Can the company pay the business license fee for the branch?

Posted on: 28/11/2024

I am the director of a one-member limited liability company in Ho Chi Minh City. My company has a branch in Da Nang. QUESTION: Can the company pay the business license fee for the branch?

Article 2 of Decree 139/2016/ND-CP stipulates the payers of the business license fee as follows:

"Business license fee payers are organizations and individuals engaged in the production and trading of goods and services, except for the cases specified in Article 3 of this Decree, including:

Enterprises established under the law.
Organizations established under the Cooperative Law.
Public service units established under the law.
Economic organizations of political organizations, socio-political organizations, social organizations, socio-professional organizations, and units of the people's armed forces.
Other organizations engaged in production and trading.
Branches, representative offices, and business locations of the organizations specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of this Article (if any).
Individuals, groups of individuals, and households engaged in production and trading."

According to Point a, Clause 1, Article 5 of Circular 302/2016/TT-BTC, amended by Clause 5, Article 1 of Circular 65/2020/TT-BTC, the declaration of the business license fee is as follows:

a.1) Business license fee declaration is done once when a new business entity starts operating, no later than the last day of the month in which the business starts operations. a.2) If the fee payer has dependent units (branches, representative offices, business locations) operating in the same province, the fee payer shall submit the business license fee declaration for these dependent units to the tax authority directly managing the fee payer.

a.2) If the fee payer has dependent units (branches, representative offices, business locations) operating in a different province from where the fee payer's headquarters is located, the dependent unit shall submit the business license fee declaration to the tax authority directly managing the dependent unit.

a.3) If the fee payer establishes a new business facility but has not yet started business operations, the business license fee must be declared within 30 days from the date of issuance of the business registration certificate or the date of issuance of the investment registration certificate and tax registration, or the date of issuance of the enterprise registration certificate; the date of issuance of the branch operation registration certificate; the date of issuance of the investment decision document.

Therefore, according to these regulations, branches of a company in a different province will independently submit the business license fee declaration to the tax authority directly managing the branch.

Your company in Saigon will not pay the business license fee on behalf of the branch in Da Nang. The business license fee will be paid by the branch directly to the tax authority in Da Nang city.

Applicable legal documents: