--- title: "Vietnam CIT Finalization and Financial Statements 2026" description: "What to file by 31 March 2027, the 15% and 17% CIT rates for small companies, and a week-by-week plan from December so nothing piles up in March." canonical: https://sosachsang.thenexova.cloud/en/blog/vietnam-cit-finalization-financial-statements-2026 lang: en last-updated: 2026-10-04 --- 25/09 Tax # CIT finalization and financial statements for 2026: due 31 March 2027 > What to file by 31 March 2027, the 15% and 17% CIT rates for small companies, and a week-by-week plan from December so nothing piles up in March. Nguồn / Source: https://sosachsang.thenexova.cloud/en/blog/vietnam-cit-finalization-financial-statements-2026 [!**Phạm Đức Tài**General accountant](/en/team/pham-duc-tai)Published 25 Sept 2026Updated 4 Oct 20267 min read ![A woman looks at a spreadsheet on a laptop screen at a table by a window](/_astro/blog-5.D25Ybli5_Z1SzaI5.jpg) In this article 1. [What has to be filed by 31 March 2027](#what-has-to-be-filed-by-31-march-2027) 2. [Week-by-week plan, December 2026 to 31 March 2027](#week-by-week-plan-december-2026-to-31-march-2027) 3. [Costs the tax office commonly disallows](#costs-the-tax-office-commonly-disallows) 4. [Where people usually slip](#where-people-usually-slip) 5. [When to bring in an accountant](#when-to-bring-in-an-accountant) 6. [Sources and update](#sources-and-update) If your company’s financial year follows the calendar year, the 2026 financial statements and the annual corporate income tax (CIT) finalization return are due by **Wednesday 31 March 2027**. Any CIT still owed after finalization must be paid by the same day. The same deadline applies to the PIT finalization your company does on behalf of its employees. The deadline is in March, but the problems start in December: stock that was never counted, customer and supplier balances never confirmed, missing purchase invoices, payments made in cash that the tax office will not accept as costs. Find these in March and your suppliers are back from Tết holiday with no appetite for reissuing last year’s paperwork, and nobody can recount the stock as it stood on 31 December. Below is the week-by-week plan we use with clients from the start of December. ## What has to be filed by 31 March 2027 **The CIT finalization return, form 03/TNDN.** Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC, which replaced Circular 80/2021/TT-BTC on 1 July 2026, keeps this form number. Appendices are added as needed, for example appendix 03-2/TNDN if you carry forward losses from earlier years. It is filed on the e-tax portal and signed with the company’s digital signature. **The annual financial statements.** Most small companies use the SME accounting regime in Circular 133/2016/TT-BTC: a statement of financial position, an income statement, notes to the statements, and a trial balance that goes to the tax office. Micro enterprises have their own regime (according to the summaries we have read, Circular 58/2026/TT-BTC replaced Circular 132/2018/TT-BTC from 1 July 2026; we are still checking the original). The statements are filed together with the CIT finalization. **PIT finalization for employees** who have authorised the company to do it, by the same 31 March 2027 deadline. If your company is foreign-invested, its annual statements must be audited by an independent audit firm before filing. Plan the audit fieldwork for February at the latest. We do not do audits; we prepare the books and statements so your auditor can work from them. Two numbers matter for 2026: - CIT is 15% if your total 2025 revenue was VND 3 billion or less, 17% if it was over VND 3 billion and up to VND 50 billion, and 20% otherwise (CIT Law 67/2025/QH15). Related-party rules can take these rates away, so check if you are part of a group. - A company with total annual revenue of VND 1 billion or less is exempt from CIT from 2026 (Decree 141/2026/NĐ-CP). Your four provisional payments must reach at least 80% of the final CIT, checked before the Q4 deadline of 1 February 2027\. The method is in [provisional CIT in 2026](/en/blog/vietnam-provisional-cit-2026). ## Week-by-week plan, December 2026 to 31 March 2027 ### December 2026: clean up before the year closes - **1 to 4 December.