Vietnam compliance, handled

A foreign-invested enterprise (FIE) in Vietnam carries the same compliance load as any local company, with a few extras: an annual independent audit, transfer pricing documentation, and statistical reporting. The calendar varies with revenue — companies under VND 50 billion file VAT and PIT quarterly; larger ones file monthly — but every FIE pays provisional corporate income tax each quarter and finalizes the year within 90 days of year-end.

Missing a deadline triggers late-payment interest and an administrative fine. Persistent slips can put your tax-good-standing status at risk, and a few of the filings (annual financial statements, the business license tax) are checked when you renew your investment certificate or open a new account. Running the calendar yourself is doable; doing it reliably across every period is what the team handles.

The most common slips are not exotic. A late VAT filing triggers a fixed administrative fine plus 0.03% per day late-payment interest on the unpaid amount. Missing the annual financial statements deadline (31 March for a calendar-year FIE) draws a larger fine and can flag your file at the Department of Finance. The annual PIT finalization slips most often where the company assumed an employee was self-finalizing — both employer and employee finalizations exist, and they are not interchangeable.

Foreign Contractor Tax is the silent risk: it applies to payments your Vietnamese company makes to overseas service providers for work consumed in Vietnam, with rates depending on the activity. It is not on the recurring calendar because it is event-driven, and many FIEs do not realize it applies until an audit. We track it on a contract-by-contract basis.