The business-licence fee is abolished from 2026: who stops paying, and what to do
From 01/01/2026 the business-licence fee (lệ phí môn bài) ends under Resolution 198/2025/QH15. No more fee, no more form 01/LPMB for 2026 onward — only arrears for 2025 and earlier still have to be paid. Here is who benefits and what a household business formalizing into a company does (and doesn't) need to do.
If you have just set up a company — or just formalized a household business into one — there is a charge that a lot of old guides still tell you to remember: the business-licence fee (lệ phí môn bài), declared on Form 01/LPMB by the 30th of January. Good news: from 2026, that charge is gone.
Abolished, not merely waived for the first year
This is the point that trips people up most. The old regime (Decree 139/2016/NĐ-CP) waived the business-licence fee for the first year of establishment, then from the second year you paid according to your capital. Plenty of articles — and older software — still describe things in that frame.
But from 2026 it is not a “first-year waiver” — it is a full termination:
“Terminate the collection and payment of the business-licence fee from 01 January 2026.” — Resolution 198/2025/QH15, Điều 10 khoản 7
That means no taxpayer owes the business-licence fee for 2026 onward, whatever the charter capital, company or branch, new or old.
And form 01/LPMB?
Gone as well. Under the tax authority’s implementing guidance (Official Letter 645/CT-CS from the Tax Department), from 2026 taxpayers do not have to file a business-licence-fee declaration for 2026 or the years after. There is no fee to compute and no form to file — even if during the year you change your capital or open an extra location.
So if you ever worried about “forgetting to file 01/LPMB before 30 January”, in 2026 that worry disappears.
The one exception: arrears from 2025 and earlier
The abolition applies only from 01/01/2026 onward. Business-licence fees that already arose for 2025 and earlier remain under the old regime and still have to be paid — the tax authority is instructed to keep collecting these outstanding amounts into the budget. The rule, boiled down:
- 2026 onward — no fee, no form.
- 2025 and earlier — the old regime still applies to amounts already arisen.
If you are a household business that just formalized into a company
This is exactly the group old guides confuse most. In short:
- Don’t go looking to file the 01/LPMB licence-fee return for 2026 — it no longer exists.
- Don’t worry that “the first-year waiver is over so now I must pay” — there is no amount to pay for 2026 onward.
- Your list of tax obligations on becoming a company is therefore one line shorter: you still declare VAT, CIT (quarterly provisional payments + annual finalization), and personal income tax if you pay wages — but no more business-licence fee.
This is one of those rare changes that makes formalizing into a company lighter instead of heavier.
Legal basis
Everything above rests on a specific article of law — true to Kê Khai’s every figure carries the law principle:
- The abolition: Resolution 198/2025/QH15, Điều 10 khoản 7 — “Terminate the collection and payment of the business-licence fee from 01/01/2026.”
- The consequence for the return: the tax authority’s guidance — “From January 2026: taxpayers do not have to pay the business-licence fee” (Official Letter 645/CT-CS) — from 2026 onward no licence-fee declaration is filed.
- The old regime (now no longer in effect from 2026): Decree 139/2016/NĐ-CP (amended by Decree 22/2020/NĐ-CP) — fee by capital, first-year waiver, Form 01/LPMB due 30 January.
Start your filing period
Kê Khai sets up the VAT, CIT and PIT filing periods with the article of law in force behind every figure — and does not set up a business-licence-fee step for 2026, exactly as the law now stands. You can open the Kê Khai app to start with your current filing period, or read more on why every figure carries the law.
This is the English edition of a Vietnamese-first advisory. Read the original: Lệ phí môn bài được bãi bỏ từ 2026.