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Business Permits & Incorporation for Foreigners in Phu Quoc

Good to know

Good to Know

  • Nothing in the available sources suggests Phu Quoc has its own separate, faster incorporation track — plan around the standard national Vietnam timeline (roughly 2-4 months for a full LLC/FOE) rather than assuming an island 'special zone' shortcut.
  • Most sectors allow 100% foreign ownership with no mandatory local partner, but always check whether your specific business line (education, logistics, advertising, real estate, tourism services, etc.) is on the conditional/restricted list before committing capital.
  • Budget for a local lawyer or incorporation agent — the Vietnamese-only national registry interface and the eID/document legalization requirements make DIY filing difficult for most foreign founders.
  • If you plan to also live and work in Vietnam through your new company, sort out the work permit / temporary residence card track early — it runs alongside, not automatically bundled with, company incorporation.
  • Foreigners cannot register as a Vietnamese sole proprietor or household business — those simplest, cheapest local structures are reserved for Vietnamese citizens, so an LLC is the realistic option if you want a proper local entity.
  • Standard corporate tax is a flat 20% nationally — Phu Quoc does not currently have a confirmed lower special-zone corporate tax rate for ordinary small businesses, despite older articles referencing a draft SEZ law with a 10% rate; that draft law was shelved in 2018.
  • An LLC has no 'dormant' status — once registered, you owe quarterly provisional tax filings and an annual return even in a year with no revenue, so don't incorporate speculatively if you're not ready to file.
  • If you just invoice overseas clients as an individual without a Vietnamese entity, you avoid Vietnamese corporate filings, but this also means you have no formal local business presence — fine for pure remote freelancing, not suitable if you need to contract with Vietnamese clients or hire locally.
  • Watch the non-cash payment rule: expenses paid in cash above roughly VND 5,000,000 (~USD 190) are often disqualified as tax-deductible, which surprises new business owners used to paying small local suppliers in cash.

Corporate Income Tax

Standard Rate Percent
20
Applies To
All business entities established under Vietnamese law, including 100%-foreign-owned LLCs, taxed on worldwide income; there is no separate 'tax residency' concept for corporate tax — if the entity is Vietnam-incorporated, it pays CIT.
Tax Holidays For Qualifying Investment Projects
Some approved investment projects can get a full CIT exemption for around 2-4 years followed by a 50% CIT reduction for a further 5-9 years, but this requires an approved, licensed investment project in a priority sector/location — not something a typical small foreign-owned service company automatically receives.

Reduced Rate Tiers

  • Rate Percent
    17
    Condition
    Total annual revenue from over VND 3 billion up to VND 50 billion (small/medium enterprise tier under the CIT Law effective for 2025 onward), subject to conditions and not generally available to subsidiaries or entities with related-party transactions unless all parties qualify.
  • Rate Percent
    15
    Condition
    Smaller-revenue SMEs meeting specific statutory conditions under the 2025 CIT Law.
  • Rate Percent
    10
    Condition
    Available for qualifying 'encouraged' sectors/locations (e.g. high-tech, certain economic zones) via an Investment Registration Certificate — not automatic, and not typically relevant to a small nomad-run consultancy or e-commerce business.

Compliance Watchpoints

  • Expense deductibility requires a valid VAT invoice plus non-cash bank payment for any transaction over roughly VND 5,000,000 (about USD 190) — cash-paid supplier costs above this are often disallowed as deductions.
  • Interest expense deductibility is capped at 30% of EBITDA, which limits the tax efficiency of debt-funded structures.
  • Related-party transactions (e.g. paying a foreign parent company for services) must follow transfer-pricing / arm's-length documentation rules and are disclosed annually — a common area where small foreign-owned companies get flagged on audit.

Other Applicable Taxes

  • Value-Added Tax (VAT), generally 10% standard rate on most goods/services
  • Foreign Contractor Tax (FCT) — applies to payments made to foreign entities providing services into Vietnam without a locally registered entity; combines a VAT and CIT-equivalent withholding element
  • Withholding tax on dividends to non-resident shareholders (standard 20%, reducible under a Double Tax Agreement)
  • No local, state, or provincial-level income taxes exist in Vietnam — CIT is the sole national-level corporate tax

Filing And Payment Cycle

Tax Year
Default is the calendar year, though a company can request a different fiscal year-end from the tax authorities.
Penalties
Late payment interest is charged at 0.03% per day on overdue tax, plus administrative penalties (including a 20% penalty on under-declared tax amounts).
Filing Channel
Filed electronically via Vietnam's General Department of Taxation online portal.
Annual Finalization
Annual CIT return and final settlement due within 90 days of fiscal year-end, accompanied by statutory (audited, where applicable) financial statements.
Provisional Payments
Quarterly provisional CIT payments, due by the 30th day of the month following each quarter; total provisional payments for the year must not fall below 80% of the final annual tax liability.

