VIVA BUSINESS CONSULTING ON YOUTUBE
FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN VIET NAM
Foreign representative office in Viet Nam is a dependent unit supporting business operations of the parent company, which is allowed to recruit employees to manage and promote local business contracts, market research, etc.
A representative office is quite simple and cost effective: no Value Added Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Accounting, Financial statements, no independent audit required … and easy to extend, terminate or dissolve when necessary.
However, representative office in Viet Nam still has to strictly follow local regulations and procedures. In fact, many representative offices have been paying for expensive lessons due to their inadequate systematic and thorough understanding of the local laws and regulations.
How to prepare required papers and documents – Procedures – Cases and situations shall be anticipated in advance when setting up a foreign representative office in Vietnam.
Annually budgeting for establishing – operating – maintaining a foreign representative office in Vietnam.
Any query about local laws and regulations, direct consultation with the top experts on the establishment and operation of foreign representative offices in Vietnam.
Establishing a foreign representative office is the optimal option for local customer care, market research,…without having to invest capital or pay corporate income taxes. Establishing a foreign representative office shall be executed by professionals only and usually consist of 04 main steps:
- Step 1: Understand scopes of activities, rights, and obligations, conditions, and procedures for establishing a foreign representative office
- Step 2: Prepare and complete the required conditions, papers, and dossiers
- Step 3: Apply and manage procedures for granting of representative office license
- Step 4:Complete the initial compliance procedures after granting of representative office license.
Beyond standard required procedures by laws, our tailored service will help to identify the risks in advance, prevent the risks happen, optimize establishment and also operation costs in years ahead.
RISK MANAGEMENT ON REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES OPERATIONS IN VIETNAM
Managing risks related to business licenses for foreign representative offices in Vietnam.
- Managing risks related to labor relations – salaries – compulsory insurances while recruiting for foreign representative offices in Vietnam.
- Managing risks related to personal income tax and inspection procedures from the tax department after every 3 to 5 years operating foreign representative offices in Vietnam.
- Any query about local laws and regulations, direct consultation with the top experts on the office operation or dissolution of foreign representative offices in Vietnam.
With the exclusive service of “Full compliance procedures for a representative office in Vietnam” VIVA has been successfully managing for our thousands of clients in fully complying with local laws and regulations.
VIVA helps the Parent Company, as well as the Chief of Representative Office in Vietnam, be free from any compliance reports or requirements, just focus on their competitive business.
TYPICAL RISKS IN MANAGE FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES OPERATING IN VIETNAM
Most of foreign representative offices in Vietnam have been facing the same risks due to typical violations with local laws and regulations, especially:
- Has not adjusting, extending licenses, annual operating reports on time.
- Shortcomings in labor registration, compulsory insurances.
- Shortcomings in the declaration and finalization of personal income tax.
- Violation of work permit, temporary residence card, certificate of tax obligation completion
FOR EXPAT
- Do not collect and archive required business records, do not prepare standard reports of income and expenditure as prescribed.
- Receiving money from a third party, paying for items that are not in line with allowed activities of the office.
- Failure to update and apply new regulations, in-experience in managing and handling requests from the competent state agencies.
- Failure to manage disputes in labor relations.
- Poor collaboration and reports to the head office.
Risks management of foreign representative offices operating in Vietnam is a professionals job that requires an integrated-depth expertise knowledge and experience related to Commercial Law, Labor, Tax accounting and other administration regulations…
Properly managing when operating foreign representative offices in Vietnam not only helps your team focus well on the competitive business activities from the parent company but also avoid legal risks, cost-saving, competitive advantage.
How to prepare required papers and documents – Procedures – Cases and situations shall be anticipated in advance when dissolution of a foreign representative office in Vietnam.
How to estimate budget for dissolution of a foreign representative office in Vietnam.
Potential risks shall be identified and managed in advance when dissolution of a foreign representative office in Vietnam.
Any query about local laws and regulations, direct consultation with the top experts on the establishment and operation of foreign representative offices in Vietnam.
