LAW No. 149/2025/QH15 (“LAW No. 149”) AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING CERTAIN ARTICLES OF THE 2025 VALUE-ADDED TAX LAW
DECREE No. 359/2025/ND-CP (“DECREE 359”) AMENDING AND SUPPLEMENTING CERTAIN ARTICLES OF DECREE No. 181/2025/ND-CP (“DECREE 181”)
On December 11, 2025, the National Assembly officially passed the Value-Added Tax Law No. 149/2025/QH15, amending and supplementing certain articles of the 2025 Value-Added Tax Law.
On December 31, 2025, the Government promulgated Decree No. 359/2025/ND-CP, amending and supplementing certain articles of Decree No. 181/2025/ND-CP.
Law No. 149 and Decree No. 359 officially took effect on January 1, 2026, removing many barriers in determining tax obligations and VAT refunds.
Some notable points of Law No. 149 and Decree No. 359 are as follows:
- Adjustment of regulations on the application of value-added tax (VAT) to agricultural products
Law No. 149 and Decree No. 359 have reinstated the approach to VAT policy for unprocessed agricultural products (including cultivated crops, planted forests, livestock, aquaculture, and caught seafood that have not been processed into other products or have only undergone ordinary preliminary processing) in accordance with the principles that had been stably applied prior to the effectiveness of the 2024 VAT Law and Decree No. 181.
Accordingly, the VAT regulations applicable to unprocessed agricultural products are specified for each stage as follows
Law No. 149/2025/QH15 readjusts the policy by reverting to a mechanism that has been tested and proven over a long period, thereby helping to reduce costs at the commercial stage and better aligning with the agricultural supply chain, where most transactions occur among parties that do not fully implement invoicing and documentation systems in accordance with enterprise standards.
- Raising the VAT exemption threshold for households and individual business entities
The revenue threshold for households and individual business entities exempt from declaring and paying VAT has been raised from 200 million to 500 million VND per year, consistent with the revenue threshold for personal income tax exemption under the Personal Income Tax Law passed by the National Assembly on December 10, 2025.
- Adjustment of declaration and tax refund
The regulation stipulating that tax refunds are only granted if the seller has declared and paid VAT, as well as the previous timing condition for applying tax refund eligibility, has been removed. Tax refund applications submitted before January 1, 2026 but not yet refunded will no longer be required to meet the condition that the seller has declared and paid VAT for input invoices. Accordingly, tax refund regulations are now more flexible and reduce the burden on enterprises
- Classification & adjustment of tax rates for scraps/by-products
By-products, secondary products, and scraps recovered during the production process will be subject to the tax rate applicable to the goods that generate such by-products, secondary products, and scraps when sold, instead of applying the tax rate based on products processed from those by-products, secondary products, and scraps under the 2024 VAT Law.
- Abolition of regulations related to presumptive tax for households and individuals
The regulation on presumptive tax (Clause 3, Article 12 of the 2024 VAT Law) applicable to households and individual business entities has been abolished. This means that households and individuals will no longer have the presumptive tax method if they do not comply with the accounting, invoicing, and documentation regime as prescribed.