Structure Options For Foreigners

Practical Recommendation
For most solo remote workers, invoicing overseas clients as an individual (no local entity) is simpler and avoids Vietnamese corporate compliance entirely, provided income stays foreign-sourced. For anyone wanting to bill Vietnamese/local clients, hire local staff, sign a local lease under a business name, or build a longer-term local operation, forming a 100%-foreign-owned LLC is the only clean legal path, since sole-proprietorship and household-business registration are closed to non-citizens.

Freelancer No Local Entity

Caveat
This is a legal gray area in practice — Vietnam has no formal 'digital nomad' or freelance-visa framework, and this approach does not itself confer a legal right to work in-country; it also does not create any Vietnamese corporate or PIT filing obligation as long as no Vietnamese entity or PE is created, but that also means no legal business presence to issue local invoices, hire local staff, or sign local contracts under.
Description
A foreigner can work remotely from Phu Quoc for overseas clients and invoice them directly without registering any Vietnamese business entity, as long as the income is foreign-sourced and there is no Vietnamese 'permanent establishment' or Vietnam-based client relationship.

LLC 100 Percent Foreign Owned

Capital Requirement
No statutory minimum capital for most business lines, but the registered charter capital must be realistic for the proposed business activity and is scrutinized by licensing authorities.
Ongoing Obligations
Once the LLC exists, it must file CIT (quarterly provisional + annual finalization) regardless of whether it is actively trading — there is no 'dormant' status that suspends these filing obligations.
Process And Timeline
Generally takes around 3-4 months: obtaining an Investment Registration Certificate (about 15 working days once documentation is filed) followed by an Enterprise Registration Certificate, opening a Direct Investment Capital Account, and registering a legal Vietnamese business address (a home address / co-working desk is often not sufficient — a proper leased office is typically required).
Description
The standard, legally clean route for a foreigner to actually operate a business in Vietnam (including Phu Quoc) is a Limited Liability Company, which permits 100% foreign ownership in most sectors (some sectors like travel/tours, telecoms, and agriculture require a local joint-venture partner).

Sole Proprietorship Household Business Not Available To Foreigners

Workaround Risk
Some foreigners are informally offered a 'name-lending' arrangement where a Vietnamese citizen is the registered owner on paper — this is illegal under Vietnamese law and carries real risk of asset loss and no legal protection for the foreign party.
Description
Vietnam's two simplest local business forms — the 'sole proprietorship' (doanh nghiệp tư nhân) and the 'individual business household' (hộ kinh doanh) — are both legally restricted to Vietnamese citizens with civil capacity; a foreigner cannot be registered as the legal owner of either.

Core Steps

  • 1. (If applicable) Investment policy pre-approval
    Detail
    Only rare/specified special sectors require this; most investors skip directly to the Investment Registration Certificate application.
  • 2. Investment Registration Certificate (IRC)
    Detail
    The first step in the Vietnamese corporate establishment process is an application for an Investment Registration Certificate (IRC), which is required of all foreign-owned investment projects.
    Authority
    Provincial Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) — for Phu Quoc, the Kien Giang provincial DPI/relevant zone management authority
    Processing Time
    Processing time is usually 15–20 working days, but may take longer for conditional sectors.
  • 3. Enterprise Registration Certificate (ERC)
    Detail
    The Business Registration Office (under the Department of Planning and Investment) issues the ERC within 3–5 working days if the dossier is valid.
    Authority
    Business Registration Office under the provincial DPI
    Note
    Under newer digital rules, the legal representative must hold a Level 2 e-ID account to file applications; guidance for this is currently only available for Vietnamese nationals and foreigners already holding a temporary or permanent residence card.
  • 4. Post-incorporation formalities
    Detail
    Seal engraving and public seal notification, publication of the enterprise registration on the National Business Registration Portal, initial tax registration, and opening a corporate current account plus the capital account (DICA).
  • Step
    5. Capital contribution and (if needed) work permit / residence card
    Detail
    Charter capital must be contributed within the 90-day window noted above; foreign staff/owners who intend to live and work in Vietnam long-term should separately apply for a work permit and a temporary residence card (TRC).

Typical Cost

Additional Possible Costs
Legalization/translation of overseas corporate documents, sector-specific sub-license fees (ranging roughly VND 500,000 to several million depending on industry), digital signature purchase, and any local office lease needed to satisfy the address requirement.
Professional Incorporation Service Fee
₫30,000,000

Approximate starting point cited by law firms for using a local agent/law firm to handle the full IRC+ERC dossier; actual figure scales with sector complexity, translation/notarization needs, and whether conditional-sector sub-licenses are required. Government fees above exclude this.