Dissolution of a foreign representative office in Vietnam becomes so simple under services of VIVA.
- Carrying out legal procedures for the official announcement of dissolution to the competent state agencies to terminate any further obligations may arise from the date of dissolution.
- Collecting, reviewing and completing the required business records according to current laws and regulations, ready to provide to the Tax, Labor…departments, clearing any payment obligations to the third parties, especially procedures for liquidation of labor contracts, completion of obligations to state agencies such as Tax, Insurance …
- After granting certifications of debt obligations completion with third parties, the office will close the bank account, return the license, and return the seal.
Dissolution of a foreign representative office in Vietnam is technical job that should be dedicated for professionals only because every step and every procedure involved not only must comply with local laws and regulations, but the person who performs the procedure must also understand systematic practices and situations, tailored- circumstances solution and meet expectations of both the parent company and the local competent state agencies in Viet Nam.
Having been providing service for foreign representative offices in Vietnam since 2006, VIVA is proud to be the top consultant for foreign representative offices in Vietnam, we manage and take full responsibility for all compliance procedures to dissolve a foreign representative office in Vietnam, in the tailored and optimally manner, with fixed budget, fixed results, fixed timelines.
When dissolving a foreign representative office, VIVA also provides free of charge procedures to transfer all assets and employees from the representative office to its subsidiary company.
REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE – GUIDE BOOK
VIVA would like to share some useful knowledge based on our practical experience and solutions offered to thousands of cases related to foreign representative offices and subsidiaries in Vietnam.
- Set up a representative office in Vietnam
- Role and responsibility of chief of representative office
- 8 Key compliance procedures for representative office
- Typical rights and obligations of representative office
- Annual budget and running cost of representative office
- Annual operation reports for foreign representative offices
- Why and how to close representative office in Vietnam?
- Full compliance procedures for foreigners working in Vietnam
- Differences between Foreign Invested Company/Subsidiary and Representative office
- Representative office vs Subsidiary vs Branch? How to transform business models in Vietnam
WHY DO CLIENTS FULLY ENTRUST VIVA TO MANAGE THE COMPLIANCE PROCEDURES OF REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES IN VIET NAM?
VIVA is the one in charge of proficiency and reliability, management and is fully responsible for all compliance procedures for a foreign representative office in Vietnam and also directly supporting the chief and head office, who are representative on behalf for any query question at the local competent State agencies.
VIVA designs exclusive service packages in a comprehensive tailor-made method, ensuring each client always fully and optimally complies with local laws and regulations in Vietnam. VIVA also helps managers fully spend their time on core business.
As the leading consulting firm in Vietnam who specializes in representative office, we provide comprehensive and fully packaged services related to foreign representative offices in Viet Nam:
- Establishment of representative office.
- Annually standard cost of maintaining a representative office in Vietnam.
- Basic rights and obligations of representative offices in Vietnam.
- Compliance procedures during the operation period.
- Rights and obligations of the chief of representative office.
- Managing compliance procedures for expats who are working in Vietnam.
- Closuring representative office risks management.
- Differences between a representative office and foreign invested company.
- How to transform from a representative office to a subsidiary.
HOW VIVA SUPPORT OUR CLIENTS
We adhere to the service process according to the following rules:
1. Understand client’s requirements and expectations.
2. Design your own solution and browser.
3. Provide well-trained personnel and a management system to enforce – secure – deliver beyond expectation results.
4. Constantly and frequently updated – improving local laws and regulations and working practices to optimize benefits for clients.
5. Maintain service quality – the trust and confidence of clients as one of our priceless assets.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- Establish a business compliance management system;
- Open a bank account and inform the relevant tax agency;
- Establish employment status;
- Set up documentary profiles about the chief of representative office and foreign employees.
- Register a digital signature.
The representative office will be subject to administrative sanctions if it fails to comply with the time limits for these procedures.
