Compliance Timeline

Upcoming regulatory effective dates and compliance deadlines

All Business Registration & Foreign Investment Corporate Income Tax Customs E-Invoice IFRS / Accounting Standards Labor Personal Income Tax Real Estate & Land VAT

September 2026

Sep 15, 202671/2026/VBHN-ND-BCTOverdue

Consolidated Decree on Management and Development of Industrial Clusters (Consolidated Text No. 71/2026/VBHN-ND-BCT)

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued Consolidated Text No. 71/2026/VBHN-ND-BCT, merging Decree 32/2024/ND-CP on the management and development of industrial clusters with the amendments in Decree 303/2026/ND-CP (effective September 15, 2026). The decree governs the full lifecycle of an industrial cluster: its legal definition (a site of 5 to 75 hectares with no resident population), priority cluster types (craft-village, specialized, supporting-industry, high-tech, and eco-industrial clusters), the conditions and application file needed to establish or expand a cluster, and the investment incentives that apply. For SMEs, cooperatives, and foreign investors looking for production sites, this matters because it sets the conditions under which a province may approve a new cluster (existing clusters in the area must already be over 50 percent occupied, or unleased industrial land must not exceed 50 hectares), and it spells out the rights of businesses that lease land inside a cluster - including eligibility for investment incentives under land, tax, and credit law, since industrial clusters are legally classified as an area with difficult socio-economic conditions that qualifies for the highest incentive tier. The notable change in the 2026 amendment is a nationwide terminology update replacing district-level administrative language with commune-level language, reflecting Vietnam's elimination of the district tier of local government; a rename of the cluster development plan to development direction; new definitions for supporting-industry and high-tech clusters; and a streamlined appraisal process that now routes applications through commune-level People's Committees and the provincial Department of Industry and Trade. Businesses planning to lease land or invest in cluster infrastructure should review the new commune-level filing channel that takes effect September 15, 2026.

April 2026

Apr 7, 202616/2026/NQ-CPOverdue

Resolution 16/2026/NQ-CP: Mechanisms and Policies to Resolve Difficulties for Transitional Build-Transfer (BT) Investment Projects

On April 7, 2026, the Government issued Resolution 16/2026/NQ-CP setting out special mechanisms and policies to resolve difficulties for legacy Build-Transfer (BT) investment projects signed before the Law on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Investment took effect, referred to as "transitional BT projects". The Resolution applies only to a fixed list of projects named in two appendices, covering Ministry of National Defense facilities and infrastructure works in a number of provinces including Bac Ninh, Ca Mau, Dak Lak and others. The core content sets out payment procedures for investors under several scenarios. Where the contract complied with the law at the time of signing, the competent authority continues paying via state budget funds or via land and public-asset swaps as originally agreed in the signed contract. Where contract terms were non-compliant due to a state-agency error, the two parties may agree to amend the contract and continue, provided the project is operating effectively and has caused no loss or corruption. Where continuation is not feasible, the contract is terminated early and the state pays the investor based on the construction value confirmed by the State Audit. The Resolution also addresses how to handle mismatches between the estimated and actual value of land used for payment, how to reimburse investors for site-clearance costs they advanced, and when land prices are determined for calculating land-related financial obligations. The Resolution takes effect from its signing date (April 7, 2026) through December 31, 2027, and assigns the Ministry of Finance and competent authorities (ministries, provincial People's Committees) to implement it and report periodically to the Prime Minister. Because its scope is limited to the specific list of BT projects in the appendices, this document does not directly affect most small and medium enterprises, accountants, or typical foreign investors - it mainly concerns large infrastructure investors with long-standing disputes with state agencies over previously signed BT contracts.

March 2026

Mar 17, 202621/2026/TT-BTCOverdue

Circular 21/2026/TT-BTC: Amended Land Rent Exemption Dossiers and CIT Filing Forms for Capital and Real Estate Transfers

Circular 21/2026/TT-BTC, issued by the Ministry of Finance on March 17, 2026 and effective the same day, amends parts of Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC, the main guidance document for tax administration under the Tax Administration Law. The changes cover two areas: the paperwork required to get an exemption or reduction of annually-paid land rent, and the corporate income tax (CIT) declaration forms used for real estate and capital transfer transactions. On land rent, the Circular rewrites Article 59 to set out the dossier for four situations: agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, or salt-production land lessees hit by natural disaster or fire; production and business land lessees forced to suspend operations due to disaster, fire, or force majeure; organizations employing ethnic-minority workers in disadvantaged areas; and organizations employing workers with disabilities. Where the required proof is already available in a national database the tax authority can access, taxpayers no longer need to submit paper copies. The Circular also raises the average tax-collection-agency commission cap to no more than 6 percent of the amount collected (amending Article 82.2), and repeals the old Article 60. On CIT, the Circular replaces Form 02/TNDN (the per-transaction real estate transfer declaration) and Form 05/TNDN (the capital transfer declaration for foreign enterprises). Foreign enterprises that signed a capital transfer contract before Decree 320/2025/ND-CP took effect may still use the old Form 05/TNDN under Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC. Businesses and individuals handling land rent exemptions or capital/real estate transfer filings should check their paperwork and forms against the new rules starting March 17, 2026.

