Trademark licensing fees must be added to the Customs value

Trademark licensing fees being copyright fees and license fees must be added to the Customs value. Photo: T.TR

Analysingspecific regulations, the General Department of Customs said, according to regulations in Clause 3, Article 14 of Circular No. 39/2015/TT-BTC of the Finance Ministry which regulateCustoms valuation of export and import goods, the trademark licensing fees as the company's presentation, “2% of the actual sales (calculated in a period of 6 months/ a term)” being copyright fees, license fees must be added to the Customs value if they satisfy three conditions specified in Clause 3, Article 14 of this Circular.

Based on the provisions in Clause 8, Article 14 of Circular 39/2015/TT-BTC of the Finance Ministry (effective from April 1st, 2015), the cases of copyright and license fees are not determined at the time of declaration registration, within 5 days from the date of real declaration return, the declarants must make the declaration, calculate the amount of tax payable for the copyright fees and actual license fees paid on the additional post-clearance declarations, and full payment of taxes in accordance with regulations.

Based on the above provisions and the company's presentation in Letter No. 146/TVN-EXIM, the copyright fees paid actually are made at declaration and calculate additional tax. Accordingly, additional import tax and VAT are calculatedbased on copyright fees paid againsttotal real sales.

Accordingly, Toto Vietnam Co., Ltd basedon the provisions mentioned above, considers actual import records to comply with regulations. At the same time, the General Department of Customs also advisesCustoms Departments based on the current regulations and import records of the companies in order to collect enough taxes into the State budget.