Vietnam’s three-year SME tax holiday: who qualifies and how to claim.

In this Acclime Conversation episode, Ngoc Nguyen, Senior Manager for Accounting and Tax at Acclime Vietnam, explains the three-year corporate income tax exemption for newly established SMEs, now confirmed to cover foreign-invested enterprises. The discussion covers what the incentive offers, where eligibility is narrower than it first appears and why documentation matters from day one. Topics include:

• The 11 June 2026 guidance placing foreign-invested SMEs on the same footing as local ones
• How the three-year exemption runs from the first Enterprise Registration Certificate, regardless of revenue or profit
• The first-time registration condition and why mergers, conversions and ownership changes fall outside it
• Anti-abuse rules covering legal representatives and shareholders of recently dissolved businesses
• SME thresholds under Decree 80/2021 and how they vary by industry
• Claiming the exemption through self-assessment in the annual CIT finalisation return
• Why tax authorities review eligibility later through audits, and the cost of getting it wrong
• What foreign investors setting up in Vietnam should check now