Vietnam Company from Germany: 2026 Setup and Tax Guide

Germany is on a different footing from most of Vietnam's other European partners, in one specific and easily missed way.

Vietnam joins the Hague Apostille Convention on 11 September 2026, which for most countries replaces a multi step consular chain with a single certificate. Germany, along with Austria and the Czech Republic, objected to Vietnam's accession.

That objection means German documents keep the old route. It is the kind of detail that does not appear in a general guide and that changes a document budget and a timetable.

11 Sep 2026apostille takes effect for Vietnam, but not for German documents

3states that objected: Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic

15%the rate below which German rules treat a foreign regime as low taxed

The document rule that applies to Germany and almost nowhere else

• An objection by a contracting state prevents the Convention taking effect between that state and the acceding state.
• So a German corporate document still needs the consular chain, while a French or Italian one will not.
• Budget and schedule accordingly, because the difference is real in both money and weeks.
• Check before paying for anything, since objections can be withdrawn and the position may change.

This is the single most useful thing on this page for anyone about to legalise documents.

What Vietnam asks of you

• Full foreign ownership is available in most sectors, subject to the negative list.
• A legal representative must reside in Vietnam.
• Online filing requires a Vietnamese electronic identity, which needs a residence card for a foreign national.
• Since 31 March 2026 you may incorporate first and obtain the investment certificate within twelve months.

The process is in how to register a company in Vietnam.

Two agreements, one in force

German commentary sometimes describes investor protections as available. The trade agreement is in force and delivers the tariff outcome; the protection agreement is not, and a German investor should not build a risk assessment on it.

The German test that decides how the subsidiary is taxed

1. 1
   German rules treat a regime as low taxed below 15 percentApplied to the rate on the income in question rather than to a headline national rate
2. 2
   Vietnam's ordinary corporate rate is 20 percentAbove the line, so an ordinary subsidiary is not low taxed on this measure
3. 3
   Vietnam's incentive rate for qualifying projects is 10 percentBelow the line, and now available for the whole operating period in prioritised cases
4. 4
   Control, income character and substance are tested separatelyThe rate is one element of the analysis, not the whole of it

• The German definition of a low tax regime is one where the rate applicable to the income in question is less than 15%.
• Vietnam's standard 20% is above that, so an ordinary Vietnamese subsidiary is not low taxed on the rate measure.
• Vietnam's 10% incentive rate is below it, and Law No. 67/2025/QH15 now allows that rate for the entire operating period in specially prioritised industries and areas.
• The rate is not the whole test. German rules also examine control, the character of the income and the substance of the operation, and those require German advice.

The counterintuitive conclusion is worth stating: for a German group, winning a Vietnamese tax incentive can move the subsidiary into the analysis it would otherwise have avoided.

The Vietnamese incentives are described in corporate income tax in Vietnam.

What German businesses build in Vietnam

For manufacturers, the change that matters most is that industrial park location stopped producing a tax incentive on 1 October 2025. A site selection made on that basis needs revisiting.

Getting profit back to Germany

• Dividends to a corporate shareholder carry no Vietnamese withholding on the majority view, and 5% to an individual.
• The compulsory Vietnamese audit comes first, regardless of the company's size.
• Seven working days notice to the Vietnamese tax authority precedes any remittance.
• Funds move through the investment capital account.
• German treatment of the receipt depends on the participation exemption and on the controlled foreign company position.

The resident representative, for a German group

• A secondment is the usual answer for a manufacturing entry, and it tends to create Vietnamese tax residence for the person sent, since a long lease can establish habitual residence on its own.
• A local appointment costs less and needs precise charter drafting, because a legal representative whose powers are not divided can bind the company toward third parties.
• The role controls the filing systems, since the company's electronic identity account depends on the representative holding a verified personal account.
• Work permit analysis comes before arrival, not after, and knowledge transfer to Vietnamese staff is a stated obligation for foreign experts.

Sequencing a German entry

1. Confirm the document route. Consular legalisation, not apostille, and it is slower than the alternative your Italian or French counterparts will use.
2. Take German tax advice on the incentive question before the investment certificate application fixes the project's incentive status.
3. Decide the representative, because the identity chain and the bank both depend on that person.
4. Incorporate, which starts the ninety day charter capital clock.
5. Fund through the investment capital account, which since 18 August 2026 can be opened before the investment certificate.

The German specific step is the first one, and it is the one most likely to be planned on the wrong assumption between now and the point where general guidance catches up with the objection.

Where it goes wrong

• Preparing documents for an apostille, which will be refused, because Germany objected to the accession.
• Assuming EVIPA protections apply, when the agreement is not in force.
• Pursuing a Vietnamese incentive without checking the German consequence of an effective rate below 15%.
• Building a factory case on industrial park incentives that ended on 1 October 2025.
• Sending equipment as a capital contribution without allowing for the extra time the law grants for transport and import, which changes the ninety day deadline but has to be documented.
• Assuming a German bank will handle the outbound transfer routinely, when the Vietnamese receiving account and its purpose still have to be explained.

The bottom line

Two German specific facts should shape this project before anything else is decided.

Documents follow the consular route rather than the apostille one, because of an objection that most guides will not mention for months. And a Vietnamese tax incentive, which looks like a straightforward win, moves the subsidiary across the German low tax line rather than away from it.

Neither is a reason to avoid Vietnam. Both are reasons to take German advice before the Vietnamese application rather than after the certificate is issued, because the certificate records the project's incentive status and the documents have already been paid for by then.