Recently, foreign e-commerce platforms have entered Vietnam, becoming a channel for bringing foreign goods into Vietnam, causing management agencies to be "startled" because of the cheap prices.
Notably, Temu caused a public uproar when it was not registered to operate in Vietnam but opened a sales page in Vietnam since the end of September, with attractive discount advertisements, plus discount codes and free shipping to locations across Vietnam.
The issue that is of public concern is whether Temu exchange is subject to tax when it operates in Vietnam?
Speaking with Lao Dong, a representative of the specialized unit of the Customs agency said that Temu has not yet registered to operate or established a headquarters in Vietnam, so it is not responsible for domestic taxes (managed by the Tax Directorate).
Answering the question of the responsibility of the owner of an e-commerce transaction to provide information to the tax authority, the Tax Directorate said that Decree No. 91/2022/ND-CP (amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Tax Administration) stipulates:
The owner of the e-commerce platform is responsible for providing the tax authority with complete, accurate and timely information of traders, organizations and individuals in part or in full of the process of buying and selling goods and services on the e-commerce platform, including: seller's name, tax code or personal identification number, or identity card, or citizen identification card, or passport, address, contact phone number; sales revenue through the online ordering function of the platform.
Particularly for e-commerce trading floors with online ordering functions, in addition to the general information mentioned above, information on sales revenue through the online ordering function of the e-commerce trading floor must also be provided. In case the e-commerce trading floor does not fully retain the general information mentioned above, it must still provide complete, accurate, and timely information in accordance with the actual information stored on the e-commerce trading floor.
In case the organization that owns the e-commerce platform does not provide information as prescribed, the tax authority will handle the administrative violation, according to the provisions of Article 19 of Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP.
The provision of information is done electronically, through the Tax Directorate's Electronic Information Portal (thuedientu.gdt.gov.vn, access "E-commerce Information Data Portal") in the data format specified by the Tax Directorate in the appendix regulating the components containing business data receiving information from the organization that is the owner of the e-commerce floor attached to the official dispatch.
Regarding Temu, on October 24, Temu sent an official document to the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, Ministry of Industry and Trade regarding the implementation of requirements to comply with Vietnamese e-commerce laws when entering the market.
Thus, if Temu is approved to enter the market, this e-commerce platform must fulfill its tax obligations in accordance with the law.
In the period of digital economic development, e-commerce business has become popular with increasingly diverse forms. The Tax sector has proposed many solutions to strengthen tax management for e-commerce business activities.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, by the end of August 2024, there were 404 e-commerce trading floors providing information on the e-commerce portal, an increase of 43 floors compared to the end of 2023.
Tax authorities have managed about 1.77 million billion VND in revenue from organizations and individuals engaged in e-commerce business. The amount of tax paid was about 78 trillion VND, an increase of 38% over the same period last year.