Government Fees

Erc Issuance Fee
₫150,000

Approximate midpoint; ERC issuance fee typically runs VND 100,000–200,000

Registration Publication Fee
₫100,000

Phu Quoc Specific Notes

Separate Administrative Change
Phu Quoc was reorganized into an administrative 'Special Zone' (Đặc khu) as part of Vietnam's 2025 province-merger restructuring — this is a governance/administrative change, not a confirmed new tax-incentive regime, and should not be assumed to grant automatic tax breaks to an ordinary small foreign-owned business.
Status
Decriminalized or tolerated not applicable use illegal field omitted
Summary
There is no confirmed, currently-operative special low-tax regime giving Phu Quoc businesses a lower CIT rate than the rest of Vietnam. A draft 'Special Economic Zone' law proposing a 10% CIT rate for 15 years (plus a 4-year exemption and 50% reduction for 9 more years) for large qualifying investment projects in Phu Quoc, Van Don, and Van Phong was drawn up around 2017-2018 but was indefinitely postponed by the National Assembly in mid-2018 and, as far as could be confirmed, has not been enacted as active law.
Practical Takeaway
A digital-nomad-scale foreign-owned company in Phu Quoc (e.g. consulting, e-commerce, small services) should plan around the standard national 20% CIT rate, not around SEZ incentive rates, unless it is a large licensed resort/biotech/eco-tourism investment project that has separately secured an Investment Registration Certificate with preferential terms.

Entity Options

Entity Options

  • 100% Foreign-Owned Enterprise (FOE) as an LLC (one-member or multi-member) or Joint-Stock Company
  • Joint venture with a Vietnamese partner
  • Representative Office (cannot conduct direct revenue-generating business)
  • Branch office

Official Links

Ministry Of Planning And Investment
https://www.mpi.gov.vn
National Business Registration Portal
https://dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn/en/Pages/default.aspx
Note
There is no Phu Quoc-specific government portal for business registration; filings are made via the national portal and processed by the Kien Giang provincial DPI (or the relevant Phu Quoc economic-zone management authority for projects sited within a designated zone).

Realistic Timeline

Erc Stage
3–5 working days after a valid IRC-based dossier is submitted
Irc Stage
15–20 working days for standard sectors (longer for conditional sectors)
End To End Estimate
An LLC / 100%-Foreign-Owned Enterprise generally requires 2 to 4 months to fully establish in Vietnam, depending on the business type and sector; a Representative Office can be set up in about half that time.
Post Incorporation Capital Deadline
90 days from ERC issuance to contribute committed charter capital via the DICA.

Capital Requirements

General Minimum
Currently, there is no general minimum capital requirement for foreign investors, though the investment capital must be appropriate for the business scale and sufficient to implement the project.
Regulated Sector Example
For example, real estate businesses must have a minimum capital of VND 20 billion.
Capital Contribution Deadline
Within 90 days from the issuance date of the Enterprise Registration Certificate, foreign investors must open a bank account in Vietnam and contribute the registered investment capital according to the schedule stated in the IRC.
Capital Account Note
To transfer capital into Vietnam, after setting up the FIE, foreign investors must open a direct investment capital account (DICA) in a legally licensed bank.

Geographic Scope Note

No Phu Quoc-specific incorporation track was found in the sources we checked. Phu Quoc is administered as a city/special economic zone under Kien Giang province, so foreign incorporation there runs through the same national legal framework (Investment Law 2020, Enterprise Law 2020) and the same national portal, processed by the provincial Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) with jurisdiction over Kien Giang/Phu Quoc rather than a separate Phu Quoc-only registry.

Office Address Requirement

Mandatory
A legally valid business address is mandatory when establishing a 100% foreign-owned company.
Restriction
Residential apartments without commercial functions cannot be used as a registered business address.

Local Partner Or Sponsor Mandate

Detail
Foreign investors may own 100% of a company in Vietnam, provided the business sector is not subject to market access restrictions.
General Rule
There is no blanket requirement to have a local Vietnamese partner or sponsor to incorporate.
Sector Exceptions
For certain sectors such as logistics, education, or advertising, foreign ownership may be capped, or a joint venture with a Vietnamese partner may be required.
Legal Representative Residency Rule
An enterprise may have multiple legal representatives, but at least one must reside in Vietnam.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026

Sources cited for this category

These are the sources cited in this business permits & incorporation for foreigners research for this city. Individual figures may not each trace to one of them.

  1. 1.dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn

More About Phu Quoc

Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.