Government Decree 02 issued early this year, which elaborates some articles of the 2014 Law on Real Estate business, has been in effect since March 1. Issued to replace Decree 76 of 2015, the new Decree introduces several changes in order to solve existing problems in the real estate business as revealed during the enforcement of Decree 76; at the same time, Decree 02 partly meets practical needs of real estate business activities in recent years. Therefore, the new regulations are expected to create a momentum and promote the development of the real estate business market in the future.

Tax avoidance strategies using offshore indirect transfer have become popular among multinational companies and caused negative impacts on developing countries. This article discusses difficulties that developing countries have been facing in the fight against tax evasion by multinational companies and suggests the way forward to prevent the abuse of investor-state dispute settlement mechanism for tax avoidance in the globe.

For the time being, there has been no unified definition of “cryptoasset” or “digital asset” or “virtual asset” in the world. According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, “a virtual asset is a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded, or transferred, and can be used for payment or investment purposes.”[1] Canada’s model legislation regarding digital assets, the Uniform Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries Act, defines “a digital asset” as “a record that is created, recorded, transmitted or stored in digital or other intangible form by electronic, magnetic or optical means or by any other similar means.”[2] Cryptocurrency (or virtual currency) is a form of cryptoassets (or virtual assets). There is also no unified definition of this term in the world.

The steel industry is facing lawsuits against tax evasion and dumping, according to information from the Vietnam Steel Association.

The Ministry of Finance is building a draft scheme on the management of e-commerce activities for imports and exports.

The 2015 Penal Code (revised in 2017) (the Code) is Vietnam’s first and only code that holds commercial legal persons criminally liable for committing criminal acts. This is a breakthrough in the country’s criminal justice policy and leads to a substantial change in the general perception about crime and punishment. It also applies various penalties to commercial legal persons found liable for crimes[1], including three principal penalties (fine, suspension from operation, and termination of operation), three additional penalties (prohibition from doing business or operating in certain areas, prohibition from raising capital, and fine, when not imposed as a principal penalty), and five judicial measures (confiscation of objects and money directly related to the crime; return of property, redress of or compensation for damage; coerced public apology; coerced restoration to the original state; and coerced application of measures to redress and prevent further consequences).

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has recently signed a scheme on measuring non-observed economic activities, with a view to drawing a clearer and more comprehensive picture of the national economy.

When deciding penalties to be imposed on commercial legal persons (corporate offenders), the court will base itself on the 2015 Penal Code (revised in 2017) (the Code) to consider the nature and extent of social danger of their committed crimes as well as circumstances affecting their penal liability.

Selected by Vietnam Law and Legal Forum magazine, these include the Law on Cyber Security, the Anti-Corruption Law, guiding texts of the Law on Foreign Trade Management, Government Decree 86/2018/ND-CP on foreign cooperation and investment in education, among others.

With around USD 184 billion disbursed over the past 30 years since the enactment of the Law on Investment in 1987, the inflow of foreign direct investment has significantly contributed to the country’s total social investment capital.