CORPORATE INCOME TAX INCENTIVES REGULATIONS UNDER TPP COMMITMENTS OF VIETNAM

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW -***- MANAGING BOARD OF SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAMS VO THI THANH THUY CORPORATE INCOME TAX INCENTIVES REGULATIONS UNDER TPP COMMITMENTS OF VIETNAM BACHELOR THESIS Major in: COMMERCIAL LAW Course: 2012 - 2016 Supervisor: DR PHAN THI THANH DUONG Student: VO THI THANH THUY Student ID: 1253801011234 Class: CLC – 37D HO CHI MINH CITY - 2016 – ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr Phan Thi Thanh Duong for her support and guidance She inspired me so much throughout this interesting knowledge venture I am also thankful to Assoc Prof Dr Bui Xuan Hai, Vice Rector of HCMC University of Law and Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Van Van, Dean of Commercial Law Faculty My thesis could not be conducted without their kind permissions All best thanks for my family, they had been always on my shoulder during the challenge period of final year in Law School COMMITMENT I hereby commit that the Bachelor Thesis entitled “Corporate Income Tax Incentives Regulations under TPP Commitments of Vietnam” is my own research under the guidance and supervision of Dr Phan Thi Thanh Duong All the sources of information contained therein are properly and duly cited I would bear entire responsibility for this commitment July 19th, 2016 Vo Thi Thanh Thuy LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BIT Bilateral Investment Treaty CIT Corporate Income Tax DSB Dispute Settlement Body DTT/DTC Double Tax Treaty/Double Tax Convention FTA Free Trade Agreement GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 IIA International Investment Agreement ISDS Investor-State Dispute Settlement NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NT National Treatment OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development PRs Performance Requirement(s) SCM Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures SME Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise TPP Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement TRIMs Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development US – FSC United States – Foreign Sales Corporations WTO World Trade Organization TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER CURRENT VIETNAMESE REGULATIONS ON CORPORATE INCOME TAX INCENTIVES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO TPP COMMITMENTS 1.1 AN OVERVIEW OF CIT INCENTIVES REGULATIONS IN VIETNAM 1.1.1 Definition and characteristics 1.1.2 Sources of CIT incentives 1.1.3 Forms of CIT incentives 1.1.4 Objectives of CIT incentives 1.2 TPP COMMITMENTS ON CIT INCENTIVES REGULATIONS 10 1.2.1 The rationale for TPP commitments on CIT incentives 10 1.2.2 An overview of taxation issue in TPP 14 1.2.4 Commitment on Performance Requirements 19 1.2.5 Relationship between rules on Performance Requirements and National Treatment on CIT incentives 23 1.3 THE EFFECT OF TPP COMMITMENTS ON CIT INCENTIVES REGULATIONS IN VIETNAM: A GENERAL ASSESSMENT 24 1.3.1 Pre-TPP accession: CIT incentives regulations under WTO commitments 24 1.3.2 TPP accession: New challenges for CIT incentives regulations 25 CONCLUSIONS FOR CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER TPP-CONSISTENCY ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT REGULATIONS ON CIT INCENTIVES IN VIETNAM AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING 29 2.1 CONSISTENCY ASSESSMENT OF NATIONAL TREATMENT ON TRADE IN GOODS 29 2.1.1 The challenge test 29 2.1.2 Consistency Assessment on current CIT incentives in Vietnam 31 2.2 CONSISTENCY ASSESSMENT OF COMMITMENT OF NATIONAL TREATMENT ON TRADE IN SERVICES 33 2.2.1 The challenge test 33 2.2.2 Consistency Assessment on current CIT incentives in Vietnam 36 2.3 COMMITMENT OF PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS 41 2.3.1 The challenge test 41 2.3.2 Consistency Assessment on current CIT incentives in Vietnam 44 CONCLUSIONS FOR CHAPTER 46 CONCLUSIONS 47 TABLES Table 1.1: Common CIT incentives Table 1.2: Objectives of CIT incentives Table 1.3: A comparison between TPP and WTO commitments on CIT incentives regulations Table 2.1: Exceptions of National Treatment on Trade in Services (Article 10.3 TPP) Table 2.2: Excluded-PRs of TPP rules on voluntary PRs LIST OF FIGURES AND APPENDIXES FIGURES Figure 1.1: The application of National Treatment principle under Article 2.3 TPP on CIT incentives Figure 1.2: The application of National Treatment principle under Article 10.3 TPP on taxation Figure 1.3: The application of TPP rules on Performance Requirements to CIT incentives conditions APPENDIXES Appendix 1: TPP Provisions related to CIT incentives Appendix 2: Summary of ―Non-Conforming Measures‖ INTRODUCTION I PROBLEM DESCRIPTION On October 5, 2015, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (hereinafter TPP or The Agreement) was reached the negotiations among twelve (12) countries – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam The Agreement has been expected to be ―landmark 21st-century agreement‖ with numerous ambitious goals and