Business households: Excited and Associated with fear
Ms. Hoang Thu Hong (45 years old) is the owner of a food and beverage shop in Dong Ha (Quang Tri) after many years of thinking and deciding to "upgrade" her shop to a business model. This upgrade is not necessarily to attract more customers, but I see the advantages and disadvantages since Resolution 68 and the Resolution of the National Assembly on private economic development were issued. That is clearer legal status to participate in civil and commercial transactions, increase trust with customers, partners and management agencies and especially enjoy support policies from the State, such as preferential loans, participation in business incentive programs or skills training, Ms. Hong explained.
Ms. Hong's case is typical for 61,460 newly established business households in July 2025, bringing the total number of business households established in the first 7 months to nearly 536,200 households, an increase of 165% over the same period. This impressive figure also shows that solutions to reduce procedures for registering business households have been effective.
In early July 2025, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision No. 2353/QD-BTC on announcing newly issued, amended and supplemented administrative procedures in the field of establishment and operation of business households. Accordingly, the procedures and response time have been shortened, creating much more favorable conditions. Notably, the business owner or a person authorized to carry out the business registration procedure shall submit the business establishment registration dossier to the commune-level business registration agency where the business household registers its headquarters or the commune-level business registration agency of any province or centrally run city where the business household registers its headquarters.
In case the application is eligible for issuance, the commune-level business registration agency shall issue a Business Registration Certificate and send a notice to the tax authority directly managing the business household to the business household within 3 working days from the date of receipt of the application.
In case of registration via electronic information: The dossier submitter uses an electronic identification account to log in to the Business Household Registration Information System. In case the application is eligible for business household registration, the commune-level business registration agency shall issue a business household registration and notify the business household about the issuance of business household registration.
With these new regulations, establishing a business household has become much easier and more convenient than before. However, the transition from business household to enterprise requires new support.
Need more incentives
According to data from the Tax Department, in the first 6 months of 2025, 13,699 business households were paying contract tax transferred to declare according to the full method. At the same time, 1,474 households converted to enterprises. If we put the number of over 100,000 enterprises established since the beginning of the year aside, this change is still slow.
On the business side, when converting to a business, there are some main concerns such as: The fear of complicated procedures, high taxes and fees; concerns about being inspected and audited a lot; lack of practical, effective and timely support mechanisms from the State.
The issue of having to pay higher taxes is one of the reasons why businesses like ours are afraid to strengthen themselves into businesses - Mr. Tran Minh Cong, a construction materials business owner in Ha Dong ward, Hanoi, said - especially the need to pay corporate income tax according to current tax law at 20%, higher than when being a business household. There are still problems with other procedures.
On the evening of August 4, at the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the implementation of Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW of the Politburo on private economic development, Politburo member and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (head of the Steering Committee) frankly acknowledged: "In general, changes are still slow compared to requirements, especially mechanisms and policies to meet stronger, faster and more effective development of enterprises; administrative procedures and decentralization of power are still stuck at the central and local levels; support resources are limited in terms of mechanisms, policies and financial resources".
The Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Finance to develop a group of policies to support small and medium-sized enterprises and business households in tax and tax procedures, connect taxes, promote business households to become large enterprises, small enterprises to become large enterprises, large enterprises to become global and multinational enterprises. The Ministry of Finance is also assigned the task of developing an infrastructure support mechanism (electricity, land rent, fees, charges).
For Corporate Income Tax, effective from October 1, 2025, there are incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises with a tax rate of 15% applied to enterprises with a total annual revenue of no more than 3 billion VND; a tax rate of 17% applied to enterprises with a total annual revenue of over 3 billion VND to no more than 50 billion VND. Notably, Resolution 198/2025/QH15 on a number of special mechanisms and policies for private economic development outlines 8 cases of tax, fee and charge support. In which, corporate income tax is exempt for small and medium enterprises for 3 years from the date of issuance of the first Certificate of Business Registration.
At recent meetings, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also mentioned many solutions for business households to transform into enterprises. The first step is to review, amend or abolish legal regulations that are no longer suitable for small business practices. There must be a separate legal system for micro-enterprises - those converting from business households - with a simple accounting regime, more flexible tax rates according to scale and revenue. There needs to be a preferential loan mechanism, creating conditions for access to small credit programs through policy banks and credit guarantee funds.
Mr. Dau Anh Tuan - Deputy General Secretary, Head of the Legal Committee of the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) commented that Vietnam needs a truly breakthrough group of policies to promote the conversion of household and individual businesses into official enterprises.
According to Mr. Tuan, this not only arouses the spirit of entrepreneurship, but also contributes to helping households boldly enter the official area. Once business households switch to businesses, they have the opportunity to access support policies, improve governance and expand operations.
If more small businesses are formed and operate properly, Vietnam will gradually have more small and medium-sized enterprises - creating a foundation for sustainable economic growth in the long term. This is a direction in line with the goals of Resolution 68 of the Politburo, setting the goal of having 2 million enterprises nationwide by 2030 and 3 million by 2045, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan emphasized.
