Past iadvisory Questions and Answers - ASEAN

Read on to find out more about taxes and import duties when importing products into Vietnam, length of time to register a product in Malaysia and re-exporting to Thailand.

What is the withholding tax for profits and royalties in Vietnam? Also, what are the import duties and VAT for IT related products (both hardware and software) that are imported into Vietnam?

There is no profit withholding tax on profit remittances to foreign investors of Vietnam foreign-invested corporations. Royalties are income to the foreign party and will be taxed accordingly.

For import duties, Vietnam and Singapore are ASEAN members and a 5% import duty generally applies, subject to any special tariff modification. VAT for services is usually at 10%.

How long does it take to register a cosmetic product with POM (The National Agency of Drug and Food Control) in Indonesia?

For cosmetic (non food grade product) product registration, the approval will be granted within 30 days after completion of all requirements and barring any unforeseen circumstances.

I imported Whisky from Scotland to Singapore, and wish to re-export to Thailand. I intend to sell to bars, restaurants and clubs in Thailand. What are the legal procedures and tax rates?

For importation of Whisky into Thailand of over 10 litres per shipment, an Import Permit from the Excise Tax department prior to importation is required. Lead time to obtain the Import Permit is expected to be 30 days. The Customs Duty rate is 60%, Excise Tax is 50% for Whisky, Health Tax is 2% of Excise Tax, Advertising Tax 1.5% of Excise Tax and VAT of 7% applies to total amount of Duty, Excise Tax, Health Tax and Advertising Tax.


All answers are provided to the best knowledge of the iadvisors at the point of answering, and are solely represented by the iadvisors, not IE Singapore.

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