tremendous economic growth is nearly 40 percent of global GDP1 Even though TPP now have not come into effect yet2 (and even some concerned about TPP could null and void), Member States have employed their hectic preparations Amongst them, the legal preparation apparently plays a crucial role Particular in Vietnam, on October 24, 2015, the National Assembly Standing Committee promulgated a Resolution No 1052/NQ-UBTVQH13 on several Orientations, Missions and Solutions Promoting International Economic Integration which stated that legal system, including tax law, should be promptly amended, supplemented to support new integrate period Legal system would be required not only to legitimate harmonize but also flexible application of international commitments in order to protect Vietnamese customers and internal manufacture3 As a part of tax law, corporate income tax incentives (hereinafter CIT incentives) would also incur such missions which required pressing changes before TPP entry into force (prediction in 2018) More especially, when attention narrowed to regulations on CIT incentive, such instrument are implicitly disciplined by TPP commitments These are viewed as international law with prior application or in other words, internal law of each Member is forced to harmonize with such commitments Thereby, the country expects to gain their benefits without being ignorance to international benefits or more practical, they would avoid disputes and TPP sanctions in further Nevertheless, implementation of international commitments has never been easy affair TPP legal text, although, is actually plain and powerful, widely known that The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Overview of the Trans Pacific Partnership, https://ustr.gov/tpp/overview-of-the-TPP, last visited on 17 July, 2016 TPP Members are loading their internal legal procedure in order to valid TPP To entry into force, The Agreement requires all meet the conditions as prescribed by Article 30.5 TPP (paragraph and 3) See Resolution No 1052/NQ-UBTVQH13 on several Orientations, Missions and Solutions Promoting International Economic Integration, Article and rigid language of international agreements has always hard attempted to discipline various and flexible of government instrument As a consequence, the interpretation of TPP commitments, as so many others, would be presumed to be controversial and less predictable To illustrate, that was the dispute case US – FSC which had challenged certain CIT incentives of United States during ten years and ultimately, accorded the compensation up to billion dollars for complainants4 Thus, it is justifiable to state that the more thoroughly we understand about international commitments, the less possibly tax policies are complained For those reasons, we recommend the research entitled “Corporate Income Tax Incentives regulations under TPP commitments of Vietnam” as the Bachelor Thesis Being acknowledged that embarking to a venture, the study hard strives to address understanding about CIT-related TPP rules and its effect on Vietnamese legislation in CIT incentives II LITERATURE REVIEW TPP Agreement is extremely young developing agreement and hence, their commitments are still freshman in academic research Nevertheless, the subject of this study - CIT-related TPP rules extremely are not ―pioneer‖ and our notion had been developed by various researches on equivalent rules of other international agreements such as WTO agreements and NAFTA A review outside Vietnam: The relationship between direct taxation (particularly in this study is corporate income tax) and international commitments was traditionally interesting enough to attract scholars‘ attention Notably, we first consider to Michael Daly, a fiscal expert of IMF, introduced in 2005 ―The WTO and Direct Taxation‖ In this research, Daly drew a general view on WTO commitments leaving the effect on direct taxation His study focused on commercial rather than domestic taxation approach In recent, Daly has upgraded his research with ―Is The WTO A World Tax Organization? A Primer on WTO Rules for Tax Policymakers‖ which drew more attention in domestic tax systems, even the guidelines for tax policymakers regarding to the compliance to WTO commitments The other typical scholar is T Althunayan with the research Dealing with the Fragmented International Legal Environment: WTO, International Tax and Internal Tax Policy (2010), as a consequence of international research, the study also carries scarce analysis on Michael Daly (2005), The WTO and Direct Taxation, Research Papers prepared for High Level Scientific Conference ―WTO and Direct Taxation‖, pp.2 internal legislation In addition, similar studies also being in concentrating on this interesting issue are ―The Interface of International Trade Law and Taxation: Defining the Role of the WTO‖ of Jennifer E Farrell (2013), ―Tax Aspects of International Non-Tax Agreements‖ of Alexia Kardachaki (2012), ―Prohibition of the Discriminatory Income Tax Measures under WTO Law‖ of Sokolianskyi Georgii (2013) A review inside Vietnam: Up to date, the studies relating to tax-related international rules have been scarcely found in Vietnam Mostly, relevant researches was developed in the period of WTO accession and pre-accession, namely ―Ưu đãi đầu tư trợ cấp: Kinh nghiệm cho Việt Nam - Investment Incentives and Subsidy: Experience for Vietnam‖ (2010) – the book gathered scholars‘ researches in an academic conference at HCMC University of Law and assessed WTO-consistency of Vietnam regulations on, inter alia, CIT incentives for investors The other as far as considered is the study entitled ―Điều chỉnh sách thuế trợ cấp sau gia nhập tổ chức thương mại giới sở lý luận, kinh nghiệm quốc tế định hướng cho Việt Nam‖ (2007) [trans: ―Modify Tax Policy and Subsidies Policy under the World Trade Organization‘s Accession – Theoretical Basis, International Experiences and Orientation for Vietnam] of Nguyen Xuan Trinh and Le Xuan Sang In the scenario of WTO accession, the study aimed to modify, inter alia, the CIT incentives as the form of prohibited ―subsidies‖ – major subject of SCM Agreement III PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is striving to describe how TPP Agreement, via its commitments, asks for the implementation of Vietnamese legislation on Corporate Income Tax Incentives To this end, the study attempted to:  Firstly, to identify certain TPP commitments which discipline domestic regulations on CIT incentive  Secondly, to describe in-depth commitments as well as what their requirements addressed and how they found potential violation from CIT incentives  Thirdly, to provide a general Consistency-Assessment on current Vietnamese legislation on CIT incentives Recommendations for certain CIT-inconsistency regulations would be addressed as well IV DELIMITATION The major researching subjects in this study are TPP commitments and CIT non-Party in its territory, on compliance with any requirement: (a) to achieve a given level or percentage of domestic content; (b) to purchase, use or accord a preference to goods produced in its territory, or to purchase goods from persons in its territory; (c) to relate in any way the volume or value of imports to the volume or value of exports or to the amount of foreign exchange inflows associated with the investment; or (d) to restrict sales of goods or services in its territory that the investment produces or supplies by relating those sales in any way to the volume or value of its exports or foreign exchange earnings (a) Nothing in paragraph shall be construed to prevent a Party from conditioning the receipt or continued receipt of an advantage, in connection with an investment of an investor of a Party or of a non-Party in its territory, on compliance with a requirement to locate production, supply a service, train or employ workers, construct or expand particular facilities, or carry out research and development, in its territory (b) Paragraphs 1(f), 1(h) and 1(i) shall not apply: (i) if a Party authorises use of an intellectual property right in accordance with Article 31of the TRIPS Agreement, or to measures requiring the disclosure of proprietary information that fall within the scope of, and are consistent with, Article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement; or (ii) if the requirement is imposed or the commitment or undertaking is enforced by a court, administrative tribunal or competition authority to remedy a practice determined after judicial or administrative process to be anticompetitive under the Party’s competition laws (c) Paragraph 1(i) shall not apply if the requirement is imposed or the commitment or undertaking is enforced by a tribunal as equitable remuneration under the Party’s copyright laws (d) Provided that such measures are not applied in an arbitrary or unjustifiable manner, or not constitute a disguised restriction on international trade or investment, paragraphs 1(b), 1(c), 1(f), 2(a) and 2(b) shall not be construed to prevent a Party from adopting or maintaining measures, including environmental measures: (i) necessary to secure compliance with laws and regulations that are not inconsistent with this Agreement; (ii) necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health; or (iii) related to the conservation of living or non-living exhaustible natural resources (e) Paragraphs 1(a), 1(b), 1(c), 2(a) and 2(b) shall not apply to qualification requirements for goods or services with respect to export promotion and foreign aid programs (f) Paragraphs 1(b), 1(c), 1(f), 1(g), 1(h), 1(i), 2(a) and 2(b) shall not apply to government procurement (g) Paragraphs 2(a) and 2(b) shall not apply to requirements imposed by an importing Party relating to the content of goods necessary to qualify for preferential tariffs or preferential quotas (h) Paragraphs (1)(h) and (1)(i) shall not be construed to prevent a Party from adopting or maintaining measures to protect legitimate public welfare objectives, provided that such measures are not applied in an arbitrary or unjustifiable manner, or in a manner that constitutes a disguised restriction on international trade or investment For greater certainty, nothing in paragraph shall be construed to prevent a Party, in connection with the establishment, acquisition, expansion, management, conduct, operation, or sale or other disposition of an investment of an investor of a Party or of a non-Party in its territory, from imposing or enforcing a requirement, or enforcing a commitment or undertaking, to employ or train workers in its territory provided that the employment or training does not require the transfer of a particular technology, production process or other proprietary knowledge to a person in its territory For greater certainty, paragraphs and shall not apply to any commitment, undertaking or requirement other than those set out in those paragraphs This Article does not preclude enforcement of any commitment, undertaking or requirement between private parties, if a Party did not impose or require the commitment, undertaking or requirement Article 10.3: National Treatment Each Party shall accord to services and service suppliers of another Party treatment no less favourable than that it accords, in like circumstances, to its own services and service suppliers For greater certainty, the treatment to be accorded by a Party under paragraph means, with respect to a regional level of government, treatment no less favourable than the most favourable treatment accorded, in like circumstances, by that regional level of government to service suppliers of the Party of which it forms a part Article 29.4: Taxation Measures For the purposes of this Article: designated authorities means: (a) for Australia, the Secretary to the Treasury or an authorised representative of the Secretary; (b) for Brunei Darussalam, the Minister of Finance or the Minister’s authorised representative; (c) for Canada, the Assistant Deputy Minister for Tax Policy, Department of Finance; (d) for Chile, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance (Subsecretario de Hacienda); (e) for Japan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance;8 (f) for Malaysia, the Minister of Finance or the Minister’s authorised representative; (g) for Mexico, the Minister of Finance and Public Credit (Secretario de Hacienda y Crédito Público); (h) for New Zealand, the Commissioner of Inland Revenue or an authorised representative of the Commissioner; (i) for Peru, the General Director of International Economy, Competition and Productivity Affairs (Director General de Asuntos de Economía Internacional, Competencia y Productividad del Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas); (j) for Singapore, the Chief Tax Policy Officer, Ministry of Finance; (k) for the United States, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (Tax Policy); and (l) for Viet Nam, the Minister of Finance, or any successor of these designated authorities as notified in writing to the other Parties; tax convention means a convention for the avoidance of double taxation or other international taxation agreement or arrangement; and taxes and taxation measures include excise duties, but not include: (a) a “customs duty” as defined in Article 1.3 (General Definitions); or (b) the measures listed in subparagraphs (b) and (c) of that definition Except as provided in this Article, nothing in this Agreement shall apply to taxation measures Nothing in this Agreement shall affect the rights and obligations of any Party under any tax convention In the event of any inconsistency between this Agreement and any such tax convention, that convention shall prevail to the extent of the inconsistency In the case of a tax convention between two or more Parties, if an issue arises as to whether any inconsistency exists between this Agreement and the tax convention, the issue shall be referred to the designated authorities of the Parties in question The designated authorities of those Parties shall have six months from the date of referral of the issue to make a determination as to the existence and extent of any inconsistency If those designated authorities agree, the period may be extended up to 12 months from the date of referral of the issue No procedures concerning the measure giving rise to the issue may be initiated under Chapter 28 (Dispute Settlement) or Article 9.18 (Submission of a Claim to Arbitration) until the expiry of the six-month period, or any other period as may have been agreed by the designated authorities A panel or tribunal established to consider a dispute related to a taxation measure shall accept as binding a determination of the designated authorities of the Parties made under this paragraph Notwithstanding paragraph 3: (a) Article 2.3 (National Treatment) and such other provisions of this Agreement as are necessary to give effect to that Article shall apply to taxation measures to the same extent as does Article III of GATT 1994; and (b) Article 2.16 (Export Duties, Taxes or other Charges) shall apply to taxation measures Subject to paragraph 3: (a) Article 10.3 (National Treatment) and Article 11.6.1 (Cross-Border Trade) shall apply to taxation measures on income, on capital gains, on the taxable capital of corporations, or on the value of an investment or property9 (but not on the transfer of that investment or