Owners of websites with the Vietnamese domain name “.vn” can now transfer domain names directly following a circular that was promulgated last year finally coming into effect, said the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC).Circular 16/2016/TT-BTTTT dated 28/6/2016 was promulgated by the Ministry of Information and Communication and was meant to take effect on June 28, 2016 but was delayed by the VNNIC due to difficulties calculating taxes for transfers.
The number of national domain names (.vn) has annually increased by more than 10 percent over the past four years, reported the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC). According to VNNIC statistics, domain names which have a high rate of use include “gov.vn” (81.31 percent), “edu.vn” (74.48 percent) and “org.vn” (68.92 percent). The proportion of domain name users was 54 percent organisations and 46 percent individuals last year, while that of 2012 is 63 percent and 37 percent.
According to VNNIC, the gap of registration and use of international and national domain names in Vietnam was gradually narrowed. The rate of using national domain names (.vn) and international domain names currently is about 50 - 50. Vietnam has consistently been among the countries with the highest rate of registration and use of country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) in the ASEAN region and among top 10 in Asia since 2011.
Businesses owning Vietnamese domain names are required to pay value added tax (VAT) of 10 percent for the transfer. Individuals have to pay 1 percent of VAT and 0.5 percent of corporate income tax for the transfer if their total revenue in a year is more than 100 million VND. If the total is less than 100 million VND a year, individuals do not pay the taxes.