** Download the list of purchase e-invoices issued to you for the first 11 months from the e-invoice portal and compare it with the books. Send each supplier a list of what is missing. - **7 to 11 December.** Send balance confirmations to customers and suppliers with large balances. Review every payment of VND 5 million or more this year; anything still paid in cash moves to bank transfer from now on. - **14 to 18 December.** Decide the 13th-month salary and Tết bonus: amount, date, paid through the bank. Make sure employment contracts or the pay policy mention it. File and pay November VAT (due 21 December). - **21 to 25 December.** If you qualified for the Decree 245/2026 extension, VAT for June to September is due 21 December 2026\. Book a date with whoever runs your warehouse for the stock count. - **28 to 31 December.** Count stock and petty cash on 31 December, with a signed record. Get bank statements to 31 December. If you used the extension, Q3 VAT and Q3 provisional CIT are due 30 December. Invoices issued up to 31 December 2026 can still use the reduced 8% VAT rate where it applies; from 1 January 2027 the rate returns to 10% unless the cut is extended. ### January 2027: close the books and draft the finalization - **4 to 8 January.** Close December. Reconcile bank, cash and stock balances with the count records. Book a full year of depreciation. - **11 to 15 January.** Draft the finalization: accounting profit, plus disallowed costs, minus losses carried forward. Get the year’s CIT figure and the 80% line. - **18 to 22 January.** Monthly VAT filers file December VAT (due 20 January 2027). Collect the signed balance confirmations and note any differences. - **25 to 29 January.** Pay Q4 provisional CIT up to at least the 80% line, and Q4 VAT if you file quarterly. Both are due Monday 1 February 2027, but pay this week. ### February 2027: Tết and the draft statements - **1 to 5 February.** Q4 deadline on 1 February. The first day of the Lunar New Year falls on Saturday 6 February 2027; the official holiday dates had not been announced when we wrote this. Before the break, send your accountant every missing document. - **The two weeks after Tết (roughly 15 to 26 February).** Prepare draft statements and notes. List adjustments: which items change the books and which are only added back for tax. ### March 2027: review, sign, file - **1 to 5 March.** You read the draft statements and ask about anything unclear. In our office, Hạnh, our chief accountant, signs off every set of statements before filing. - **8 to 12 March.** Prepare form 03/TNDN and its appendices. Run the employee PIT finalization. - **15 to 19 March.** File the CIT finalization with the statements and pay any balance. This is our internal deadline. - **22 to 31 March.** Buffer for digital signature problems, a slow portal, last-minute corrections. Final deadline Wednesday 31 March 2027. The 31 December stock count and bank statements are the two things you cannot redo later. You can correct the books in March; you cannot recount the stock as it was on 31 December. ## Costs the tax office commonly disallows These create the gap between book profit and taxable income. For 2026 we check these hardest: - **Payments of VND 5 million or more without a non-cash payment record.** Under Decree 320/2025/NĐ-CP the threshold fell from VND 20 million to VND 5 million, and it covers purchases of goods and services and each salary or wage payment. - **Costs without a valid invoice or document**, or invoices with the wrong company name or tax code. - **Administrative fines**, such as traffic fines or late-filing penalties. - **Costs not actually incurred in the year.** A prepayment for an advertising campaign running in 2027 belongs to 2027. ## Where people usually slip - **No stock count on 31 December.** Before it came to us, a packaging printer in Tân Bình filed statements using the stock figure from its books. Two years later, during a tax inspection, the books were tonnes of paper away from the warehouse. With no count record, there was nothing to explain the gap. - **Missing purchase invoices found in March.** Small suppliers have closed, changed accountants or stopped trading. The list sent in early December recovers most of them. - **Tết bonuses in cash.