property), that relate to the purchase or consumption of particular services, except that nothing in this subparagraph shall prevent a Party from conditioning the receipt or continued receipt of an advantage that relates to the purchase or consumption of particular services on requirements to provide the service in its territory; (b) Article 9.4 (National Treatment), Article 9.5 (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment), Article 10.3 (National Treatment), Article 10.4 (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment), Article 11.3 (National Treatment), Article 11.4 (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment), Article 11.6.1 (Cross-Border Trade) and Article 14.4 (Non-Discriminatory Treatment of Digital Products) shall apply to all taxation measures, other than those on income, on capital gains, on the taxable capital of corporations, on the value of an investment or property10 (but not on the transfer of that investment or property), or taxes on estates, inheritances, gifts and generation-skipping transfers; and (c) Article 14.4 (Non-Discriminatory Treatment of Digital Products) shall apply to taxation measures on income, on capital gains, on the taxable income of corporations, or on the value of an investment or property (but not on the transfer of that investment or property), that relate to the purchase or consumption of particular digital products, except that nothing in this subparagraph shall prevent a Party from conditioning the receipt or continued receipt of an advantage relating to the purchase or consumption of particular digital products on requirements to provide the digital product in its territory, but nothing in the Articles referred to in subparagraphs (a), (b) and (c) shall apply to: (d) any most-favoured-nation obligation with respect to an advantage accorded by a Party pursuant to a tax convention; (e) a non-conforming provision of any existing taxation measure; (f) the continuation or prompt renewal of a non-conforming provision of any existing taxation measure; (g) an amendment to a non-conforming provision of any existing taxation measure to the extent that the amendment does not decrease its conformity, at the time of the amendment, with any of those Articles; (h) the adoption or enforcement of any new taxation measure aimed at ensuring the equitable or effective imposition or collection of taxes, including any taxation measure that differentiates between persons based on their place of residence for tax purposes, provided that the taxation measure does not arbitrarily discriminate between persons, goods or services of the Parties; (i) a provision that conditions the receipt or continued receipt of an advantage relating to the contributions to, or income of, a pension trust, pension plan, superannuation fund or other arrangement to provide pension, superannuation or similar benefits, on a requirement that the Party maintain continuous jurisdiction, regulation or supervision over that trust, plan, fund or other arrangement; or (j) any excise duty on insurance premiums to the extent that such tax would, if levied by the other Parties, be covered by subparagraph (e), (f) or (g) Subject to paragraph 3, and without prejudice to the rights and obligations of the Parties under paragraph 5, Article 9.10.2 (Performance Requirements), Article 9.10.3 and Article 9.10.5 shall apply to taxation measures Article 9.7 (Expropriation and Compensation) shall apply to taxation measures However, no investor may invoke Article 9.7 (Expropriation and Compensation) as the basis for a claim if it has been determined pursuant to this paragraph that the measure is not an expropriation An investor that seeks to invoke Article 9.7 (Expropriation and Compensation) with respect to a taxation measure must first refer to the designated authorities of the Party of the investor and the respondent Party, at the time that it gives its notice of intent under Article 9.18 (Submission of a Claim to Arbitration), the issue of whether that taxation measure is not an expropriation If the designated authorities not agree to consider the issue or, having agreed to consider it, fail to agree that the measure is not an expropriation within a period of six months of the referral, the investor may submit its claim to arbitration under Article 9.18 (Submission of a Claim to Arbitration) Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent Singapore from adopting taxation measures no more trade restrictive than necessary to address Singapore’s public policy objectives arising out of its specific constraints of space APPENDIX 2: SUMMARY OF “NON-CONFORMING MEASURES” Sectors Sub-sectors Transport Air-transport Services services Description NT PRs (Article (Article 10.3 9.10.2 TPP) TPP) related Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with respect to: (a) specialty air services (except for commercial flight training); X (b) ground handling; and (c) airport operation services All Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure regarding assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises in production site selection and