According to new regulations in Decree 359/2025/ND-CP, enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions that purchase agricultural, forestry, and fishery products that have not been processed into other products or only through ordinary preliminary processing and sale to enterprises, cooperatives, and other cooperative unions will not have to declare and calculate VAT but will still be deducted input VAT.
Accordingly, enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions paying VAT according to the method of deducting tax on the sale of crops, planted forests, livestock, aquaculture, and aquaculture products that have not been processed into other products or only through ordinary preliminary processing for enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions in other commercial business stages are not required to declare and calculate VAT.
In case businesses, cooperatives, and cooperative unions pay VAT by deducting tax on the sale of crops, planted forests, livestock, aquaculture, and aquaculture products that have not been processed into other products or only through ordinary preliminary processing for subjects such as households, individuals producing and trading, and other organizations and individuals, VAT must be calculated at the 5% tax rate specified in Clause 3, Article 19 of Decree 181/2025/ND-CP.
Households, individuals producing, doing business, enterprises, cooperatives, unions of cooperatives and other economic organizations paying VAT according to the direct calculation method when selling products of crops, planted forests, livestock, aquaculture, aquaculture, and fishing that have not been processed into other products or only through ordinary preliminary processing in commercial business, VAT must be calculated according to revenue equal to 1% (percentage %) multiplied by revenue.
Notably, the Decree also clearly states: Business establishments subject to tax refunds specified in Article 15 of the VAT Law that have submitted VAT refund dossiers and have been received by the tax management agency before January 1, 2026, but the tax management agency has not issued a Decision on tax refund or a Decision on tax refund cum compensation for state budget revenue, do not have to meet the condition that the seller has declared and paid VAT according to regulations for the invoice issued to the business establishment requesting tax refund.
According to assessments by financial and accounting experts, Decree 359/2025/ND-CP has removed many barriers in determining tax obligations and VAT refunds, especially: Exemption from declaration and calculation of VAT in the internal trade stage between agricultural, forestry and fishery organizations; Abolishing the condition of controlling the declaration and payment of VAT by sellers for input invoices, and flexibly applying to dossiers submitted before January 1, 2026 but not yet refunded.
Therefore, businesses need to pay attention to reviewing the process of buying and selling, making invoices and tax refund dossiers, and at the same time promptly update new policies to maximize the advantages that Decree 359/2025/ND-CP brings, especially in the transition period from the end of 2025 to the beginning of 2026.
