10 important new highlights in Decree 255/2026/ND-CP on tax management for related-party transactions

Tax management for related-party transactions is always one of the most complex and potentially risky problems for enterprises. The official promulgation of Decree 255/2026/ND-CP to replace Decree 132/2020/ND-CP has brought major turning points, directly affecting the process of disclosure, documentation and optimization of compliance costs of enterprises.

Beside removing many “bottlenecks” in procedures (such as raising the threshold of exemption from preparing documentation to VND 500 billion, simplifying CbCR reporting), the new regulations also set stricter standards to synchronize with the commitment to global anti-base erosion rules (BEPS).

To support enterprises proactively grasp and adjust policies in a timely manner, this article summarizes the 10 most important and different new core points of Decree 255/2026/ND-CP compared to the old regulations.

Source: Pexel

Table of contents:

1. Changing in the mandatory consolidated global revenue threshold for the preparation of the Country-by Country Report (CbCR)

Old regulation (Decree 132): The threshold of consolidated global revenue of the Ultimate Parent Entity in Vietnam to mandate the preparation of an Country-by-Country report is fixed at VND 18,000 billion or more.
New regulation (Decree 255): This revenue threshold is changed to the equivalent of €750 million or more in the financial year immediately preceding the reporting year to be fully in sync with the global anti-base erosion rule (BEPS).

2. Clearly stipulating the foreign currency exchange rate for the revenue threshold of 750 million Euros

Old regulation (Decree 132): Due to the application of a fixed revenue threshold in VND, the old regulation does not have any guidance on the exchange rate at all.
New regulation (Decree 255): Supplementing detailed guidance: The foreign exchange rate for determining the consolidated revenue threshold of 750 million Euros is the central or average exchange rate cross of the December of the year preceding the reporting year announced by the State Bank of Vietnam.

3. The procedure for submitting the CbCR Notice is only carried out 01 TIME instead of annually

Old regulation (Decree 132): Taxpayers are obliged to submit a notice of subjects to submit annual Country-by-Country report at the same time as the time of submission of tax finalization returns.
New regulation (Decree 255): Taxpayers are only required to submit this Notice 01 time when an obligation related to the Country-by-Country report arises for the first time. Enterprises must only submit to update information within 90 days from the date of occurrence if there are any changes related to the last submitted information.

4. Compulsory submission of CbCR Report in encrypted XML format via the Electronic Information System

Old regulation (Decree 132): There are no specific mandatory technical regulations on encrypted file formats and specialized electronic submission methods for Country-by-Country report.
New Regulation (Decree 255): Clearly stipulates that the Country-by-Country report is required to be submitted in encrypted XML format and submitted through the Tax Management Information System of the tax authority to meet the international standard of automatic information exchange.

5. Separating issuance of the Notice of Submission of CbCR (Form No. 01/TB-BCLN)

Old regulation (Decree 132): Enterprises submit notices of CbCR submitting subject without a full-time notification disclosure form issued together with the decree.
New regulation (Decree 255): Officially promulgate a separate notification form named Form No. 01/TB-BCLN “Notification of subjects submitting Country-by-Country report” attached to the Decree, helping to unify and simplify the declaration of information on report submitting subjects.

6. Sharply raising the threshold of revenue exempted from preparation of transfer pricing documentation to VND 500 billion

Old regulation (Decree 132): Enterprises are exempt from preparating transfer pricing documentation if the revenue of the tax period is less than VND 200 billion (at the same time meeting the conditions on intangible assets and applying the prescribed profit margin).
New regulation (Decree 255): This revenue threshold has been sharply raised to less than VND 500 billion. This is an extremely large reduction in the cost of complying with transfer pricing documentation procedures for medium-sized enterprises.

7. Removing the vague term “Simple Function” in the condition of exemption from preparation of transfer pricing documentation

Old regulation (Decree 132): In order to be exempt from preparing transfer pricing documentation, an enterprise must meet the condition of “perform business activities by exercising simple functions”. This term is qualitative and easy to cause disputes between enterprises and tax authorities when inspecting.
New regulation (Decree 255): Completely eliminate the phrase “simple function”. The current exemption conditions are completely quantitative and objective: As long as the enterprise does not incur revenue or expenses from the exploitation and use of intangible assets (meeting the conditions of revenue of less than VND 500 billion and the prescribed profit margin).

8. Comprehensively changing the priority order of application of the Comparison Database

Old regulation (Decree 132): Division of priority of comparison data according to geographical criteria: (a) Internal comparable subject; (b) The comparable subbject resides in the same country or territory; (c) Subject in countries in the region with similar conditions.
New regulation (Decree 255): Abolish geographical criteria and establish a new priority order based on the nature of data origin: Information and data publicly published on the stock market, goods/services exchanges or from the National Database, ministries; Commercial databases; Tax management database of tax authorities. This change brings a transparent legal corridor for enterprises when actively using international transfer pricing trade databases.

9. Supplementing the mechanism of “Voluntary Compliance Support Program” and announcing “Industry Profit Margin”

Old regulation (Decree 132): Tax authorities only use internal databases for the purpose of examination, inspection and risk management without a mechanism to support prior compliance for enterprises.
New regulations (Decree 255): Supplementing breakthrough regulations requiring tax authorities to be responsible for: Developing a program to support taxpayers to comply voluntarily and announce industry profit margins by each field and locality to support enterprises to confidently disclose, determine prices according to the principle of independent transactions.

10. Exclusion of interest expense ceiling (EBITDA 30%) for “Social Housing” projects

Old regulation (Decree 132): Stipulating on exclusion of the application of a 30% EBITDA interest expense control ceiling for program investment loans and projects implementing the State’s social welfare policies include: resettlement housing, housing for workers and students.
New regulation (Decree 255): Officially adding the type of investment in “social housing” to the list of social welfare policy projects exempt from the application of the ceiling to control interest expenses

Related-party transactions arising between parties having related relationships are ordinary transactions in the course of business activities. However, accurate identification, determination of the time of declaration, establishment of obligations of the parties along with recording the correct price according to the market will be things that the parties in the related relationship must pay attention to and comply with. Because the boundary between transfer pricing activities or merely business transactions in accordance with regulations will not be easy to determine from the perspective of enterprises. Therefore, at the present time, for businesses in the parent-subsidiary group and corporations, we recommend that the management department of these transactions needs to understand the new regulations, establish risk thresholds for related-party transactions, the contents of obligations to be complied with, the time to perform the obligation… Only then can enterprises control the compliance in transactions between companies in the ecosystem.

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