Representative Office of foreign investors is a very popular type in the Vietnamese market because of its outstanding advantages. However, there are also many Representative Offices that do not wish to continue operating or the parent company has other investment projects that lead to the termination of the operation of the Representative Office. The closure of a Representative Office is little easier than the dissolution of a company, but not all Representative Offices know and follow the procedures prescribed by law. Therefore, Pham Consult would like to highlight some noticed factors for closing Representative Offices as below.

  1. Closing Representative Office of foreign investors

Pursuant to Article 35 Decree No. 07/2016/ND-CD, A Representative Office shall be closed if:

  • It is requested by its head office;
  • The foreign trader terminates its operation according to laws of the country or territory in which such foreign trader is established or registered;
  • The License for Establishment of the Representative Office is expired but its head office does not apply for extension;
  • The licensing agency refuses to grant an extension of the expired License for Establishment of the Representative Office;
  • The License for Establishment of representative office is revoked;
  • The foreign trader or its representative office no longer satisfies one of the requirements for grant of Licenses for Establishment of Representative Office.

  1. 2. Procedures for closing the Representative Office
  • Step 1: Finalization of tax obligations including procedures for closing the tax code of a representative office and finalization of personal income tax of the chief representative.
  • Step 2: Finalization of insurance obligations to social insurance authority (if any), financial obligations to employees (if any);
  • Step 3: Return the RO’s stamp to the Department of Police
  • Step 4: Return the Operation License at Department of Industry and Trade3
  1. Applications for closing Representative Office

Dossiers for closing Representative Office are specified in Article 36 of Decree 07/2016/ND-CP as follows:

  • Notification of shutdown of the representative office or branch using the form issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and signed by a competent representative of the foreign investors;
  • Copies of written refusals of grant of extension of the license or establishment of the representative office or a copy of the decision on revocation of the license for establishment of the representative office released by the licensing agency;
  • Lists of creditors and the amount of debts, including outstanding taxes and social insurance premiums;
  • Lists of employees and their current benefits;
  • The original License for Establishment of Representative Office.

  1. Consultancy service for closing Representative Office of Pham Consult

With a wealth of experience in consulting for closing Representative Office and other legal issues in the process of registration of termination of operation such as tax settlement, labor, social insurance,… Pham Consult provides consulting services with the competitive price, assisting you in:

  • Consulting conditions, procedures and other issues when closing a Representative Office;
  • Consult and implementation of tax finalization procedures and insurance obligations to social insurance authorities, financial obligations to employees (often will be time-consuming and takes much effort for companies with no experience in taxes, accounting, social insurance, …)
  • Preparing all submited dossiers in bilingual languages (Vietnamese and English) to ensure that foreign investors can easily follow up and report to the Parent Company (if customers have requests);
  • Assisting customers with notarization, consular legalization and notarized translation;
  • Being on behalf of clients for submitting and receiving the results at state agencies;
  • Consulting, explaining to the state agencies in case of arisen problems;

If you have intention to close the Representative Office and you still have many problems in closing this Representative Office, please kindly contact us via the following information for free consulting. Pham Consult always desires and undertakes to provide customers with the best services and support to help you optimize operating costs for your business goals.

 

 

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