** Many owners still hand out envelopes. Every envelope of VND 5 million or more is a cost you cannot deduct. - **Balances nobody confirmed.** A receivable from a customer who stopped buying three years ago is still on the books. Nobody knows if it is real. - **Statements and returns that do not match.** Revenue in the financial statements differs from the total declared on the year’s VAT returns, with no explanation in the notes. This is one of the first things a tax officer notices. - **Filing on time, paying late.** The CIT balance after finalization is also due on 31 March 2027. ## When to bring in an accountant If your books are current to November and you hold little stock, this list is enough for you and an in-house bookkeeper. If the books have gaps of several months, start in December, not in March. Our [bookkeeping and financial statements service](/en/services/bookkeeping-financial-statements) is VND 3 million a month before 8% VAT, for companies under 20 staff and up to 80 documents a month, and includes the annual statements and CIT finalization, with a short monthly summary in English. If earlier years were left unfinished, catch-up bookkeeping starts from VND 4 million per financial year. See our [pricing](/en/pricing), try the [fee calculator](/en/fee-calculator), or [book a 30-minute call](/en/book-a-call) with Tài. Every 2026 date is on the [tax calendar](/en/tax-calendar-2026); monthly and quarterly VAT dates are in [monthly or quarterly VAT filing](/en/blog/vietnam-vat-filing-monthly-or-quarterly). ## Sources and update Based on the Law on Tax Administration 108/2025/QH15 and Decree 252/2026/NĐ-CP (annual finalization due on the last day of the third month after the financial year ends), Circular 89/2026/TT-BTC (form 03/TNDN and appendices), the CIT Law 67/2025/QH15, Decree 320/2025/NĐ-CP (deductible costs and the VND 5 million non-cash rule), Decree 141/2026/NĐ-CP, Circular 133/2016/TT-BTC on SME accounting, Resolution 204/2025/QH15 on the VAT cut and Decree 245/2026/NĐ-CP on extensions. Last checked 4 October 2026\. The new micro-enterprise accounting regime (Circular 58/2026/TT-BTC) and the 2027 Tết holiday dates will be updated once we have checked the originals. NG ## Sources checked 1. [10 filing deadlines taxpayers should note from 1 July 2026 (VOV, Vietnamese)](https://vov.vn/kinh-te/10-moc-thoi-han-nop-ho-so-khai-thue-nguoi-nop-thue-can-luu-y-tu-172026-post1315704.vov) 2. [Decree 252 on tax administration (KPMG Vietnam)](https://kpmg.com/vn/en/insights/2026/07/decree-252-on-tax-administration.html) 3. [Form 03/TNDN, annual CIT finalization return (LuatVietnam, Vietnamese)](https://luatvietnam.vn/bieu-mau/mau-so-03-tndnmau-to-khai-quyet-toan-thue-thu-nhap-doanh-nghiep-571-107591-article.html) 4. [Conditions for deductible expenses at finalization (Tax and Customs Review, Vietnamese)](https://thuehaiquan.tapchikinhtetaichinh.vn/nhung-diem-can-luu-y-ve-dieu-kien-chi-phi-duoc-tru-khi-quyet-toan-thue-151527.html) 5. [Invoices from VND 5 million must be paid non-cash to be deductible (LuatVietnam, Vietnamese)](https://luatvietnam.vn/tin-van-ban-moi/hoa-don-tu-5-trieu-dong-phai-thanh-toan-khong-tien-mat-de-duoc-tru-thue-tndn-186-106006-article.html) 6. [CIT Law 67/2025/QH15 (MISA SME, Vietnamese)](https://sme.misa.vn/350245/luat-thue-tndn-so-67-2025-qh15/) Checked on 4 Oct 2026\. Tax rules change often; ask an accountant about your own case before acting on this. TG ## Written by ![Portrait of a middle-aged Asian man in a blue denim shirt with arms crossed against a grey background](/_astro/team-5.B_Ku1hEa_Z1Y1ETI.jpg) Phạm Đức Tài, General accountant Eleven years of books and statements. Likes three-year-old abandoned ledgers and handing them back in order. [Profile and other articles](/en/team/pham-duc-tai) LQ ## Read next 12/08 Tax [Quarterly provisional CIT in 2026: the new deadline and the 80% rule](/en/blog/vietnam-provisional-cit-2026) 20/07 Tax [Monthly or quarterly VAT filing in Vietnam, and the 2026 deadlines](/en/blog/vietnam-vat-filing-monthly-or-quarterly) 22/09 Company [Outsourced or in-house accountant in Vietnam: the full cost compared](/en/blog/outsourced-or-in-house-accountant) DV ## Want someone to handle this? 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