Vietnam tax authorities launch campaign to clean up inactive business tax codes

Vietnam's tax authorities are conducting a nationwide “tax code clean-up campaign” to standardize data and resolve long-standing issues with inactive businesses. In the first eight months of 2026, the tax sector completed the deactivation of 94,991 tax codes. While this represents a significant increase, officials clarify that only 23,017 of these were new requests from 2026; the remaining 72,000 cases were backlogs from previous years being cleared.

The campaign targets two specific statuses: businesses that have ceased operations but not completed dissolution procedures (status 03) and those no longer operating at their registered addresses (status 06). Authorities aim to prevent the misuse of these entities for tax evasion, invoice trading, and fraud.

Despite the rise in deactivations, the business landscape shows signs of growth. Approximately 138,100 new businesses were registered in the first eight months, a 7.7% increase, with registered capital rising by 36.2%. Officials note that the number of newly issued tax codes remains significantly higher than the number of deactivations, suggesting a healthy influx of new market participants.