Hydro Power and Engineering Company with Projects in Vietnam

Advice and assistance on various legal and licensing requirements in Vietnam

Issue

The company is incorporated under the laws of India as one of the subsidiaries of the holding company in Germany. The company is involved in turnkey delivery of hydro power plants (electro-mechanical equipment supplies and services associated with the equipment) in India and South East Asia.

The company won several hydro projects in Vietnam and but has no registered office in Vietnam. It originally employed its operatives via a representative office (RO) set up in Ho Chi Minh City by another subsidiary of the same holding company. Under this arrangement, the local employees’ administration and payroll costs were paid by the Ho Chi Minh City RO and then re-invoiced/reimbursed between subsidiaries in India and Germany. The local staff ‘s function is business development and project and bidding support in Vietnam.

That current employment arrangement and project status brought various compliance issues to light, including the employment of local staff and licensing and tax matters for projects.

Solution

ECOVIS in Vietnam advised and assisted the company in the following tasks:

• Compliance matters with respect to employment of local staff and legal requirements for initial market entry and setup requirements, given the company’s current status of projects and operations in Vietnam.
• Licensing matters for projects awarded by Vietnam in order to ensure full tax compliance, with various tax planning strategies adopted to minimise the tax burden in Vietnam and apply existing tax conventions with that country.
• Reviewing and advising on the best tax strategies applicable to the bids for new projects in Vietnam.

Currently

• ECOVIS in Vietnam is assisting the company to file for licensing to register the Hanoi RO in order to legalise employment of local staff and meet related tax compliance requirements. Once the RO is licensed ECOVIS will also handle accounting and payroll and compliance outsourcing services for the RO and its local employees.
• ECOVIS will assist the company in carrying out the transfer of local employees from the RO in Ho Chi Minh City to the new one in Hanoi.

ECOVIS is also handling the application for project licences in Vietnam and will work with the project owners and local tax office to ensure that the preferred tax strategy is accepted.