Legal Update On New Policies Of Vietnam In January 2022.

20 January, 2022

 

(i) Detailed regulations on the implementation of several articles of the Law on Real Estate Business;

(ii) Deployment of e-Tax application for mobile devices (eTax-Mobile 1.0); and

(iii) Guidance on insurance premium tax refund.

 

BLawyers Vietnam would lead you on 3 legal issues as follows:

 

1. Detailed regulations on the implementation of several articles of the Law on Real Estate Business

 

On 06 January 2022, the Government issued Decree No. 02/2022/ND-CP to give detailed regulation on the implementation of several articles of the Law on Real Estate Business. Some notable contents are as follows:

 

• Conditions for organizations and individuals to trade in real estate are as follows:

 

• Establishing an enterprise in accordance with the laws with registered real estate business lines;

 

• Publicizing on the enterprise's website, at the head office of the Project Management Board (for real estate investment projects), at the real estate exchange (in the case of doing business through a real estate exchange) information about the business, information about real estate being traded, information about the mortgage of houses, construction works, real estate projects being traded (if any), information on the quantity and type of real estate products being traded, quantity and types of real estate products sold, transferred, leased and purchased and the remaining quantity and types of products that are still being traded. When there is a change in the above information, it must be updated promptly after the change;

 

• Only trading in real estate that meets the conditions prescribed by the laws.

 

In case an investor is selected to be the owner of a real estate project in accordance with the laws, he/she must have equity of not less than 20% of the total investment capital for projects with a land-use scale of fewer than 20 hectares; not less than 15% of the total investment capital for projects with a land-use scale of at least 20 hectares.

 

• Organizations, households, and individuals that sell, transfer, lease, lease-purchase real estate on a small scale and infrequently are not required to meet the above conditions. Details of such subjects are stated in Article 5 of this Decree.

 

• The sale, transfer, lease, lease-purchase, sublease of real estate, and transfer of real estate projects must be made into contracts according to the forms attached to this Decree. The new notable contract form is the contract form for tourist apartments, office apartments combined with accommodation.

 

• The transfer of contracts for purchase, sale, and lease-purchase of future houses and the transfer of lease-purchase contracts for existing houses and construction works does not apply to social housing purchase and sale contracts.

 

• The transfer of a contract for purchase and sale or lease-purchase of a house or construction work must satisfy the following conditions:

 

• Having a sale, purchase, or lease-purchase contract made in accordance with this Decree;

 

• Those who have not yet submitted dossiers to request competent state agencies to grant certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets;

 

• Contracts of sale, purchase, lease-purchase of houses and construction works must be without disputes or lawsuits;

 

• Houses and construction under sale, purchase, lease-purchase contracts are not subject to distraint or mortgage to secure the performance of obligations as prescribed by the laws unless otherwise agreed by the mortgagee.

 

• The transfer of the whole or part of a real estate project shall be made when meeting all the conditions specified in Article 49 of the Law on Real Estate Business and shall be applied in case the project is in progress or the project’s contents are approved.

 

• The procedures and documents related to the transfer of real estate business contracts or real estate projects are specified in this Decree.

 

1. Deployment of e-Tax application for mobile devices (eTax-Mobile 1.0)

 

The General Department of Taxation has issued Official Letter No. 4899/TCT-CNTT dated 14 December 2021 to deploy the Electronic Tax application for mobile devices (eTax-Mobile 1.0). The main content is as follows:

 

• The eTax-Mobile 1.0 application is an application on a mobile device platform for individual taxpayers using iOS and Android platforms.

 

• Supported functions include: Account management; electronic tax payment; looking up information on leasing, tax obligations, and related procedures; other utilities for taxpayers. Details of the functions are detailed in Appendix I attached to this Official Letter.

 

• The process of electronic tax payment for individuals is specifically guided in Appendix II attached to this Official Letter.

 

• The application has officially been operated since 15 December 2021.

 

1. Guidance on insurance premium tax refund

 

On 27 December 2021, the Tax Department of Binh Duong province issued Official Letter No. 22024/CTBDU-TTHT to guide the refund of insurance premium tax. The main content is as follows:

 

In case the insurance buyer is a business organization, when refunding insurance premiums (partially or wholly), the insurance enterprise shall request such insurance buyer to issue a VAT invoice, clearly stating the insurance premiums refunded by the insurance company, the VAT amount, and reasons for the refund. Such invoices shall serve as a basis for the insurance enterprise to adjust its sale turnover and output VAT and for the insurance buyer to adjust its insurance purchase expenses and the VAT amount already declared or credited.