Cross border service providers–Facebook, Apple, and Netflix, for example–have contributed to Vietnam’s state coffers to the tune of VND 4 trillion or about US$157.4 million from the start of January to May 15 of this year. This is part of an initiative to tax firms without local offices that was launched in 2022.
This is perhaps most interesting in the context of Vietnam’s Cybersecurity Law. Specifically, the law requires foreign firms to open a local office, which many of them have simply not done, hence, paying the aforementioned tax as a cross border service provider.
Indeed, it looks as though this may be one challenge to enforcing the Cybersecurity Law in that it can really only be enforced by banning these cross border service providers until they comply. This would, however, mean losing out on millions of tax dollars and it looks unlikely that all key decision makers would be in support of this. This may help to explain why these firms have not opened local offices.
See also: Video Games in Vietnam: Cheat Sheet 2024