree 181/2025/ND-CP, export services qualify for the 0% VAT rate when provided directly to an organization in a non-tariff zone and consumed within that zone to directly serve export production activities. The key condition is that the service must serve the export production of the receiving organization, not other activities, and must not fall under the exclusion list in Clause 4, Article 17 (such as leasing of housing or warehouses, catering services, or worker shuttle transport within the non-tariff zone). The Ministry did not issue a blanket ruling on each specific fee type, instead directing the company to compare its situation against the cited regulations. The key takeaway for businesses is that fees not explicitly named in Point b, Clause 2, Article 17 (such as cleaning fees, container balancing fees, container maintenance fees, and agency fees) may still qualify for the 0% rate if, in substance, they are services provided directly to a non-tariff zone organization, directly serve its export production, and are not covered by the exclusions. Logistics companies and freight agents should carefully examine the true nature of each fee and the intended use of the imported goods to apply the correct VAT rate and avoid the risk of tax reassessment during audits.

The Ministry of Finance (answered via Ca Mau Provincial Tax Department) clarified how household businesses should handle tax declarations after the taxable revenue threshold was raised from VND 500 million to VND 1 billion per year under Decree 68/2026/ND-CP (dated March 5, 2026), as amended by Decree 141/2026/ND-CP (dated April 29, 2026). For household businesses with annual revenue between VND 500 million and under VND 1 billion that already filed a Q1 return under the old rules, they no longer need to file quarterly tax returns from Q2 onward. Instead, they only need to notify the tax authority of their actual revenue for the year by January 31 of the following year. Regarding tax amounts already assessed or paid for Q1 under the old threshold, if a household business filed a return but has not yet paid the tax, it should contact its managing tax office for guidance. If tax was already paid and year-end revenue remains under VND 1 billion, the business may request a refund of the overpaid tax under the Law on Tax Administration. On the question of how local tax authorities will nationally standardize the process of updating tax obligations, the responding authority (Ca Mau Provincial Tax Department) stated this issue lacks specific guidance and it cannot answer on behalf of the relevant authority. For household businesses with revenue under VND 1 billion per year that are not required to use e-invoices and have already notified a suspension of e-invoice use starting Q2/2026, they do not need to continue filing quarterly VAT and personal income tax returns for Q2/2026 onward, provided annual revenue does not exceed the VND 1 billion threshold; they only need to report actual revenue by January 31 of the following year. For household businesses with revenue of VND 1 billion or less that voluntarily register to use e-invoices to serve their business and customer needs, tax declaration is still done annually (reporting actual revenue by January 31 of the following year), not quarterly.

The State Securities Commission (under the Ministry of Finance) issued guidance clarifying how public companies must calculate the total value of related-party transactions when determining whether General Meeting of Shareholders (GMS) approval is required under Decree 155/2020/ND-CP. First, on aggregating transactions over a 12-month period: the aggregation applies to ALL transactions between the company and the same related party, regardless of contract type (goods purchase/sale, service provision, financial transactions, asset leasing, etc.). This is significant because companies might otherwise assume aggregation only applies within groups of transactions sharing the same economic nature. Second, on the timing for determining GMS authority: this is not based solely on the value of each individual contract at signing, but must also account for the total value of transactions already incurred and expected to arise within 12 months from the first transaction. Third, if the GMS has already passed a resolution approving a maximum annual (or multi-year) transaction limit with a related party, specific transactions within that approved limit are carried out under the existing resolution, without needing to re-apply the 35% threshold and 12-month aggregation test for each individual transaction. Public companies should review their internal related-party transaction tracking processes to avoid breaching approval authority requirements.

The Ministry of Finance (via Hai Phong City Tax Department) responded to a business inquiry about registration fee (lệ phí trước bạ) exemption after a corporate merger. The company had been leasing land from the State under an annual payment arrangement and had been granted a registration fee exemption under Clause 7, Article 9 of Decree 140/2016/ND-CP, with a Land Use Right Certificate (LURC) issued in 2020. The company asked whether, after merging into another entity, the surviving entity would continue to enjoy the registration fee exemption when registering the change of land user name on the LURC due to the merger. Under Clause 7, Article 10 of Decree No. 10/2022/ND-CP dated January 15, 2022 on registration fees, land leased from the State under an annual rental payment method, or leased from organizations or individuals that already hold lawful land use rights, is exempt from registration fees. Based on this, the tax authority confirmed that when the surviving entity after a merger carries out the procedure to register the change and update the land user's name on the LURC, if the land use method remains an annually-paid State land lease, it continues to qualify for the registration fee exemption under Clause 7, Article 10 of Decree 10/2022/ND-CP. This clarification is useful for businesses undergoing restructuring or mergers that hold land use rights under annual-payment State leases.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has issued an official response to a public service unit (a Tourism Promotion Center that is partially self-financed for recurring expenditures) regarding which funding sources may be used to pay retirement and severance benefits to employees under Decree 178/2024/ND-CP. The question centered on whether the unit could use its retained fee revenue to pay benefits for staff who fall outside the state-budget-funded staffing quota. Under Point b, Clause 2, Article 3 of Circular No. 07/2025/TT-BTC, for such staff the unit may draw on its allocated state budget estimate, revenue from public service activities, and other lawful revenue sources to make these payments. Read together with Article 15 of Decree No. 60/2021/ND-CP, which defines the financial sources of a Group-3 public service unit (partially self-financed for recurring expenditures) as including the state budget, public service activity revenue, retained fee revenue, and other revenue. The Ministry of Finance confirmed that the unit is entitled to use its annual state budget allocation, public service activity revenue, retained fee revenue, and other lawful revenue sources together to pay benefits to eligible individuals under Decree 178/2024/ND-CP. This clarification is important guidance for Group-2 and Group-3 public service units currently undergoing personnel streamlining and organizational restructuring.