Công văn 5904/BTC-TCT

To: Provincial Departments of Taxation

The Ministry of Finance have received inquiries from Provincial Departments of Taxation about Official Dispatch No. 385/BTC-CST dated January 09, 2014 and Official Dispatch No. 3828/BTC-CST dated March 26, 2014 regarding VAT on unprocessed and preprocessed agricultural, forestry, and aquaculture products. The Ministry of Finance hereby offers its opinions as follows:

Pursuant to Point dd Clause 3 Article 2 of the Government's Decree No. 209/2013/ND-CP regarding cases in which VAT is not declared and paid:

 “dd) Unprocessed or preprocessed farming, breeding, aquaculture products sold to other enterprises or cooperatives, except for the case specified in Clause 1 Article 5 of the Law on Value-added tax.”

Pursuant to Clause 5 Article 5 of Circular No. 219/2013/TT-BTC dated December 31, 2013 of the Ministry of Finance on VAT:

“5. A company or cooperative that pays VAT using credit-invoice method and sells unprocessed or preprocessed farming, breeding, aquaculture products to another company or cooperative for commercial purposes shall be exempt from declaring and paying VAT. The selling price on the VAT invoice is VAT-exclusive price; the tax rate line must be left blank and crossed out.

A company or cooperative that pays VAT using credit-invoice method and sells unprocessed or preprocessed farming, breeding, aquaculture products to other entities such as business households, businesspeople, other organizations or other individuals has to declare and pay 5% VAT according to Clause 5 Article 10 of this Circular.

A business household, businessperson, company, cooperative, or business organization that pays VAT directly on value added using direct method and sells unprocessed or preprocessed farming, breeding, aquaculture products for commercial purposes shall declare and pay VAT at 1% of the revenue.

Accordingly, an enterprise or cooperative which pays VAT using credit-invoice method and sells unprocessed or preprocessed farming, breeding, aquaculture products to another company or cooperative for commercial purposes shall be exempt from declaring and paying VAT, regardless of the VAT accounting method of the buyer.

This Official Dispatch replaces Official Dispatch No. 385/BTC-CST dated January 09, 2014 and Official Dispatch No. 3828/BTC-CST dated March 26, 2014 of the Ministry of Finance.

Provincial Departments of Taxation shall implement and disseminate this document among local enterprises. Any difficulties that arise during the implementation of this document should be reported to General Department of Taxation, the Ministry of Finance for guidance.