related regulatory matters, human resource training, providing research assistance and information on technology and X equipment, legal assistance, and providing marketing assistance and promotional information Existing Measures: Decree No 56/2009/ND-CP dated 30 June 2009 River Ports, Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Sea Ports and respect to the construction, operation and management of river ports, Airports sea ports and airports Construction, X operation and management Distribution Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any Services measure in regard of cross-border trade in: X X (a) commission agents’ services (CPC 621, 61111, 6113, 6121); (b) wholesale trade services (CPC 622, 61111, 6113, 6121); and (c) retailing services (CPC 631 and 632, 61112, 6113, 6121), regarding the distribution of products other than products for personal use and legitimate computer software for personal and commercial use Notwithstanding the above, with respect to the distribution of the following products covered by CPC 621, 622 and 632, Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure in regard of cross-border trade in services and investment regarding cigarettes and cigars, publications, precious metals and stones, pharmaceutical products and drugs , explosives, processed oil and crude oil Existing Measures: Law on Trade No 36/2005/QH11 dated 14 June 2005 Decree No 23/2007/ND-CP dated 12 February 2007 Revised Publishing Law No 19/2012/QH13 Amendment and Supplement to Publishing Law No 12/2008/QH12 dated June 2008 Decree No 11/2009/ND-CP dated 10 February 2009 Decree No 110/2010/ND-CP dated November 2010 Circular N006F 02/2010/TT-BTTTT dated 11 January 2010 Telecommuni Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with cation respect to investment in, building of, operating and exploiting services telecommunication networks and services serving ethnic minorities in rural and remote areas of Viet Nam X X Educational Investment and Cross-Border Trade in Services Viet Nam reserves the Services right to adopt or maintain any measure with respect to investment in and the supply of primary education services This entry shall not be X X X X X X X X X X invoked to nullify the commitments set out in Viet Nam’s Annex I Performing Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure to grant Arts and Fine preferential treatment to Vietnamese artists and Vietnamese-owned Arts companies in the performing arts, fine arts and other cultural activities Cultural Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure to protect, Heritage maintain and renovate Viet Nam’s tangible heritages as defined in the Law on Cultural Heritage (2001) and the revised Law on Cultural Heritage (2009) and intangible cultural heritages as covered by the revised Law on Cultural Heritage (2009) Existing Measures: Law No.28/2001/QH10 on Cultural Heritage dated 29 June 2001 and Law No 32/2009/QH12 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Cultural Heritage dated 19 June 2009 Production Investment: Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any and measure in respect of investment in the production and distribution of Distribution video records on whatever medium of Cross-Border Trade in Services: Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt Video Records or maintain any measure in respect of the distribution of video records on whatever medium Business Printing (CPC Services Public opinion 88442) Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with polling respect to the above mentioned sub-sectors (CPC 864) Investigation and security, excluding security system services (part of Technical CPC 873) testing and analysis services (CPC 8676): conformity testing of means transport of and certification of transport vehicles Arbitration and conciliation services (CPC 86602), excluding arbitration and conciliation services for commercial disputes between businesses Placement and supply services (CPC of personnel 872) Services incidental to fishing (CPC 882), excluding specialised services marine consultancy related or to freshwater fisheries, fish hatchery services Tourism and Tourist guides services Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Travel-related respect to tourist guides services X X X X X X X X Services Health and Residential health Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Social facilities services other respect to the listed sub-sectors Services than hospital (CPC services 93193) Other human health services (CPC 93199) Social services (CPC 933) Recreational, Cultural Sporting and and recreational other Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with services, respect to martial art clubs and extreme sports Sporting excluding electronic Services games business Transport Maritime Services services waterway cabotage Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Internal respect to the above mentioned sub-sectors transport: cabotage services, rental of vessels with crew (CPC 7223) Space transport Pipeline transport Rail transport services, (cabotage infrastructure business services) Road cabotage Pushing