E-commerce activities in Vietnam are currently undergoing major changes, creating completely new business models with benefits and efficiency compared to traditional business models. E-commerce sales platforms are gradually replacing stores and digital services that are dominating the financial market, banking and other markets. Business activities no longer have a concept of location, space and time, goods and services can circulate through information channels, international transportation, cross-border, through digital platforms.
Since 2016, Vietnam's e-commerce has entered an explosive growth period with a stable double-digit rate per year. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, when GDP growth in 2021 only reached 2.58% - the lowest level in 30 years, e-commerce still grew by about 6%, reaching revenue of 13.7 billion USD.
In 2022, e-commerce continued to maintain a growth momentum of about 15%, reaching a revenue of 16.4 billion USD - the first time exceeding the 16 billion USD threshold. Vietnam is currently among the fast-growing e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia, ranking second in terms of growth rate in the region; it is forecast to reach a scale of 25 billion USD in 2025, reaching 20% of GDP.
By 2022, the number of online consumers in Vietnam is estimated to reach 57 million people and may soon reach 60 million (over the total population of ~100 million). The average online shopping spending for the first time exceeds 260285 USD/person/year, helping retail e-commerce revenue account for 7.2-7.8% of total retail sales of goods and services nationwide. Digital consumption behavior has also changed dramatically: according to international reports, 90% of digital users in Vietnam tend to maintain or increase online shopping in the future. These figures show the great potential of the Vietnamese e-commerce market, and at the same time pose a big challenge for tax authorities in ensuring State budget revenue from the digital economy sector.
In recent years, Vietnam's tax authorities have made efforts to implement many solutions to effectively manage business activities on digital platforms and e-commerce. Thanks to timely solutions, tax revenue from e-commerce has continuously increased and become a bright spot in budget revenue.
Domestic e-commerce tax revenue: Taxes collected from e-commerce business organizations and individuals have increased steadily over the years: in 2022, the revenue from e-commerce activities will be VND 83,000 billion ($5.1 billion); in 2023, the revenue will be about VND 97,000 billion ($3.66 billion); in 2024, the amount of tax paid will be VND 116,000 billion (4.38 billion USD); Accumulated to the first 9 months of 2025, the total tax revenue from e-commerce will reach about VND 152 trillion (5.63 billion USD), an increase of 64% over the same period in 2024.
The Tax Authority has implemented tax collection from major foreign suppliers such as Meta Group, Google, Netflix, TikTok... providing goods and services to Vietnam. This is an online information portal that helps foreign suppliers to register, declare and pay taxes remotely conveniently, without physical presence in Vietnam. As of September 30, 2025, 176 foreign suppliers from many countries have registered, declared and paid taxes through this portal, including most large technology corporations in the world, the total budget revenue from NCCNN that have declared and paid taxes in the first 9 months of 2025 reached VND 8.73 trillion (US$32 million) an increase of 42,2% over the same period in 2024.
Support tax management for individuals and e-commerce business households: Decree 117/2025/ND-CP dated June 9, 2025 on e-commerce platforms with payment functions to declare and pay on behalf of KD households and individuals doing business on the platform has been implemented, after more than 2 months of implementation (T8, T9/2025) there are 63 e-commerce platforms (55 domestic floor organizations and 08 foreign floor management organizations), the amount of tax paid has reached 1.07 trillion VND.
- The Tax sector is building a database on e-commerce, which is a very important source of data for tax management. The Tax Authority is collecting e-commerce data from e-commerce platforms, transport units, payment intermediaries, and commercial banks.
The above outstanding results show the efforts and determination of the tax sector in catching up with the development of e-commerce and the tax sector has gradually built a database on digital business activities, improved management efficiency, and created an equal business environment between e-commerce and traditional business activities.
Through the implementation process, the tax authority has summarized some experiences and lessons in tax management activities for e-commerce such as needing to perfect a suitable legal framework; implementing digital transformation, applying technology and building digital infrastructure for tax authorities; promoting propaganda and cooperation with businesses; strengthening inter-sectoral and international coordination; strengthening inspection and examination work.
Some difficulties in e-commerce tax management
The tax management policy on e-commerce is gradually being perfected, many legal regulations of the sectors are not unified and lack synchronization.
The awareness of a part of taxpayers doing e-commerce business is not high, there is still a phenomenon of not declaring and paying taxes, trading in poor quality goods, counterfeit goods, and smuggled goods.
E-commerce businesses are very diverse, with many different industries, many participating entities, using cash payments and cross-border transfers, so it is difficult to identify sellers and determine revenue accurately.
Businesses are still hesitant to provide information to e-commerce platforms, especially foreign exchanges and foreign suppliers, due to requirements on customer information security and competition.
The award for e-commerce business is not yet complete and must be finalized.
Orientation of solutions in the coming time
Developing policies and regulations on e-commerce management and e-commerce tax management will issue the Law on E-commerce and the Law on Tax Administration at the same time, thereby more strictly managing e-commerce business entities: must register, declare identification, according to citizen identification card, phone number, address, bank account and payment and transportation units must provide information to state management agencies. The taxpayer's handling of taxpayers who do not declare, do not declare correctly, incompletely, and owe taxes...
The tax authority strictly manages e-commerce business entities, manages e-commerce business entities, applies risks, and strengthens inspection and examination work.
Processing information and data: Establishing a national database system on e-commerce
The message: "The Tax sector will always accompany the development of digital economic enterprises and multinational enterprises"; at the same time, commit to acting as a trusted companion, both as a management agency and a partner to support enterprises in fulfilling their tax obligations. The common goal is to develop the digital economy sustainably, in which all economic sectors contribute appropriately to the budget, and vice versa, enjoy the benefits of a fair and favorable business environment.