- Taxation and accounting procedures;
- Labour and pay procedures;
- The representative office must file its annual accounts by January 30th of the next year -> Delayed filling of annual accounts may result in a fine of up to VND 40 million and may affect the subsequent renewal of the permits and other procedures.
An addition of over 30% of the total payroll could affect the cash inflow plan (for receipts from the parent company), reducing the chance of recruiting more employees; if no such additional payment were made, however, the representative office could have to pay tax arrears and bear interest in subsequent periods.
- Procedure on personal income tax applied to local and foreign employees (residents and non-residents);
- Procedure on monthly & quarterly tax returns and payments, and annual final settlement;
- Procedure on determination of taxable income, non-taxable income, tax incentives and exemptions, etc.
- Application for confirmation of fulfillment of tax obligations.
If a valid receipts and payments account or a cash book is not maintained, the representative office’s expenditure items may be considered personal income to some persons and may be subject to personal income tax.
- Newly established representative offices: The term of the license depends on the parent company’s term of operation and is subject to the documents provided by the parent company (the parent company’s license, financial statements, etc.), ranging from 1 to 5 years.
- Representative office’s operating license renewal: The renewal of the representative office’s operating license is subject to the parent company’s term of operation. The renewal is also subject to the authorities’ inspection of previous activities carried out by the representative office and its tax returns & payments. The renewed term ranges from 1 to 5 years.
- Change of foreign merchant’s name or head office address (foreign merchant meaning the parent company);
- Change of the chief of the representative office;
- Change of the representative office’s purpose;
- Change of the representative office’s head office address within a province or a municipality, or within a geographical area under the management of a management unit, etc.
The application for amendment or replacement of the operation license must be made within 60 business days of the change. Fine for violations: VND 20,000,000 to VND 40,000,000.
- Step 1: Review and allow the use of APEC cards at the Department of Planning / Foreign Affairs / Industrial Zones Authority, normally lasting from 2 to 3 months;
- Step 2: Apply for a card at the Immigration Department, so that the approval of the countries can take 2 to 4 months.
- Upon reviewing the expenditure items without valid accounts or invoices, the tax agency will calculate and collect tax arrears (at the rate of at least 10% plus an interest rate of about 17% per annum). Because the tax examination is conducted after about 3 to 5 years of operation, the total amount of arrears and accumulated interest may sometimes be very large.
- Having to pay a large amount of arrears and interest plus spending a lot of time traveling and explaining to the authorities may impair the parent company’s reputation. This undesirable risk for any representative office is not something uncontrollable.
TESTIMONIALS
We wish we could work with Viva earlier to manage compliance procedures of RO of TPC Vietnam, VIVA helps us to avoid many risks.
We are completely assured when Viva being the manager and representative to manage all procedures for the RO of Net Vietnam.
Viva is a professional consultant, we are assured to focus on the business when having Viva managing all related tasks in Vietnam.
with Viva, we only need to set goals, VIVA have the ability to simplify complex tasks and ensure optimal results.
“PECULIARITY” OF VIVA BCS
VIVA BCS has been operating since 2006 based on an intensive platform of corporate finance and auditing. We provide a system of consulting services and enforce business compliance procedures to adapt to all requests from competent authorities and tailor-made internal management policies.
VIVA’s scope of works directly support the chief of foreign representative offices, businessmen and business administrators based on 05 basic pillars of business administration, including: Law – Tax and Accounting – Employment Relations- Corporate Finance – Business Administration.
We aim to and maintain the superiority of professional competence – skilled expertise – cost-effective business in each mission that we are assigned from clients. VIVA provides clients with “one-stop solutions” and services, surpassing common limits, creating resources and inspiring business development for thousands of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs.
We appreciated all your compliment, credibility and other physical values just as a consequence, the reward from what we have contributed and bring added valued to our clients.
VIVA is proud to successfully deliver our service to thousands of foreign representative offices from most countries around the world. We are committed to maintaining values and resources so that every client when choosing VIVA’s services is a choice of compliance, assurance and optimization.