services and towing services Lottery, Betting Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure and with respect to lottery, betting and gambling services Gambling X X X X Services Services in Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure relating the exercise of to services in the exercise of governmental authority when these governmental services are opened to the private sector For the purposes of this entry, authority any non-conforming measure adopted after the opening of such services to the private sector shall be deemed to be an existing measure subject to Article 9.12.1 (Non-Conforming Measures) and Article 10.7.1 (NonConforming Measures) five years after the adoption of the measure All Investment Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure conferring rights or privileges to socially, economically and X geographically disadvantaged minorities and ethnic groups All Viet Nam reserves the right to limit the transfer or disposal of any interest held in an existing state enterprise to nationals of Viet Nam This entry pertains only to the initial transfer or disposal of such interest Viet Nam does not reserve this right with respect to subsequent transfers or disposals of such interest to nationals of Parties on the date hereof, subject to any limitation found in Viet Nam’s Annex I and Annex X II Where Viet Nam transfers or disposes of an interest in an existing state enterprise in multiple phases, the preceding paragraph shall apply separately to each such phase Existing Measures: Law No 59/2005/QH11 on Investment dated 29 November 2005 Law No 60/2005/QH11 on Enterprise dated 29 November 2005 Decree No.108/2006/ND-CP dated 22 September 2006 Decree No 139/2007/ND-CP dated September 2007 All Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure relating to land ownership Existing Measures: Law No 45/2013/QH13 on Land dated 29 X November 2013 and its implementing regulations Agriculture Cultivating, producing or Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure relating processing rare or to investment in the above mentioned sector and subsectors precious plants, breeding or husbandry of precious or rare wild animal and processing plants of or those animals (including both living animals and processed matter animals) taken from X Mass Press and Communicati gathering on publishing, news- Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with agencies, respect to the sub-sectors listed above, including regulating activities in radio and these sub-sectors in accordance with Viet Nam’s laws and regulations X television broadcasting, in any form Audio-visual Production, distribution, Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain subsidies inconsistent Services and projection television and of with Article 9.10.2 (Performance Requirements) for audio-visual programmes services and preferential treatment to television programmes and X cinematographic cinematographic works produced under coproduction agreements works Power Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Development respect to hydroelectricity and nuclear power Manufacturin Paper g Manufacturing X production Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain measures inconsistent and with Article 9.10.1(h) (Performance Requirements) for foreign-invested assembling of buses and enterprises in the above sub-sectors transport vehicles more than 29 seats of Existing Measures: Decision No.17/2004/QD-BCN dated March 2004 Decision No.22/2005/QD-BCN dated 26 April 2005 Decision No.36/2007/QD-BCN dated August 2007 Decision No.07/2007/QD-BCN dated 30 January 2007 Decision No.177/2004/QD-TTg dated October 2004 Decision No.147/QD-TTg dated September 2007 Decision No.36/2007/QD-BCN dated August 2007 Decision No.249/QD-TTg dated 10 October 2005 Decree No.80/2006/ND-CP dated August 2006 X Decree No.12/2006/ND-CP dated 23 January 2006 Traditional Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Markets respect to traditional markets Commodity Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Exchange respect to the establishment and management of commodity exchanges Judicial Viet Nam reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with Administratio respect to: n and related (a) judicial expertise services; services (b) bailiff services; (c) property auction services relating to property in accordance with the law on auction; (d) notary and certification services; and (e) proper managing and liquidating according to the regulations of the law on bankruptcy X X X ... the way of tax incentives 1.3 THE EFFECT OF TPP COMMITMENTS ON CIT INCENTIVES REGULATIONS IN VIETNAM: A GENERAL ASSESSMENT 1.3.1 Pre -TPP accession: CIT incentives regulations under WTO commitments. .. reduce general tax burden of corporations Value Added Tax (VAT) incentives, import or export tax incentives, etc Thirdly, beneficiaries of CIT incentives are taxpayers of corporate income tax which... Current Vietnamese regulations on Corporate Income Tax incentives and its relationship to TPP commitments Chapter 2: TPP- Consistency Assessment of current regulations on CIT incentives in Vietnam