CEEC 13th Share & Learn took place on 10th October, covering topics related to Work permit and employment in Vietnam. At the beginning, Mrs. Magdalena Krakowiak, CEEC Vice-Chairwoman warmly welcomed guests.
Afterwards, Mr. Matthew Lourey, Managing Partner at Domicile Corporate Services, gave a very practical presentation focused on labour low, work permit, employment insurances, employment and payroll and taxation on employment.
Mr. Lourey started with the work permit definition and exemptions. We could learn that a Labour Contract must not be signed without a Work Permit and should not be signed for a longer period then the work permit is issued. We could also find out what exemptions currently there are from work permit obligation and what are the draft amendments proposed which would come into a force most probably July 2020. Mathew pointed out that working without work permit in Vietnam is quite risky. Penalties can embrace both employee and employer (foreign Employee can be Expelled from the country and Employers can pay a fine VND 60m – VND 150m and his operation can be suspended for 1-3 months).
Later, he gave an update on social insurance for foreign and Vietnamese workers. The latest decree, which applies social security contributions to foreign employees having labour contract in Vietnam with term of 1 year or more is already in force from 1 July 2019. Yet, as the full payment is not in force, the foreigner’s contribution is still basically small (1,5% – employee and 6,5% employer) comparing to Vietnamese employers rates (10,5% employee contribution, 21,5% employer contribution). This compulsory social insurance will cost burden employers by 17.5% and employees – 8% from 1st July 2022 (the monthly contribution of employee should not be higher than 210usd as maximum contribution is capped). The same benefits as for Vietnamese will apply for foreigners: short term- sickness, maternity, work accident, long term – pension. Effectively these benefits would be difficult to realize by foreigners, and again it is unclear how process would look like.
At the next part, Matthew was taking about payroll. Key points covered were Taxable Benefits excluded from Payroll Calculations, business trips and Personal income tax, benefits for expatriates and probation period. The full presentation can be found here.
Following Matthew presentation, Dr Hoang Cong Duong, Medical Director of CarePlus International Clinics, introduce the clinic and pointed the importance of doing the check up for work permit, not only for getting the certificate but also for regular screening of our health status. The presentation of CarePlus can be found here.
Afterwards, two lucky draw winner received a prize from CarePlus.
The presentation was concluded with many questions from the audience and in answering which Mr. Lourey gave several practical examples as well.