Vietnam VAT refund

Which companies are eligible for VAT refund?

Refundable VAT taxpayers include:

Investment projects

There are two cases of qualified investment projects for VAT refund:

New investment projects meet the following conditions:

• Register VAT declaration by deduction method and during in the investment progress with VAT amount deducted from 300 million VND and above => Considered for VAT refund.
• If the investment period of the project more than 1 year => Considered for VAT refund.

Operating companies, declare VAT by deduction method, and have a separate new investment project (separate from old investment projects and still under the investment period):

• The company declares the separate new investment project and current business activities (i.e under separate VAT declaration returns). After that, the enterprise offsets the remaining VAT deductible from the new investment project with VAT payable from other business activities, after the offsetting, if the remaining VAT to be deductible from the investment project exceeds 300 million VND => Considered for VAT refund.

Export activities

• Companies with exported goods and services activities have monthly/quarterly VAT amounts deducted from over 300 million VND => Considered for VAT refund.
•  In case a company has both domestic sales and exports, the enterprise is only refunded input VAT serving export activities. In this case, the company needs to separate the input VAT serving for each activity, if not separated, the input VAT will be divided according to the revenue proportion of the tax period eligible for refund.

Note: The refunded VAT amount does not exceed 10% of the export activity’s revenue.

Companies with split, merger, consolidation, dissolution, ownership conversion, and termination of activities

Companies with activities such as split, merger, consolidation, dissolution, or termination with VAT amounts not yet fully deducted or overpaid can submit documents to request a refund of overpaid VAT or not yet fully deducted VAT.

VAT refund dossier

For investment projects

Companies prepare:

• Request for refunding the state budget revenue (Form 01/DNTH attached to Circular 156/2013/TT-BTC);
• VAT declaration form for investment projects (Form No. 02/GTGT attached to Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC);
• A list of purchased goods and services.

For exported goods and services activities

The VAT refund dossier includes:

• Request for refunding the state budget revenue (Form 01/DNTH accompanied by Circular 156/2013/TT-BTC);
• Sale, processing contracts;
• Customs declaration form for exporting goods (No customs declaration form required for exporting services);
• Non-cash payment for suppliers documents.

For split, merger, consolidation, dissolution, ownership conversion, and termination of activities

Companies prepare:

• Request for refunding the state budget revenue (Form 01/DNTH attached to Circular 156/2013/TT-BTC);
• Tax declaration or finalization dossier up to the time of split, merger, consolidation, dissolution, ownership conversion, and termination of activities;
• Decision on the split, merger, consolidation, dissolution, ownership conversion, and termination of activities.

Where to submit the VAT refund dossier?

• Apply VAT refund at the Tax Office that directly manage company.
• In case of an investment project in another province, having an investment management board or a branch which a own seals, keep their owns records according to accounting laws, have a bank account, have applied for tax registration and obtained taxpayer identification number => Apply VAT refund at the tax authority manage the project.

Notes on VAT refund

Some bellow cases are not eligible for VAT refund for investment projects:

• Insufficient charter capital contribution.
• Business implements investment projects in industries with conditions but have not fulfill conditions, in term of lacking relevant certificate from competent authorities (licensing).
• Investment projects in conditional business industries that do not maintain sufficient conditions during operation (being withdraw certificate).
• Investment projects relating to natural resources, minerals extraction or manufacturing with percentage (%) [value of nature resources/minerals + energy cost] / total production cost] ≥ 51%.

=> In these cases, VAT will not be refunded, and VAT will be deductible for the next tax periods.