On 24 September 2026, the Department of Taxation held a conference to resolve difficulties and obstacles in value-added tax (VAT) refunds, attended by major business associations including KOCHAM, AMCHAM and EUROCHAM. The conference produced a number of notable outcomes.
UNI CUSTOMS CONSULTING attended the conference and summarises the key points below.
1. VAT refunds for on-the-spot export/import declarations
a. Declarations cleared before 1 July 2025
The difficulties in determining whether on-the-spot export/import declarations had completed customs procedures, and in applying the condition that the “foreign trader has no presence in Vietnam”, have been resolved by the Customs Department in Official Letter No. 19956/CHQ-GSQL dated 6 August 2026.
Accordingly, the Customs Department confirmed that:
- Before 1 July 2025, there was no legal basis for determining the condition that the foreign trader has no presence in Vietnam;
- On-the-spot export and import declarations cleared before 1 July 2025 are deemed to have completed customs procedures;
- The Customs Department requests the tax authorities of provinces and cities to consider VAT refunds on the basis of declarations that have completed customs procedures, in accordance with regulations.
Following the Customs Department’s opinion, the Department of Taxation has issued documents instructing local tax authorities to process refunds in line with the above guidance, including:
- Official Letter No. 6083/CT-QLNT dated 20 August 2026 to the Tay Ninh Provincial Tax Department;
- Official Letter No. 6175/CT-QLNT dated 22 August 2026 to the Bac Ninh Provincial Tax Department;
- Official Letter No. 6825/CT-QLNT dated 15 September 2026 to the tax authorities of all provinces and cities.
b. Declarations cleared from 1 July 2025
Article 47a (added by Clause 3, Article 3 of Law No. 90/2025/QH15) has removed the legal bottleneck for on-the-spot export/import. The law no longer requires the condition that the foreign trader has no presence in Vietnam; it only requires “designation by the foreign trader”.
Businesses and tax authorities shall rely on this provision to carry out customs and VAT refund procedures.
2. VAT refunds for goods exported via bonded warehouses
Difficulties remain in determining two conditions: “export to an organisation in a non-tariff zone” and “consumption within the non-tariff zone”.
Article 9 of the 2024 Law on Value-Added Tax provides:
“1. The 0% tax rate applies to the following goods and services:
(…)
b) Exported services include: services provided directly to organisations or individuals overseas and consumed outside Vietnam; services provided directly to organisations in non-tariff zones and consumed within non-tariff zones, directly serving export production;”
Bonded warehouses meet the requirements of a non-tariff zone and therefore satisfy the condition of “export to an organisation in a non-tariff zone”. However, there is currently no legal provision defining what constitutes “consumption within the non-tariff zone”. This issue therefore requires further guidance from the competent authorities.
Recommendation from the Department of Taxation: Pending unified guidance, businesses should retain full documentation of warehouse receipts and releases, intended use, consignee details and the actual flow of goods, and should not rely solely on the name of the delivery location to conclude that refund conditions are met.
3. VAT refunds for timber that has undergone only ordinary preliminary processing
At the conference, the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association raised the issue that provinces and cities currently interpret the criterion of “ordinary preliminary processing” differently for sawn timber.
In response, the Department of Taxation issued Official Letter No. 7021/CT-QLNT dated 22 September 2026, under which round logs and timber bars that have been sawn to specification but have not undergone planing, chemical preservative treatment or drying are considered products that have undergone only ordinary preliminary processing under Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree No. 181/2025/ND-CP and Circular No. 84/2025/TT-BNNMT of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. Such goods are not subject to VAT at the production-and-sale stage and at the import stage.
In Dong Nai specifically, the Dong Nai Provincial Tax Department has also accepted that round logs sawn to specification and treated with chemical preservatives and dried are products that have undergone only ordinary preliminary processing.
Note: Where it cannot be determined whether goods qualify as ordinarily pre-processed, businesses should contact the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment for a determination.
NEED SUPPORT?
If your business is facing difficulties with VAT refunds for on-the-spot exports/imports, goods via bonded warehouses or pre-processed agricultural and forestry products, please contact UNI CUSTOMS CONSULTING. Our experts are ready to review your documents, assess risks and support you throughout your dealings with the tax and customs authorities.