Vietnam considers new e-commerce import tax, higher fees

Recently, according to foreign media reports, Vietnam is currently considering tightening import taxes on e-commerce deliveries.

According to the Vietnam E-commerce Index (EBI) report published by the Vietnam E-commerce Association , Vietnam's e-commerce market has grown at an average annual rate of 25-30% over the past five years. If Vietnam maintains this growth rate, the market size in 2025 will rank third in Southeast Asia, second only to Indonesia and Thailand.

Therefore, Vietnam is working to develop better legislation to regulate the growing cross-border e-commerce activities. Recently, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of Vietnam has sent an official letter to solicit opinions from ministries on the draft decree on the management of e-commerce import and export goods.

Vietnam's Ministry of Commerce issued a notice stating that during the epidemic and the peak sales season, the import and export of goods through e-commerce platforms has grown rapidly. However, the customs procedures for e-commerce goods are the same as those for ordinary goods, which has caused some problems for regulators.

Some buyers failed to submit or produce documents related to the value of e-commerce goods to determine the taxable amount. With the increasing number of cross-border e-commerce packages, customs authorities have to find ways to speed up the clearance of goods to reduce congestion at border ports. But the problem is that customs authorities do not have prior information about the type of goods to decide whether to conduct an inspection.

In addition, due to Vietnam's policy, no import tax is levied on parcels worth 1 million VND (44 USD) or less delivered through postal and courier services . Some criminals take advantage of this policy and pack cross-border e-commerce goods into small packages to avoid taxes.

To fill this loophole, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam proposed that up to four orders per month per organization or individual be exempted from import tax. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam emphasized that parcels with a value of more than US$44 and an import tax of more than VND100,000 ($4.39) will be taxed.

The draft decree also mentions speeding up the customs clearance procedures for imported and exported goods through e-commerce platforms. If approved, the decree is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2023.

Vietnam

E-commerce

Import taxes