After the investment licence: the tax registrations a new foreign-invested company in Vietnam must complete

Once a foreign investor holds an investment registration certificate and an enterprise registration certificate for its Vietnamese company, the company exists and has a tax code — the enterprise code on the certificate. What it does not yet have is the tax and accounting infrastructure to buy, sell, pay staff and file returns. That set-up is a short list of registrations and decisions, most of which depend on each other.

Foreign owners tend to treat this phase as administrative and leave it to the incorporation agent. Some of it is administrative. But several choices made in the first months — the accounting currency, the fiscal year, how incentives are documented, who holds the digital signature — are expensive to change later. This guide sets out the order, and marks the decisions that belong to the owner.

What the certificates give you, and what they do not

For a company, the enterprise code doubles as the tax code, and the enterprise registration record already links it to a managing tax office. Check both on the tax authority's taxpayer information lookup straight away: the name, address, status and tax office shown there are what every invoice and return will carry. If anything is wrong, correcting the registration now is far simpler than correcting documents later.

The certificates do not open a bank account, register a digital signature, create an e-tax account, choose an accounting regime or register the company for e-invoices. Each of those is a separate step, and until they are done the company cannot properly pay a supplier or invoice a customer.

A note on the administrative map: since 1 July 2025 Vietnam has 34 provinces and centrally run cities, district level has been removed, and the tax administration works in three tiers — the Tax Department, provincial and city tax offices, and grassroots tax offices (Thuế cơ sở). A company registered before that date may see a different managing office today from the one on its early correspondence.

Money in: bank accounts and capital contribution

A foreign-invested enterprise typically opens a direct investment capital account with a licensed bank in Vietnam. The foreign investor's capital contributions come in through it, and profits and capital later go out through it. Separate current accounts in Vietnamese dong and, where needed, foreign currency handle day-to-day payments.

Three points matter for tax:

• Contribute capital on time and through the right account. The deadline comes from enterprise law and the registration certificates; money that arrives by another route is harder to document as capital.
• Keep evidence of the source. Bank advices showing the foreign investor as remitter, matched to the registered capital, will be needed again when profits are remitted or the investment is sold.
• Do not use capital to pay the parent's expenses. Costs incurred for the parent's benefit are not the subsidiary's deductible expenses, however they are paid.

Pay suppliers from company accounts from the start. Under Law 48/2024/QH15, a purchase invoice of VND 5 million or more needs evidence of non-cash payment for its input VAT to be credited, and early habits tend to stick.

Digital signature, e-tax account and e-invoices

The company's digital signature is issued to its tax code by a licensed certification provider. With it, the company registers its e-tax account on the tax authority's portal — the channel for filing returns, paying tax and receiving notices — and registers to use e-invoices.

Two owner decisions sit here. First, who in Vietnam holds the signature and under what written rule; it authorises filings and invoices, and a signature held only by an incorporation agent or a regional finance centre is a control gap. Second, which email address is registered for notices; it should be a shared finance mailbox that survives staff changes.

E-invoice registration has its own sequence — choosing a service provider, submitting the registration, testing, issuing the first invoice. We cover it step by step in a separate guide in our e-invoicing section. What matters here is timing: start it in the first weeks, because no invoice can be issued until the registration is accepted.

Accounting decisions that are hard to reverse

Foreign-invested enterprises are generally required to have their annual financial statements audited by an independent audit firm. Appoint the auditor early enough for the first year-end; a late appointment compresses the timetable for the first corporate income tax finalisation.

The first filings and payments

A new company has filing obligations from its first tax period, even before it earns revenue. The general deadlines under the Law on Tax Administration are as follows; Decree 252/2026/ND-CP and Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC, which guide tax administration from 1 July 2026, should be checked for any change:

• Monthly returns — by the 20th of the following month;
• Quarterly returns — by the last day of the first month of the following quarter;
• Annual finalisation for an organisation — by the last day of the third month after the end of the fiscal year.

Whether VAT is filed monthly or quarterly depends on the company's situation; a new company should confirm its filing period with its managing tax office rather than assume. Corporate income tax is paid provisionally during the year and settled at finalisation under Law 67/2025/QH15, which applies from the 2025 tax year with a standard rate of 20%. Two changes help new companies: under Resolution 198/2025/QH15, the business licence fee was abolished from 1 January 2026, and newly established small and medium-sized enterprises may qualify for a three-year CIT exemption — check whether your company meets the conditions before relying on it.

Late payment attracts interest calculated daily on the amount outstanding. The rate has long been 0.03% per day; check the rate currently in force. A missed first-quarter filing is a common and entirely avoidable way for a new FIE to open its file with the tax office.

Payroll, expatriate staff and incentives

From the first salary payment, the company withholds personal income tax and files withholding returns. For Vietnamese staff, the personal identification number has replaced the personal tax code since 1 July 2025. For expatriate directors and staff, the tax position depends on residence and on where they are paid; a director paid entirely from abroad is still likely to have Vietnamese tax obligations if they work in Vietnam. From the 2026 tax year the family deduction is VND 15.5 million a month for the taxpayer and VND 6.2 million a month for each registered dependant, under Resolution 110/2025/UBTVQH15.

If the project qualifies for tax incentives, the conditions are set by the law in force and by the project itself. Keep the incentive analysis, the investment certificate and evidence that conditions are met — location, sector, scale, timing — in one file from day one, and keep separate accounts for income that is and is not eligible. Incentives are reviewed at every finalisation and inspection; a file assembled years later is weaker than one kept as the project was built.

Where to check yourself

• Taxpayer information lookup — name, address, status and managing tax office of the company.
• The company's e-tax account — filing obligations the tax authority has registered for you, returns filed, payments and notices.
• The e-invoice portal — whether e-invoice registration has been accepted, and invoices issued and received.
• The managing tax office — to confirm filing periods and any registration question in writing.

If the company has a foreign legal representative, the personal obligations that come with that role are worth reading about separately; see the guides on foreign legal representatives on DaiDienPhapLuat.com (Vietnamese).