At a National Assembly question-and-answer session on
November 12, Minister of Finance Ngo Van Tuan stated that Vietnam’s e-commerce
sector has recorded average annual growth of around 20% since 2022, according to the Government’s online newspaper (chinhphu.vn).
Along with market expansion, tax revenue from e-commerce services has also grown rapidly. By the end of the first ten months of 2026,
tax collections reached VND241 trillion (approximately $9.38 billion), an
increase of approximately 42% year-on-year.
According to the minister, effective management of online
business activities requires strict oversight of online sellers, KOLs, KOCs,
e-commerce platforms, and supporting service providers such as payment
companies, logistics firms, and delivery drivers.
Currently, the tax authority manages more than 140,000
businesses and over one million household and individual online business
operators. The key strategy is to identify business entities, collect data, and
ensure that transactions conducted in the digital environment are properly
monitored.
The Ministry of Finance has implemented a tax withholding
and remittance mechanism, requiring e-commerce platforms and service providers
to deduct taxes at the 105 logistics providers have been connected to the national
database system
Mr. Tuan emphasized that that integration helps business
operators avoid submitting the same information multiple times. They only need
to declare information once and update it when changes occur. If an e-commerce
platform has already paid taxes on behalf of a seller, the seller is not
required to pay those taxes again.
Authorities are also monitoring data and tracing payment
transactions through e-wallets and bank accounts linked to verified
identification information.
For cross-border e-commerce activities, the ministry
launched a National Electronic Information Portal in 2022, allowing foreign
service providers to declare and pay taxes in Vietnam.
Minister Tuan noted that the E-commerce Law, which took
effect on July 1, 2026, requires global online platforms to maintain a
representative presence in Vietnam.
In addition to tax obligations, e-commerce management also
involves combating counterfeit goods, fake products, prohibited items, and
intellectual property violations. Therefore, tax authority data must be integrated
with data from other government agencies, including payment regulators.
Nearly 600 cases referred for investigation
Responding to questions about invoice trading and shell
companies, the minister acknowledged that violations still occur despite the
implementation of electronic invoices.
He reported that since 2022, tax authorities have
transferred nearly 600 company dossiers showing signs of tax evasion, tax
fraud, or illegal invoice trading to investigative agencies.
The Ministry of Finance plans to strengthen the use of
digital technologies and work closely with relevant authorities, especially the Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department under the Ministry
of Public Security, to verify the identities of individuals registering and
managing businesses.
At the same time, tax authorities will increase inspections
of actual business operations, focusing on high-risk sectors and groups.
Regarding cases where citizens’ identities have been misused
to establish businesses fraudulently, the minister said that current reviews
indicate approximately 8,000 affected individuals. Most of these companies were
established about 20 years ago, when information technology systems and
data-sharing mechanisms between tax and public security authorities were still
underdeveloped.
“The Ministry of Finance will continue coordinating
with public security agencies to investigate and cleanse these enterprises from
the system, while also raising public awareness so that citizens can better
protect their personal information,” said Mr. Tuan.
