A business's obligation to maintain records arises not only during its operation but must also be maintained even when the business temporarily ceases operations or is dissolved. Full compliance with record-keeping regulations helps businesses meet inspection and audit requirements, resolve disputes, and mitigate future legal risks.
1. Things to know about document archiving
* Improve compliance with document archiving obligations:
According to the provisions of The 2020 Enterprise Law, the 2015 Accounting Law, Decree No. 174/2016/ND-CP, and Decree No. 252/2026/ND-CP Therefore, businesses must comply with the obligation to retain business documents, even when temporarily suspending operations or dissolving, specifically:
- For businesses that have temporarily suspended operations: Comply with accounting laws and regulations regarding the preservation and storage of accounting documents. Accounting documents must be fully and securely preserved by the entity during use and storage.
- For businesses that are being dissolved: It shall be stored at a location determined by the legal representative of the entity or by a decision of the competent authority that decides to terminate the operation or end the project.
Furthermore, on July 9, 2026, the Accounting and Auditing Supervision Department of the Ministry of Finance issued a document on improving compliance with accounting laws, with particular emphasis on fulfilling the obligation to properly preserve and store accounting documents.
This regulation affirms that, even if a business temporarily suspends operations or completes dissolution procedures, the responsibility to maintain accounting records continues, to ensure the provision of records when requested by tax authorities or other competent state agencies.
* Penalties for failure to comply with document archiving obligations:
a. Imposing penalties for violations of regulations on the preservation and storage of accounting documents.
- Punish Warning:
- Submitting accounting documents to the archives 12 months or more after the prescribed deadline;
- Accounting documents are not organized and archived in chronological order of occurrence and according to the accounting year.
– Fines from 5.000.000 VND to 10.000.000 VND:
- Accounting records are not being kept in a complete and proper manner as required.
- Failure to properly store accounting documents, resulting in damage or loss of documents within the retention period;
- Using accounting documents within the prescribed retention period;
- Failure to organize the inventory, classification, and recovery of lost or destroyed accounting documents.
– Fines from 10.000.000 VND to 20.000.000 VND:
- Destroying accounting documents before the expiration of the retention period stipulated by the Accounting Law, but not to the extent of incurring criminal liability;
- Failure to establish a destruction committee, failure to follow proper destruction methods, and failure to create a destruction record as required when destroying accounting documents.
(The above fines are for individuals. For organizations committing the same violation, the fine is double the fine for individuals.)
b. Other violations related to the organization and management of enterprises
– Fines from 30.000.000 VND to 50.000.000 VND: Documents are not kept at the head office or any other location specified in the company's Articles of Association.
2. Scope and Application Cases
Applicable objects:
- Businesses, household businesses, and individual business owners.
- The legal representative of the business.
- Organizations and agencies with the function of archiving documents.
– Applicable cases:
- Business is temporarily suspended.
- Carry out the dissolution and cessation of operations procedures.
- It has been dissolved.
– Cases where this does not apply:
- Documents whose retention period has expired, unless otherwise specified by a competent state authority, may be destroyed by decision of the legal representative of the unit, in accordance with the procedures prescribed by law.
3. Guidelines for proper document storage
– Method of implementation:
- The legal representative is responsible for carrying out the action themselves or;
- Hire an organization or agency to store and preserve accounting documents in Vietnam.
Simultaneously, a written notification must be provided to the tax authorities regarding the location where accounting documents are stored to ensure the fulfillment of the obligation to provide complete records and information as requested by the tax authorities and other competent state agencies when there is suspicion or detection of irregularities in tax records or other disputes arise (if any).
– Storage location: At the head office or other location specified in the company's charter.
– Storage method: In electronic form or in paper form.
– Retention period:
+ For businesses:
- Minimum 5 years: This refers to accounting documents used for the management and operation of an accounting unit, including accounting vouchers not directly used for recording accounting entries and preparing financial statements. (Detailed documentation is stipulated in Article 12 of Decree No. 174/2016/ND-CP).
- Minimum 10 yearsFor accounting documents used directly to record accounting entries and prepare financial statements, the accounting books and annual financial statements, except where otherwise provided by law. (Detailed documentation is stipulated in Article 13 of Decree No. 174/2016/ND-CP).
- Permanent: For accounting documents that are of historical value and have significant economic, security, and defense implications. (Detailed documentation is stipulated in Article 14 of Decree No. 174/2016/ND-CP).
- At least 05 years since the date the business was dissolved: Regarding information about the beneficial owners of the business.
+ For household businesses and individual business owners: Minimum 05 yearsRegarding the retention period for invoices, it must comply with the regulations of tax law.
4. Conclusion
Businesses need to review and compile a complete list of all documents requiring archiving to determine the required retention period. Simultaneously, they should clearly identify the individual or organization responsible for managing the documents and choose an appropriate archiving method (self-storage or outsourced archiving), ensuring that both paper documents and electronic data are securely preserved and accessible when needed.
Where required by law, the enterprise or its legal representative must notify the competent authority of the location where the documents are stored. Throughout the storage period, the documents must be preserved intact and readily available upon request from state agencies or to resolve legal issues arising after the enterprise temporarily ceases operations or is dissolved.
This responsibility arises not only when a business temporarily suspends operations or is dissolved, but also as an obligation that must be fulfilled throughout its operation to ensure compliance with the law and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the business.