August, 2025 Newsletter
September 18th, 2025
Amendment and supplement to regulations on cases in which foreign employees are not required to obtain a work permit
On August 7th, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 219/2025/ND-CP on foreign employees working in Vietnam. This Decree amends and supplements the regulations regarding foreign employees who are not required to obtain a work permit, including the following cases:
(i) Persons falling under one of the cases specified in Clauses 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of Article 154 of the Labor Code, specifically including:
- Being the Head of a representative office, project or the person in charge of the operation of an international organizations or a foreign non-governmental organization in Vietnam.
- Entering Vietnam for a period of less than 03 months to do marketing of a service.
- Entering Vietnam for a period of less than 03 months to a handle incidents or complex technical or technological issue that arise and affect or threaten to affect production and business, which Vietnamese experts and foreign experts currently in Vietnam cannot handle.
- Being a foreign lawyer who has been granted a lawyer’s practicing certificate in Vietnam in accordance with the Law on Lawyers.
- Cases as provided for under international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory.
- Foreigners married to Vietnamese citizens and residing in the territory of Vietnam.
(ii) Owners or capital contributors whose capital contribution to a limited liability company has a value of VND 03 billion or more.
(iii) Chairpersons of the Board of Directors or members of the Board of Directors whose capital contribution to a joint-stock company has a value of VND 3 billion or more.
(iv) Persons entering Vietnam to provide consulting services on expertise and technology or to perform other tasks serving the research, development, appraisal, monitoring, evaluation, management, and implementation of programs or projects using official development assistance as prescribed or as agreed under international treaties on official development assistance concluded between competent authorities of Vietnam and foreign countries.
(v) Foreign journalists engaged in press activities who are certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
(vi) Persons seconded by competent foreign authorities or organizations to Vietnam to teach, serve as managers, or act as chief executives at educational institutions established at the request of foreign diplomatic missions or intergovernmental organizations in Vietnam, or at institutions and organizations established under international treaties to which Vietnam is a signatory or participant.
(vii) Foreign students or trainees studying at educational institutions in Vietnam or foreign countries who have an internship agreement or a job offer letter from an employer in Vietnam; or interns or apprentices on a Vietnam sea-going ship.
(viii) Family members of staff of foreign representative missions in Vietnam who are permitted to work in Vietnam pursuant to the international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a party.
(ix) Persons with an official passport who enter to work for state agencies, political organizations, or socio-political organizations.
(x) Persons who are responsible for establishing a commercial presence.
(xi) Volunteers who work in Vietnam on a voluntary and unpaid basis to implement international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a party and who are certified by the relevant foreign diplomatic mission or international organization in Vietnam.
(xii) Persons entering Vietnam to carry out international agreements signed by central or provincial-level agencies or organizations in accordance with the law.
(xiii) Foreign workers who are managers, chief executives, experts, or technical workers and who fall into one of the following cases:
a) Persons entering Vietnam to work for a total duration of less than 90 days within one year, counted from January 1 to the last day of the same year;
b) Intra-company transfers: temporary transfers within a foreign enterprise which has established a commercial presence on the territory of Vietnam that falls within the scope of the 11 service sectors committed by Vietnam to the World Trade Organization, provided that such persons were employed by the foreign enterprise for at least 12 consecutive months prior to the transfer. “Commercial presence” includes economic organizations with foreign investment capital; representative offices and branches of foreign traders in Vietnam; and the investor’s executive office established under a business cooperation contract.
(xiv) Persons who are certified by the Ministry of Education and Training as foreign workers entering Vietnam for:
a) Teaching, researching and transferring international education programs;
b) Acting as managers, CEOs, principals, or vice principals of educational institutions established upon the request of foreign diplomatic missions or intergovernmental organizations in Vietnam.
(xv) Persons who are certified by ministries, ministerial agencies, or provincial People’s Committees to enter Vietnam to work in the following fields: finance, science, technology, innovation, national digital transformation and other fields prioritized for socio-economic development.
Supplementing projects applying the form of investor designation in bidding from August 15th, 2025
On August 15th, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 225/2025/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decrees detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Bidding on selection of investors. Accordingly, Decree No. 225/2025/ND-CP has supplemented projects that apply the form of investor designation in bidding, including:
(i) Projects that proposed by investors in which the investor has ownership or right to use technology in the list of strategic technologies and strategic technology products according to the provisions of law on science, technology and innovation, law on high technology;
(ii) Projects that need to continue selecting investors who have previously deployed digital infrastructure and digital platforms to ensure technical compatibility, synchronization, and connectivity;
(iii) Projects that need to accelerate progress, promote socio-economic development, and ensure national interests as proposed by the investor, including:
- Projects that need to be implemented to prevent, immediately remedy or promptly handle consequences caused by natural disasters, fires, unexpected accidents, incidents, catastrophes or other force majeure events;
- National important projects are applied the form of investor designation according to the Resolution of the National Assembly;
- Projects are subject to investor designation according to the provisions of law on management of industry and sector;
- Projects that need to be accelerated to serve national and provincial celebrations and events;
- Projects with sea encroachment activities to create momentum for local socio-economic development according to the direction in the Resolution of the Party Executive Committee of the province or centrally-governed city, documents notifying opinions and conclusions of the Standing Committee of province or centrally- governed city, and Resolution of the Provincial People's Council;
- Urban development projects following the TOD model are within the scope of national railway projects according to the provisions of the law on railways.
