Circular 25/2025/TT-NHNN of the State Bank of Vietnam sets out new requirements for naming and using bank accounts of business households, with the overarching principle that accounts serving business activities must bear the correct business household name as registered. This regulation is considered the next step in the roadmap for standardizing tax management, invoices and cash flow of the business household sector, especially in the context of the khoán tax mechanism gradually being narrowed down.
In fact, for many years, many business households have still used personal accounts to receive money from sales, payments to partners or online transactions. This method, although convenient in the short term, makes business cash flow and personal spending mixed up, making it difficult to monitor revenue, compare data and declare taxes. When tax management shifts strongly to relying on data, this becomes a large gap that needs to be overcome.
An important content of Circular 25 lies in amending and supplementing regulations on customer information when opening a payment account. Specifically, in Article 4, the State Bank has added point c1 after point c, clause 1, Article 13 of Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN, thereby clarifying the requirements for the number and name of the payment account.
According to new regulations, the name of the payment account is standardized for each group of subjects. For personal payment accounts, the account name must match the full name on legal personal papers. For payment accounts of organizations, the account name must fully show the organization name according to the establishment license, establishment decision, business registration certificate or equivalent legal documents. For general payment accounts, naming is carried out by banks or foreign bank branches, ensuring that it clearly reflects the names of account holders and does not match the accounts of other individuals or organizations.
According to Clause 2, Article 15 of Circular 25/2025/TT-NHNN, these regulations officially take effect from March 1, 2026. This means that from the above time milestone, business households are required to use bank accounts with the correct registered business name, instead of continuing to use personal accounts for transactions arising from business activities as before.
The Circular also clearly defines the responsibility of the account holder. In case of changes in business registration information, identification information or data related to the payment account, business households and individuals must proactively notify and update promptly with the bank where the account is opened. Delays or failure to update not only disrupt transactions, but also pose legal risks in the process of comparing and verifying information.
Not only stopping at requiring transparency, Circular 25 also aims to prevent fraud and scams in payment activities. Accordingly, the regulation prohibiting the use of aliases and nicknames (alias, nickname) when naming payment accounts is also applied to individual customers. The State Bank of Vietnam once stated that in reality, cases have arisen of taking advantage of displaying aliases instead of account names to impersonate brands, causing confusion when transferring money or serving fraudulent acts, violating the law.
Along with the standardization of bank accounts, from 2026, business households will also switch to declaring and paying taxes according to actual revenue, replacing the previous presumptive tax mechanism. According to the Law on Personal Income Tax (amended), business households and individuals with revenue over 500 million VND per year will have to fulfill the obligation to pay value-added tax and personal income tax according to regulations.
