Vietnam-based representative office of a foreign investor means a dependent unit, a lawful office in Vietnam, allowed to recruit staff to manage and promote sale contracts with local business partners, research and develop products, seeking opportunities for the purchase or sale of goods and provision of services. A foreign representative office is a simple form of investment in Vietnam to enhance business from overseas, with multiple advantages while fewer risks regarding the required business compliance procedures such as investment capital, tax, accounting, and auditing. And it is easy to be extended or terminated or dissolved. The expatriate employees who work for representative office can obtain work permit and two years multiple visa (temporary residence card) for themselves and their family in Vietnam.
Although a representative office can enhance and support business development for parent company, easy to manage and able to keep investor away from many potential risks of violating local compliance procedures: no add valued tax, no corporate income tax, no accounting books, no financial statement, no independent audit required… but, in fact, there are many representative offices have endured serious fines due to misconduct of compliance procedures. VIVA would like to share some compliance procedures for foreign representative office license in Vietnam.
EXTENSION OF THE FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE LICENSE
Other than cases be revoked such as:
- Fail to come into operation for 1 year and fail to enter into transactions with licensing agencies.
- Fail to submit the operation reports on the operation of the foreign representative office for 02 consecutive years.
- Fail to submit annual reports to the licensing agency within 6 months from the deadline of submission or at the written request of the licensing agency.
Every office shall be eligible for the grant of extension of the license of the establishment of the representative office.
There are many reasons may trouble you to extend the license properly, and you should prepare at least 03 months in advance. It would take time to prepare for the papers and dossiers for the extension. Moreover, the officers will audit your previous operations, tax declaration and settlement and other condition before making decision on if your office license would be extended or not, a new effective period of representative office license will be 1 year or 5 years…
Read more: Extension of License for Establishment of Representative Office in Vietnam – Cases and Applications
AMEND INFORMATION ON A REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE LICENSE
When foreign traders or foreign representative offices operating in Vietnam change information, it is necessary to comply with some regulations of state agencies as follows:
Cases need to be notified:
Foreign traders must carry out procedures for adjusting license of representative office in the following cases:
- Changing the name of the foreign trader.
- Changing the address of the foreign business entity.
- Changing the chief of the representative office.
- Changing the name of the representative office.
- Changing of operation contents of the representative office.
- Changing of address of the representative office.
Dossier of license adjustment:
In case of change, the foreign trader shall prepare one (01) dossier set, including:
1/ Documents evidencing the change, specifically:
- A copy of the legal document issued by a competent authority, proof of change of name or address of the foreign business establishment (if the name and address of the foreign business establishment entity are changed. To be certified or consular legalized by the Vietnamese diplomatic mission or consular office in the foreign countries according to the provisions of Vietnamese law).
- Documents of the foreign trader appointing new chief of the representative office. Copy of passport (if being foreigners)/ ID card (if being Vietnamese) of the new chief of the representative office. Documents proving that the former chief of the representative office has fulfilled the personal income tax obligation by the time of change (if changing of the chief representative, the documents must be translated into Vietnamese and authenticated according to the provisions the law of Vietnam).
- A copy of the lease agreement or a copy of the documents proving that the trader has the right to exploit and use the location for the head office of the representative office. a copy of the document on the location of the proposed representative office (if the address of an office is changed).
2/ The original license of the representative office:
* Handling violations:
Within 60 working days after the change of foreign traders, the procedures for modifying the representative office license must be carried out.
Depending on the seriousness of the breach, the offender shall be fined from 20,000,000 VND to 40,000,000 VND for acts of “failing to carry out the procedures for amending, supplementing or re-granting of representative office establishment permits according”, in accordance with Decree 185/2013 / ND-CP dated 15 November 2013.
Read more:
- Representative office in Vietnam: What you need to know
- 03 cases that office license shall be changed
- Cases of adjustments to licenses for establishment
- Cases of adjustments to the office license
- Cases of re-grant of licenses for establishment
- The effective period of foreign representative office license in Vietnam
- Conditions for being granted licenses to set up representative offices in Vietnam
- Grant licenses to set up representative offices in Vietnam for foreign insurance brokers
- Extending representative offices license: what you need to know