Citizens reflect, point c, clause 2. 5, Article 6 of Circular No. 78/2014/TT-BTC stipulates:
Paying salaries, wages and allowances to be paid to employees, but when the deadline for submitting tax finalization dossiers for the actual year expires, they have not been paid, unless the enterprise has made provisions for the salary fund of the following year.
The annual reserve level is decided by the enterprise but does not exceed 17% of the implemented salary fund.
The implemented salary fund is the total actual salary paid for that year of finalization until the deadline for submitting the finalization dossier as prescribed (excluding the amount of salary reserve fund deducted from the previous year spent in the tax finalization year).
The provision for salary must ensure that after provision, the enterprise is not at a loss; if the enterprise is at a loss, it is not allowed to deduct enough 17%. In case the enterprise has made provision for salary funds in the previous year but after 6 months, from the end of the financial year, the enterprise has not used or not used up the salary provision fund, the enterprise must calculate to reduce expenses for the following year".
According to the company's financial situation as of December 31, 2025, the unit determined that the amount of unpaid salary as of March 31, 2026 is 300 million.
The unit implements the provision of the salary reserve fund to extend the time until June 30, 2026 according to regulations (meeting sufficient dossier conditions, provision rate below 17% according to regulations).
Based on Accounting Standard No. 18, Circular 200, Circular No. 48 guiding the provision for payables, two of the necessary conditions to be recognized as payables are:
Provide a reliable estimate of the value of that obligation.
The decline in economic benefits when performing that obligation.
However, the salary has not been paid until March 31.
It has not been estimated to be reliable because for next year's salary expenditure, the unit is not sure whether it will be implemented according to the plan or not (depending on the company's finances).
In essence, the debt the unit must pay is due to still owing salaries and when the unit fulfills this obligation, it will not reduce the economic benefits of the unit (not increase costs, not reduce profits... because salary costs have been included in production costs in 2025).
Therefore, it is not enough conditions for the unit to account for this salary reserve fund as the reserves that Circular 48 has guided.
Citizens ask, regarding the provision for salary funds according to the provisions of Circular 78, does the unit open account books and account for accounting or not. If so, please request the Ministry of Finance to provide detailed guidance on how to open account books and account for accounting for this case.
The Department of Management, Supervision of Accounting and Auditing, Ministry of Finance has the following opinions:
Regarding the provisions of the accounting law for provisions, in section 11 of Vietnamese Accounting Standards No. 18 – Provisions, assets and potential liabilities, it is stipulated:
A provision is only recognized when the following conditions are met:
The business has current debt obligations (legal obligations or related obligations) as a result of an event that has occurred.
The decline in economic benefits that may occur leads to the requirement to pay debt obligations.
To give a reliable estimate of the value of that debt obligation".
Based on the above regulations, the provisioning of the salary fund according to the provisions of tax law does not satisfy the condition of recording a provision to be paid, so enterprises are not allowed to make provisions for the salary fund.
The provision for the salary fund is only applied for the purpose of determining deductible or non-deductible expenses when determining corporate income taxable income.
Salaries, wages and allowances payable to employees must be based on labor contracts signed between the enterprise and employees, volume acceptance minutes, related documents... recorded in production and business operating expenses at the time of arising and presented in the business results report of the enterprise.
The provisioning to supplement the salary fund to determine salary expenses deducted when calculating corporate income tax payable is carried out in accordance with the provisions of current corporate income tax law.
