Please ask: How long can a business temporarily suspend business? How much is the fine for an enterprise that does not notify of temporary suspension of business? I thank you.

How long can a business temporarily suspend business?

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 66 of Decree 01/2021/ND-CP stipulates as follows:

Registering to temporarily suspend business and resume business before the announced deadline for enterprises, branches, representative offices, and business locations
1. In case an enterprise, branch, representative office, or business location temporarily suspends business or resumes business before the announced deadline, the enterprise sends a notice to the Business Registration Office where the enterprise, branch, representative office, or business location is located at least 03 working days before the date of suspension of business or resumption of business before the announced deadline. In case an enterprise, branch, representative office, or business location wishes to continue to temporarily suspend business after the end of the notified period, it must notify the Business Registration Office at least 03 working days before the date of continued business suspension. The business suspension period of each notice must not exceed one year.
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Accordingly, businesses are allowed to temporarily suspend business for a maximum of one year at a time.

In case an enterprise wishes to continue temporarily suspending business, after the end of the notified period, it can still notify the continued temporary suspension of business.

Do businesses temporarily suspend business have to pay license fees?

Pursuant to Clause 3, Article 4, Circular 302/2016/TT-BTC stipulates license fee rates as follows:

License fee rates
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Organizations, branches, representative offices, business locations (that are not exempt from license fees in the first year of establishment or production and business activities) are established, are granted tax registration, tax codes, and business codes during the first 6 months of the year, then pay the license fees for the whole year; If established and granted tax registration and tax code, business code during the last 6 months of the year, pay 50% of the license fee for the whole year.
Small and medium-sized enterprises converted from business households (including branches, representative offices, business locations) at the end of the license fee exemption period (the fourth year from the year of establishment of the business): In case of ending in the first 6 months of the year, pay the license fee. license fee for the whole year, in case it ends in the last 6 months of the year, pay 50% of the license fee for the whole year.
An active license fee payer who sends a document to the directly managing tax agency or business registration authority about the temporary suspension of production and business activities in the calendar year (from January 1 to December 31) does not have to pay the license fee for the year of temporary suspension of business. With the following conditions: The written request for temporary suspension of production and business activities is sent to the tax authority or business registration authority before the prescribed fee payment deadline (January 30 every year) and the license fee for the year of request for temporary suspension of production and business activities has not been paid. In case of temporary suspension of production and business activities that do not meet the above conditions, the license fee must be paid for the whole year.
Thus, an enterprise that temporarily suspends business activities does not have to pay license fees for the year of temporary suspension of business if it meets all the following conditions:

– A written request to suspend production and business activities is sent to the tax authority or business registration authority before the deadline for paying the fee according to the law. regulations (January 30 every year);

– If the year’s license fee has not been paid, please temporarily suspend production and business activities.

How much is the fine for businesses that do not notify of temporary suspension of business?
Pursuant to Point c Clause 1, Point c Clause 2 Article 50 of Decree 122/2021/ND-CP stipulates violations of other notification obligations as follows:

Breach of other notification obligations
1. Fine from 10,000,000 VND to 15,000,000 VND for one of the following acts:
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c) Failure to notify or not notifying on time to the business registration authority about the time and duration of business suspension or business resumption.
2. Remedial measures:
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c) Force notification of the time and duration of business suspension or business resumption to the business registration authority in case of failure to notify for violations specified in Point c, Clause 1 of this Article.
Accordingly, businesses that fail to notify business suspension will be administratively sanctioned with a fine of from 10,000,000 VND to 15,000,000 VND.

In addition to being fined, businesses are also forced to apply remedial measures such as having to notify the time and duration of business suspension to the business registration authority.

This is the penalty level applicable to the organization. In case of individual violation, the fine will be equal to 1/2 (one-half) of the fine for an organization with the same violation.