Tax administration, audits and disputes: the 2025 Law on Tax Administration, registration and filing, e-tax, penalties and interest, limitation periods, examinations and inspections, enforcement and exit suspension, complaints and court challenges

The law and the tax authority

Law No. 108/2025/QH15 on Tax Administration was passed on 10 December 2025 and took effect on 1 July 2026, replacing Law No. 38/2019/QH14; some provisions on business households and individuals applied from January 2026. It is detailed by Decree No. 252/2026/ND-CP, which also sets the tax conditions for profit remittance and the exit suspension rules, and by Circular No. 89/2026/TT-BTC on declarations and procedures. Penalties remain in Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP as amended by Decree No. 310/2025/ND-CP. The law keeps the familiar deadlines and the 0.03% daily late-payment interest, but shortens tax examinations, removes tax inspection to the general Law on Inspection, shortens the period for supplementary declarations to five years and strengthens collection and third-party reporting (FAQ 30).

Administration was restructured in 2025. Under Decision No. 381/QD-BTC, from 1 March 2025 the General Department of Taxation became the Tax Department (Cục Thuế) of the Ministry of Finance, and its local network, briefly organised in 20 regional sub-departments, was reorganised from 1 July 2025 into 34 provincial-level tax offices matching the merged provinces, with grassroots tax offices below them. A company deals with the provincial tax office where its head office is registered, or with the large-taxpayer unit if it is designated as a large taxpayer. Customs duties are administered separately by the Customs Department (Customs and import duties).

Registration, filing and payment

A company receives its tax code with its Enterprise Registration Certificate, the enterprise code doubling as the tax code, and its branches and dependent units receive codes derived from it. Changes to registered information are made through the business registration system and flow to the tax authority; changes that affect tax only, such as the accounting method or the financial year, are notified to the tax office. Foreign contractors, foreign suppliers of digital services and individuals register separately where they must file themselves.

The filing cycle is summarised in the table below and set out month by month in Compliance calendar after licensing. Monthly VAT and PIT returns are due by the 20th of the following month, or quarterly by the last day of the month after the quarter where prior-year revenue is up to VND 50 billion. Provisional CIT is paid quarterly, without a return, by the 30th day of the month after each quarter, and the four instalments must together reach at least 80% of the final liability; any shortfall bears late-payment interest from the due date of the fourth instalment. The annual CIT finalisation and the employer's PIT finalisation are due by the last day of the third month after year end, individuals' own PIT finalisation by the last day of the fourth month. Foreign contractor tax and other per-transaction taxes are declared within ten days. Payment is due on the filing deadline.

Filing and payment are electronic through the Tax Department's e-tax portal, signed with the company's digital signature, and payment is made from a bank account linked to the tax code. The law provides for an electronic tax account for each taxpayer, automatic processing of refunds, exemptions and reductions on electronic data and risk criteria, and a compliance profile that rates each taxpayer's risk, with detail to follow in a Ministry of Finance circular. Credit institutions must now report the payment accounts linked to each tax code and share transaction information with the tax authority, and income payers must report the payments and withholdings they make.

Penalties and late-payment interest

Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP on penalties for tax and invoice violations, as amended by Decree No. 310/2025/ND-CP, grades fines for late filing according to the length of the delay, from a warning for a short delay with mitigating circumstances to fines of up to VND 25 million for returns filed very late or not at all where tax is payable. Where a return or a finalisation understates the tax payable, or overstates a refund, exemption or reduction, and the case is not evasion, the penalty is 20% of the tax understated. Tax evasion not prosecuted as a crime, such as failing to declare revenue, using unlawful invoices or wrongly claiming an exemption knowingly, is fined at one to three times the tax evaded. Companies themselves can be criminally liable for tax evasion under the Penal Code above the statutory thresholds, as can their managers. Invoice violations are fined separately under the same decree.

In every case the tax itself is collected, with late-payment interest of 0.03% a day from the day after the due date to the day of payment, a rate the 2025 law kept. The law abolished the former exemption from interest where an overpayment is offset against a liability, and allows penalties and interest to be waived where technical failures of the tax authority's system prevented timely compliance. A supplementary declaration made voluntarily, before the tax authority announces an examination, attracts interest but avoids the understatement penalty; a supplementary declaration for a period already examined that increases the tax requires the tax authority's approval and is penalised as if the authority had found the error.

How far back the tax authority can go

Article 44 of Law No. 108/2025/QH15 fixes the limitation periods. The time limit for imposing penalties is two years for violations of tax procedures, such as late registration or late filing, and five years for understatement leading to a shortfall, overstatement of refunds, exemptions or reductions, and tax evasion not prosecuted as a crime (Article 44(7)). Separately, a taxpayer must pay any tax shortfall or evaded tax, with late-payment interest, for up to ten years back from the date the violation is detected, and for the whole period where it never registered for tax (Article 44(8)). Once the penalty period has run, no fine can be imposed, but the tax and interest remain collectible within the ten-year window.

The taxpayer's own window for correcting returns has been shortened: supplementary declarations may be filed within five years of the original filing deadline, down from ten. Records should therefore be kept for at least ten years, which also matches the accounting law's retention period for key records, and an acquirer's tax due diligence should look back over the same period (Tax on share transfers and dividends).

