WHAT HAPPENED
Vietnam Briefing published an analysis of typical tax and compliance mistakes that foreign companies make when entering the Vietnamese market. The material was released on September 16, 2026, and systematizes what consultants encounter when working with foreign investors: from incorrect registration of tax status to errors in VAT reporting and non-compliance with customs procedures.
The news itself is not about a new law, but it landed in a very dense regulatory context. Since July 1, 2026, the Law on E-commerce 122/2025/QH15 has been in effect — the government gazette BaoChinhPhu explicitly outlines sanctions for violators: blocking access, suspending transaction functions, removing content, closing accounts, and excluding from registries. Since February 14, 2026, Decree 373/2025/ND-CP on tax administration has been in force, which, in particular, establishes the obligation for platforms to withhold and remit VAT and personal income tax on behalf of sellers. And on May 15, 2026, Decree 169/2026/ND-CP was issued with an updated range of sanctions for customs violations, including forced re-export, destruction of goods, and marking "VIETNAM DUTY NOT PAID".
At the same time, enforcement is underway, and it is tough. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam (MOIT), in the first half of 2026 alone, more than 9,000 violating and counterfeit items were removed in cooperation with platforms, and the amounts of fines and confiscations sharply exceeded last year's figures. The State Customs, according to the government portal BaoChinhPhu, processed 15,273 cases from December 15, 2025, to August 14, 2026, with an estimated value of seized goods of 15,371 billion dong.
WHAT THIS MEANS
For a Russian e-commerce entrepreneur who purchases goods in Vietnam or moves part of production there, this material is not an abstract compliance primer, but a risk map with direct impact on margins and delivery times. An error in tax status or customs declaration now almost automatically translates into a delay of cargo at the border, and a delay of 2–3 weeks means falling out of the delivery schedule to the marketplace and losing positions in search results.
The first layer of risk is tax. If you work through a Vietnamese legal entity or through a local importer partner, the key question is who and how reports VAT. Decree 373/2025/ND-CP shifts some responsibilities to platforms, but this does not remove the seller's responsibility for correct registration and declarations. According to Baker McKenzie's analysis in the publication Vietnam Tax Administration, PIT and VAT Laws, a separate block of sanctions concerns invoice operations — fines in the range of 20–50 million dong for selling or transferring invoices. This is a classic scheme that foreigners fall into when trying to "optimize" document flow through an intermediary.
The second layer is customs. Decree 169/2026/ND-CP not only increases fines, it gives customs tools for physical impact on goods: forced re-export, destruction, special marking. For a seller who has purchased a batch for a specific sale date, destruction or re-export is not a fine, it is a complete loss of the batch and disruption of the seasonal peak. According to the State Customs of Vietnam (summary on the BaoChinhPhu portal), in less than nine months of 2025–2026, more than 15 thousand cases were processed — the intensity of inspections has increased manifold.
The third layer is digital compliance and cybersecurity. Decree 327/2026/NĐ-CP, published by the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, creates a legal basis for operational requirements to platforms to remove content and suspend accounts. The practical meaning for a Russian brand is simple: a product card or store on a local platform can be blocked not through your fault, but due to a violation committed by your Vietnamese distributor or agent. At the same time, official MOIT releases emphasize enforcement against violations, while independent reports from August–September 2026 reported waves of seller freezes and payment problems — official sources do not publish aggregated figures on blocked accounts, and estimates vary here.
VIETSMART EXPERT COMMENTARY
I see this problem in operations in Ho Chi Minh City almost every week. Russian entrepreneurs come to us with the same story: the contract is signed with a local supplier, the goods are shipped, and at customs it turns out that the HS code is declared incorrectly or the invoice is issued through a third company. Then it's either additional payment, or downtime, or re-export. The most common mistake I observe: an entrepreneur saves on a local tax consultant at the stage of structuring the deal, and then pays three times more at the stage of dealing with the consequences. The second most common is working through a "friendly" intermediary without checking their tax history: if the partner has unpaid tax obligations, your batch may be paused along with their accounts.
If I were a Russian entrepreneur, I would structure the work as follows: first an audit of the partner and the deal structure, then a pilot batch, and only then scaling. Not the other way around.
CONCLUSIONS AND WHAT TO DO
- Check the tax status of the Vietnamese partner before signing the contract. Request confirmation of registration with the tax service, a certificate of no debts, and a history of export operations. If the partner evades — this is a red flag, not a "formality".
- Verify HS codes and customs value against the current rules of Decree 169/2026/ND-CP. An error in the code is a direct path to forced re-export or marking "VIETNAM DUTY NOT PAID", which effectively zeroes out the batch.
- Build a transparent invoice chain. No "optimization" schemes through third companies: fines for transferring and selling invoices under 2026 rules reach 50 million dong, and reputational damage from being entered into the violators' registry is more expensive.
- Include in the contract the partner's responsibility for blocking cards and accounts. Given Decree 327/2026/NĐ-CP and the Law on E-commerce 122/2025/QH15, the platform can remove content or suspend transactions quickly — a clause on compensation for losses during blocking should be in the contract.
- Plan deliveries with a buffer of 3–4 weeks for customs inspections. According to MOIT, in the first half of 2026, more than 9,000 items were removed, and customs processed over 15 thousand cases in nine months — the probability of being selected has increased, and a time buffer is now not a luxury but a necessity.
Source: Vietnam Briefing dated September 16, 2026