Taxable income under the 2025 Enterprise Income Tax Law

Taxable enterprise income in 2025 includes which items?

According to Article 3 of the Law on Enterprise Income Tax 2025, taxable enterprise income includes income from goods and service production and business activities and other incomes.

Other incomes cover:

1. Income from the transfer of capital, capital contribution rights or securities;

2. Income from the transfer of real estate, excluding incomes from real estate transfers by real estate enterprises;

3. Income from the transfer of investment projects, transfer of rights to participate in investment projects, or transfer of rights to exploration, exploitation, and processing of minerals;

4. Income from the transfer, lease or liquidation of assets, including valuable papers, except for real estate;

5. Income from the right to own or use assets, including income from intellectual property rights and technology transfers;

6. Income from interests, loans or foreign currency sales, excluding incomes from credit activities of credit institutions;

7. Provisions previously accounted into expenses but unused or not fully used without being adjusted for deductible expenses; recovery of bad debts already written off; collection of payable debts of unidentifiable creditors; omitted income from previous years’ business activities but later detected;

8. Differences from penalties, compensation amounts due to violations of economic contracts, or bonuses for good performance of contractual commitments;

9. Donations and aid received in cash or in kind;

10. Differences arising from the revaluation of assets in accordance with the law for capital contributions, transfer upon merger, consolidation, division, separation, conversion of ownership, or conversion of enterprise types;

11. Income from business cooperation contracts;

12. Income from production and business activities conducted abroad;

13. Income of public non-business units derived from leasing out public assets;

14. Other incomes, excluding incomes exempted from tax as prescribed in Article 4 of this Law.

Notes for enterprises with taxable income

According to Clause 2, Article 2 of the Law on Enterprise Income Tax 2025, enterprises having taxable incomes shall pay enterprise income tax as follows:

• Enterprises established under Vietnamese law shall pay tax on taxable incomes generated in and outside Vietnam;

• Foreign enterprises with Vietnam-based permanent establishments shall pay tax on taxable incomes generated in Vietnam and taxable incomes generated outside Vietnam which are related to the operation of such establishments;

• Foreign enterprises with Vietnam-based permanent establishments shall also pay tax on taxable incomes generated in Vietnam which are not related to the operation of such permanent establishments;

• Foreign enterprises without Vietnam-based permanent establishments, including enterprises conducting e-commerce and digital platform-based business, shall pay tax on taxable incomes generated in Vietnam;

• Enterprises that are liable to top-up tax regarding the income inclusion rule (IIR) as prescribed by law may deduct such top-up tax payable from the amount of enterprise income tax payable in Vietnam in accordance with this Law.

Note on taxable incomes of foreign enterprises in Vietnam

According to Clauses 3 and 4, Article 3 of the Law on Enterprise Income Tax 2025, taxable incomes arising in Vietnam of foreign enterprises are incomes derived from Vietnamese sources, regardless of the place where business is conducted.

Vietnamese enterprises engaged in offshore investment activities that generate incomes from overseas production and business activities in a tax period shall be entitled to a deduction for the amount of enterprise income tax payable under the law of the host country from the amount of enterprise income tax payable in Vietnam, provided that such deduction does not exceed the amount of enterprise income tax calculated in accordance with Vietnam's law on enterprise income tax.