Examinations, audits and inspections

The tax authority reviews every return electronically and may ask for explanations at its own office (a desk examination). A tax examination at the taxpayer's premises under Law No. 108/2025/QH15 is now limited to higher-risk cases, including reorganisations, changes of business location and dossiers for tax exemption, reduction or non-collection, with periodic and reorganisation examinations at the premises no more than once a year. An examination at the premises is limited to 20 days, extendable once; a transfer pricing examination to 40 days, extendable once by up to 40 days; and up to two years where information must be exchanged with foreign tax authorities. A higher authority may re-examine within two years of the original conclusion or penalty decision. Tax inspection, the more formal procedure used for serious cases, is no longer regulated by the tax administration law and is conducted under the Law on Inspection.

Selection is risk-based, using the taxpayer's compliance profile and data from invoices, customs, banks and third parties. In foreign-invested companies the items most often examined are: input VAT and expenses on invoices from non-compliant suppliers and cash payments above VND 5 million; foreign contractor tax on payments abroad; management fees, royalties and interest to related parties and the 30% EBITDA cap (Transfer pricing, interest and the global minimum tax); the conditions of CIT incentives and separate accounting; PIT on expatriates' offshore pay and benefits; and refunds. At the end of an examination the team issues minutes and a conclusion, followed by a decision on any tax, interest and penalties; the taxpayer should comment in writing on the draft minutes, because points not raised then are harder to argue later.

Enforcement and exit suspension

Where tax remains unpaid after its due date, the tax authority may enforce by deducting money from the taxpayer's bank accounts and freezing them, deducting part of an individual's salary, invalidating the taxpayer's invoices, seizing and selling assets, collecting money held by third parties, and, under the 2025 law, asking the taxpayer to suspend business and asking the business registration authority to suspend changes to its registration. Tax debts are published, and an enterprise with overdue tax cannot remit profits abroad (Profit remittance and repatriation of capital).

Temporary exit suspension is the measure that most concerns foreign managers. Under Decree No. 252/2026/ND-CP, which replaced the rules in Decree No. 49/2025/ND-CP, the tax authority may ask the immigration authority to stop a person leaving Vietnam where: an enterprise is subject to enforcement of a tax administration decision and owes tax of VND 500 million or more overdue for 120 days or more, in which case the measure may reach its legal representative and its beneficial owner; a business individual or household owner owes VND 50 million or more overdue for 120 days or more; an enterprise has ceased to operate at its registered address and has not reactivated or terminated its tax code within 120 days of the notice; or a foreign national, an emigrating Vietnamese citizen or an overseas Vietnamese has tax obligations outstanding before departure. In the standard cases the tax authority gives at least 30 days' notice through the tax system and on its website before notifying the immigration authority; for foreign nationals the notice goes to the immigration authority immediately, and may be extended. The measure is lifted when the debt falls below the threshold or is written off, without full payment, and the immigration authority must lift it immediately on notice.

Complaints and court challenges

A taxpayer that disagrees with a tax decision, such as an assessment, a penalty decision, a refusal of a refund or an enforcement decision, may complain to the authority that issued it, generally within 90 days of receiving the decision, under the tax administration law and Law No. 02/2011/QH13 on Complaints. A first complaint is ordinarily decided within 30 days of acceptance, or 45 days for complex cases. If the taxpayer disagrees with the first decision, or no decision is made in time, it may make a second complaint to the next higher authority or bring an administrative lawsuit. A lawsuit may also be brought directly, without complaining first, within one year of receiving the decision under Law No. 93/2015/QH13 on Administrative Procedures; since 1 July 2025 first-instance cases are usually heard by a regional people's court. The tax decision generally remains enforceable while the complaint or lawsuit proceeds, so the tax is usually paid under protest and recovered if the challenge succeeds.

Where a dispute arises from the application of a double taxation agreement, including double taxation caused by a transfer pricing adjustment, the taxpayer may also request the mutual agreement procedure under Circular No. 95/2026/TT-BTC, which is not considered while the same matter is before a court. An investor whose dispute is with the State more broadly, rather than over a tax decision, should consider the investment treaty routes in Chapter 9.

How to handle a tax examination and challenge its result

1. Prepare when the notice arrivesCheck the scope, the periods and the team named in the examination decision; assemble returns, ledgers, invoices, contracts, transfer pricing files and prior correspondence; appoint one coordinator and an adviser.
2. Consider a voluntary supplementary declarationBefore the examination is announced, a supplementary declaration avoids the 20% penalty; once it is announced, corrections for the period require approval and are penalised.
3. Manage the fieldworkProvide documents promptly within the 20-day or 40-day examination period, record every request and answer in writing, and explain positions with legal references.
4. Comment on the draft minutesState every disagreement in writing before signing the minutes, attaching evidence; the conclusion and decision usually follow the minutes.
5. Pay or secure the amount assessedThe decision is generally enforceable despite a challenge; pay to stop interest running and to avoid enforcement and exit suspension, reserving the right to recover.
6. Complain within 90 days or sue within one yearFile a reasoned complaint with the issuing authority, then a second complaint or an administrative lawsuit; for treaty issues consider the mutual agreement procedure.