VAT & GST compliance services for business in Vietnam

VAT is one of the important taxes levied on consumers and collected by organizations, businesses, and service providers. VAT refunds occur when the tax paid is higher than the actual tax that individuals and organizations must pay. So what is a VAT refund? What are the specific cases of Value-added tax compliance?

1. What is a VAT refund?

Many legal documents guiding VAT make many individuals and businesses still vague and do not clearly understand VAT refunds, taxable subjects, or tax refund cases.

1.1. What is a VAT refund?

A VAT refund or value added tax refund is understood as the state agency returning to the taxpayer an amount of tax that the taxpayer has overpaid to the State Budget.

More specifically, the state budget returns to the business unit, business organization, or individual purchasing goods and services the amount of tax paid.

The amount of tax paid is the amount of input tax when you pay for goods and services that the business unit has not deducted in the tax period or that unit or individual is not subject to tax.

VAT & GST compliance services in 2025

1.2. Subjects subject to VAT

According to the provisions of Article 3 of the Law on Value Added Tax 2008 (amended in 2013, 2014, 2016), subjects subject to VAT are: Goods and services used for production, business and consumption in Vietnam, except for subjects not subject to tax (eg: livestock/plant breeds; irrigation and drainage services; plowing and harrowing; dredging of canals and ditches in fields serving agricultural production; agricultural product harvesting services; public postal, telecommunications and Internet services according to the Government’s program…) as prescribed in Article 5 of the Law on Value Added Tax 2008 (amended in 2013, 2014, 2016).

In addition, it is necessary to clearly understand the cross-border VAT/GST compliance. Specifically, VAT taxpayers are stipulated in Article 4 of the Law on Value Added Tax, including:

  • Organizations and individuals producing and trading goods and services subject to VAT
  • Organizations and individuals importing goods subject to VAT.

2. Cases eligible for managing VAT/GST refunds

Cases eligible for VAT refund are guided in Article 18 of Circular 219/2013/TT-BTC (amended and supplemented by Circular 130/2016/TT-BTC). Specifically, cases eligible for VAT refund include:

(1) Business establishments paying VAT according to the deduction method
Business establishments paying VAT according to the VAT/GST exemption and deductions method, if there is input VAT that has not been fully deducted in the month (for monthly declaration) or in the quarter (for quarterly declaration), will be deducted in the following period.

(2) Newly established business establishments from investment projects that have registered for business
Newly established business establishments from investment projects that have registered for business, registered to pay value added tax according to the deduction method, or oil and gas exploration and development projects that are in the investment phase and have not yet come into operation, if the investment period is from 01 year or more, will be refunded VAT on goods and services used for investment on a yearly basis.

In case, if the accumulated VAT/GST reporting requirements amount of goods and services purchased for investment is from 300 million VND or more, it will be refunded VAT.

How to implement cross-border VAT/GST compliance

(3) Managing VAT/GST refunds for investment projects
Operating business establishments subject to VAT/GST return preparation payment under the deduction method have investment projects. Conditions:

  • Investment projects in the same province or city, which are in the investment phase, the business establishments shall make separate declarations for the investment projects
  • Carry over input VAT of the investment project to offset the VAT declaration of the production and business activities currently being implemented.
  • The maximum amount of VAT transferred for the investment project is equal to the VAT payable for the production and business activities of the business establishment during the period.
  • After offsetting, if the input VAT/GST audit readiness of the investment project that has not been fully deducted is VND 300 million or more, the VAT refund for the investment project will be granted. If the input VAT of the investment project that has not been fully deducted is less than VND 300 million, it will be carried over to the input VAT of the investment project in the next declaration period.

3. VAT refund time

VAT refund time for each case:

  • Pre-refund – post-check: refund time is 15 working days from the date of receiving complete tax refund dossier.
  • Pre-check – post-refund: refund time is 60 working days from the date of receiving complete tax refund dossier.
  • Note: The case of Pre-check – post-refund will be applied to Enterprises that refund for the first time or refund for the second time or more but the first refund dossier is found to have many defects.

The above is information about what VAT refund is, taxable transactions under VAT/GST and the cases of VAT refund according to regulations. Enterprises and individuals should note to GST registration and filing accurately account for ensuring their own benefits while avoiding wasting time and effort. In addition, if your business needs to learn about VAT & GST compliance services, please contact us immediately for advice!

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