February 2026

Feb 9, 202654/2026/NĐ-CPOverdue

Decree 54/2026/ND-CP: Amendments to Regulations on Housing and Real Estate Business

Decree 54/2026/ND-CP, dated February 9, 2026, amends a broad set of provisions across four decrees implementing the Housing Law and the Real Estate Business Law (Decrees 96/2024, 95/2024, 98/2024, and 100/2024), plus two Ministry of Construction decentralization decrees (140/2025 and 144/2025). It is a major administrative-procedure reform for the housing and real estate sector, effective from its signing date. On general principles, applications can now be filed in person, online, or by post; many pieces of personal information will be replaced by the personal identification number once the national population database is operational, and results can be issued electronically with the same legal value as paper documents. Several processing deadlines are cut significantly - for example from 15 to 10 days, from 30 to 20 days, or from 15 days down to just 5 working days for condominium renovation and reconstruction procedures. For foreign investors, the decree shortens to 7 days the time the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security have to give an opinion on national defense and security zones when a developer wants to sell off-plan housing to foreign organizations or individuals. Office and premises requirements for real estate brokerage firms are simplified in line with enterprise law, and termination or suspension of trading floors and brokerage firms now follows general enterprise-law procedures instead of a separate process. The decree adds a pricing formula (including value-added tax) for state-built resettlement housing sale, lease, and lease-purchase prices, revises the registration process for buying, renting, or lease-purchasing social housing and housing for the armed forces, and reassigns management authority over state-owned housing to match the two-tier local government model. Real estate developers, project owners, trading floors, brokerage firms, and foreign investors should update their internal processes promptly to meet the new deadlines and procedures.

July 2025

Jul 1, 202518/VBHN-BXDOverdue

Consolidated Document 18/VBHN-BXD: Decree Detailing the Law on Urban and Rural Planning

Consolidated Document 18/VBHN-BXD, issued by the Ministry of Construction on March 24, 2026, merges Decree 178/2025/ND-CP (effective July 1, 2025) with amending Decree 34/2026/ND-CP (effective January 22, 2026). It details how urban and rural master plans, zoning plans, and detailed plans are prepared, appraised, and approved under the 2024 Law on Urban and Rural Planning. The decree sets time limits for preparing master plans (9 to 15 months depending on the approving authority), zoning plans (up to 9 months), and detailed plans (up to 6 months); qualification and licensing requirements for consulting organizations and individuals involved in planning work; and the procedure for resolving conflicts between plans of the same level. A point of practical relevance for investors is the streamlined «general site layout plan» (quy hoach tong mat bang) mechanism, which lets small land plots (under 2 hectares for apartment projects, under 10 hectares for factories or production facilities, under 5 hectares for other projects) get planning approval within 15 days without a full detailed plan and appraisal process. The decree also amends terminology across several related decrees (real estate business, housing, industrial parks and economic zones, hi-tech zones, and the construction information database system) to standardize the term 'urban and rural planning' in place of the older 'construction planning'. This is primarily an administrative-procedure decree for the construction planning sector and real estate or industrial project execution; it does not address tax, accounting, e-invoicing, labor, or customs matters. Businesses with construction investment projects, especially foreign investors and real estate or industrial developers, may need to reference it when seeking planning approval for their projects.

February 2025

Feb 19, 2025122/2026/VBHN-NQ-VPQHOverdue

Consolidated Text No. 122/2026/VBHN-NQ-VPQH: Resolution on Special Mechanisms and Policies for the Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant Project