Reduction of land rent payable in 2025
On August 19th, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 230/2025/ND-CP stipulating other cases eligible for exemption or reduction of land use fees and land rental fees as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 157 of the 2024 Land Law. Accordingly, the reduction of land rent payable in 2025 is stipulated as follows:
- Subjects and scope of application:
+ Reduce 30% of land rent payable in 2025 for land users as prescribed in Article 4 of the 2024 Land Law who are being leased land by the State in the form of annual land rent payment (including cases where legal documents on land are available or not, but the land is being used and subject to land rental fees in 2025 and cases where land users are using land but have not yet completed land-related documents in accordance with the provisions of the law on land).
+ This provision also applies to cases where land users are not eligible for exemption or reduction of land rent or the exemption or reduction period has expired and cases where land users are currently enjoying land rent reduction according to the provisions of the law on land and other relevant laws.
- Basis for determining land rent reduction for 2025:
+ The reduction is calculated based on the land rent payable for 2025 as stated in the Land Rent Collection Notice (if any) or is calculated according to the provisions of the law on land rent in the absence of such a notice.
+ The reduction is not applied to outstanding land rent from previous years before 2025 and late payment fees (if any).
- Responsibilities of investors:
+ Within 30 days from the date of the decision on the reduction of land rent fees for 2025, investors who are leased land by the State with annual rental payments to invest in construction and business of infrastructure of industrial park, industrial cluster, export processing zone must allocate the reduced land rental amount of the land area that has been subleased by the investor.
+ In case the investor fails to comply, the investor will not be entitled to the land rent reduction policy and must return the reduced amount to the state budget and late payment fees calculated on the reduced amount as prescribed by the law on tax administration.
Subjects liable for supplementary corporate income tax under the global anti-base erosion rules
On August 29th, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 236/2025/ND-CP (“Decree 236”) providing detailed regulations for the implementation of Resolution No. 107/2023/QH15 dated November 29th, 2023, regarding the application of supplementary corporate income tax under the global anti-base erosion rules. Decree 236 takes effect on October 15th, 2025, and shall apply from the 2024 financial year.
1. Applicable entities: constituent entities of multinational enterprise groups whose annual revenue in the consolidated financial statements of the ultimate parent entity reaches at least EUR 750 million in at least 2 out of the 4 fiscal years immediately preceding the taxable fiscal year. For newly established groups, if during less than 4 years of operation there are at least 2 years in which revenue meets this threshold, the constituent entity will also be deemed a taxpayer.
2. Categories of excluded entities, including:
a) Governmental organizations, international organizations, non-profit organizations, pension funds, investment funds as ultimate parent entities, real estate investment organizations as ultimate parent entities.
b) Entities in which at least 95% of their value is directly or indirectly owned through one or more excluded entities mentioned in point (a) (except pension service organizations), and which (i) operate solely or mainly for the purpose of holding assets/capital investment for the benefit of excluded entities, and/or (ii) only carry out ancillary activities for activities conducted by excluded entities or by third parties owned by the excluded entity (holding at least 95% of the entity’s value).
c) Entities in which at least 85% of their value is directly or indirectly owned through one or more excluded entities in point (a) (except pension service organizations), and where the majority of such entity’s income consists of excluded dividends, or excluded profits or losses on equity when determining income or loss under the regulations.
d) Entities that are group members and are owned by an investment fund or real estate investment organization are still recognized as excluded entities, even if such fund or organization is not the ultimate parent entity of the group.
e) Ancillary entities wholly owned by non-profit organizations are treated as excluded if, after deducting revenue from the non-profit organization or other excluded entities, the group’s consolidated revenue accounts for less than 25% of total revenue and does not exceed the EUR 750 million threshold.
Economic census 2026
On August 18th, 2025, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision No. 2837/QD-BTC on the organization of the Economic Census 2026. Accordingly, the census will be conducted for production and business units nationwide with the following detailed information:
- Subjects of the census: Groups, Corporations, enterprises, cooperatives, cooperative unions, people’s credit funds (hereinafter referred to as “enterprises”); non-state public service units; societies and associations; production and business establishments under administrative agencies, public service units; individual production and business establishments in non-agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors; cooperative groups; branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises and non-governmental organizations licensed to operate in Vietnam; religious and belief establishments.
- Basic contents of the census:
(i) Identification and classification of the census unit: Identification information, industry of operation, and economic classification of the unit;
(ii) Production and business conditions of the census unit: Information on labor, assets, capital sources of the survey unit.
(iii) Production and business results of the census unit: Information on products, revenue, production and business costs.
(iv) Application of science and technology of the census unit: Application of modern technology, scientific research and innovation; application of information technology in production and business; digital economy, e-commerce.
(v) In-depth specialized information.
- Time of information collection and publication:
(i) The information collection period is implemented in 2 phases:
+ Phase 1 (from January 05th, 2026 to March 31st, 2026): Collect information from census units which are individual production and business establishments in non-agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors; cooperative groups; religious and belief establishments.
+ Phase 2 (from April 01st, 2026 to August 31st, 2026): Collect information from enterprises; non-state public service units; societies, associations; production and business establishments under administrative agencies, public service units; branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises and non-governmental organizations licensed to operate in Vietnam.
(ii) Time of information announcement: Preliminary results will be announced in January 2027. The official results will be published in the third quarter of 2027.
- Responsibilities of the Organization and Individuals subject to statistical investigation:
(i) Provide truthful, accurate, complete and timely information as requested by the statistical investigator or the agency conducting the census.
(ii) Not to refuse or obstruct the provision of statistical investigation information.
(iii) Subject to inspection by the Ministry of Finance, the General Statistics Office, and the General Statistics Office of the province or centrally-run city regarding the information provided.
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