Tax Alert - Decree 44 on reduction of VAT

As the global and local economy continue to face many difficulties and challenges, the National Assembly has passed the proposal to reduce the Value Added Tax (“VAT”) rate for most of goods and services which are currently subject to the tax rate of 10% under Resolution No. 101/2023/QH15 dated 24 June 2023 in an effort to reduce the price of goods and services, promote production and business, and subsequently stimulate consumer demand.

On 30 June 2023, the Government issued Decree 44/2023/ND-CP (“Decree 44”) on VAT reduction following Resolution No. 101/2023/QH15, specifically:

• Reduce VAT for groups of goods and services which are currently subject to the tax rate of 10% to 8%, except for the following groups:

‒ Telecommunications, financial activities, banking, securities, insurance, real estate trading, metals and prefabricated metal products, mining products (excluding coal mining), coke, refined petroleum, chemical products (Details stipulated under Appendix I issued together with Decree 44);

‒ Goods and services subject to Special Consumption Tax (Details stipulated under Appendix II issued together with Decree 44);

‒ Information technology in accordance with the regulations on information technology (Details stipulated under Appendix III issued together with Decree 44).

• The VAT reduction applies to all stages including import, manufacturing, processing and trading.
• The VAT reduction is applicable to business establishments that adopt VAT credit method and business establishments (including business households and business individuals) that declare and pay VAT at a deemed rate (%) of revenue.

Decree 44 takes effect from 01 July 2023 until 31 December 2023.

Please contact KPMG for further consultation on your ongoing queries.