This is a consolidated text merging National Assembly Resolution No. 189/2025/QH15 (effective 19 February 2025) with the amendments made by Standing Committee Resolution No. 121/2026/UBTVQH15 (effective 30 March 2026). Together they set out special mechanisms and policies for building the Ninh Thuan 1 and Ninh Thuan 2 nuclear power plants. The resolution grants a package of exceptions available only to this project: fast-track direct contractor appointment (no competitive bidding) for the turnkey main-plant package and key consulting packages; international treaty negotiations run in parallel with investment-policy approval; use of the foreign partner's own technical standards where Vietnamese standards are absent; domestic commercial banks are exempted from counting the investor's loans toward their credit-concentration limits under the Law on Credit Institutions; the investor may borrow ODA and issue project bonds without some of the usual appraisal steps. Ninh Thuan province keeps 70% of incremental budget revenue generated by the project, may borrow ODA above the normal cap, and applies land-recovery compensation and resettlement support at a 1.5x multiplier for households and organizations whose land is taken for the project. For SMEs generally, direct impact is minimal since these are one-off exceptions tied to a single national energy infrastructure project. Parties directly affected are the state-owned project investor, commercial banks arranging financing, domestic and foreign contractors bidding for the works, and landholders and businesses in the affected areas of Ninh Thuan province. Accountants and tax advisors serving those parties should note the special credit-limit exemptions and the enhanced land-compensation formula described above.

January 2025

Jan 1, 2025Nghị quyết 254/2025/QH15 Điều 10 khoản 2 điểm c; Nghị định 50/2026/NĐ-CPOverdue

Ministry of Finance guidance on the scope of reduced land use fees for conversion of garden/pond land to residential land under Resolution 254/2025/QH15

The Ministry of Finance clarified that the preferential land use fee provisions under Point c, Clause 2, Article 10 of Resolution 254/2025/QH15 apply to three specific cases: (i) garden, pond, or agricultural land within the same parcel as residential land recognized when the land use right was granted, converted to residential use; (ii) land originally constituting garden/pond attached to residential land that users have separated to transfer use rights; (iii) garden/pond land attached to residential land that a surveying unit had self-measured and separated into distinct parcels before 01 July 2014. The Ministry clarified that the phrase 'before 01 July 2014' modifies only case (iii) regarding the surveying separation, not case (ii) concerning user-initiated separation for rights transfer. For specific circumstances, individuals should consult local competent authorities.

High

August 2024

Aug 1, 202417/VBHN-BXDOverdue

Consolidated Document No. 17/VBHN-BXD: Circular Detailing Certain Provisions of the Housing Law

This is a consolidated document issued by the Ministry of Construction, merging Circular No. 05/2024/TT-BXD (effective August 1, 2024) with three subsequent amendments (Circulars 09/2025/TT-BXD, 32/2025/TT-BXD, and 08/2026/TT-BXD) into a single, easy-to-reference text. It details provisions of the 2023 Housing Law, covering: a requirement for foreign individuals who own housing in Vietnam to notify the commune-level People's Committee before leasing their property; conditions for individuals building multi-story, multi-unit houses for lease (construction permits, fire safety); template forms proving eligibility and income conditions for purchasing, hire-purchasing social housing or accessing preferential loans to build or renovate housing; formulas for provincial housing development program and plan budgets; template contracts for sale, lease, and hire-purchase of social and resettlement housing; and a standard training curriculum for condominium operation and management staff, together with the full Condominium Management and Use Regulation attached as an appendix. Because this is a consolidated text rather than a new circular, it does not by itself create new legal obligations - it simply restates existing Housing Law rules in one unified, readable version. The parties most affected are real estate businesses, housing project investors, condominium operating units, condominium management boards, individuals or households seeking to buy, lease, or hire-purchase social housing, and foreign individuals who own housing in Vietnam. This content sits within the housing, construction, and real estate sector and does not directly touch VAT, CIT, e-invoicing, labor, or customs obligations, which are RegHub's core coverage areas for SME owners and accountants. It is therefore assessed as outside the platform's core content scope.

March 2013

Mar 1, 201304/VBHN-BXDOverdue

Consolidated Document No. 04/VBHN-BXD: Decree on Urban Development Investment Management

This is Consolidated Document No. 04/VBHN-BXD issued by the Ministry of Construction, merging the original Decree 11/2013/ND-CP on urban development investment management with five rounds of amendments over the years (Decrees 100/2018, 31/2021, 35/2023, 96/2024, and most recently 35/2026/ND-CP, effective from 22 January 2026). The consolidated text sets out the full management process for urban area projects: urban planning approval, proposal dossiers for urban development areas, approval authority, obligations of primary and secondary project investors, capital mobilization, sale of project products, and procedures for handing over urban infrastructure management to local authorities. The substance sits squarely within urban planning and construction / real-estate-business law, applying to urban development project investors (including foreign investors) and provincial People's Committees. It does not directly address taxation, e-invoicing, accounting, or labor matters - a key distinction for readers of this platform. Because its regulatory scope falls outside RegHub's core coverage areas (VAT, corporate income tax, e-invoicing, IFRS, labor, and customs), this document has been assessed as not a fit for publication on the platform, even though it may hold reference value for real estate developers and urban infrastructure investors.