Registering and adding business lines is something that any business needs to do when establishing a company. However, during the company’s operation, to adapt and keep up with the development trends of the market, many businesses will need to change or add some other business lines. To fully understand the process and procedures for adding business lines, please refer to the information we present in the article below!

I. Legal basis

• Law on Enterprises 2020;
• Decree 01/2021/ND-CP on business registration;
• Circular 01/2021/TT-BKHĐT guiding Decree 01/2021/ND-CP;
• Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg promulgating the system of economic sectors in Vietnam.

II. Article content

1. Learn about Business Sectors

Currently, there are no official regulations on the concept of business sectors and occupations.

However, according to current law, Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg has regulated the system of economic sectors in Vietnam and issued an Appendix stipulating the list of business sector codes.

At the same time, according to Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 7 of the Enterprise Law 2020, enterprises have the right to:

– Freely conduct business in sectors and occupations that are not strictly prohibited by law, complying with the law.

– Be autonomous in business and choose the form of business company; proactively choose the sector, occupation, location, and form of business; proactively adjust the scale and sector, occupation.

Thus, the unit has the right to freely choose one of the business fields according to Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg. When there is a need to expand and develop, the unit has the right to change and supplement the business line according to the provisions of law.

2. Procedures for adding business lines in 2024

According to the Enterprise Law issued in 2020, companies have the right to freely conduct business in areas not prohibited by law. Therefore, the unit does not need to register a business line to be able to do business, but the enterprise needs to have a document notifying the change of business line from the Department of Planning and Investment.

2.1. What are the important documents for adding a business line?

• Notification of change in business registration content (Appendix II-1 form issued with Circular 01/2021/TT-BKHĐT);
• Minutes of the meeting on changing or adding the company’s business lines (for LLCs and Joint Stock Companies);
• Decision on changing or adding the company’s business lines;
• Copy of Investment Registration Certificate (if any);
• Authorization letter for Viet My Accounting Company to carry out procedures for adding or changing business lines. This document does not need to be notarized or certified.
• A valid copy is one of the personal identification documents of the person authorized to carry out the procedure (if any).
• Depending on the type of registered business, the documents for changing business lines are different, such as: Minutes, Decisions, and Notices of changes in business lines. Customers should note that if they submit the documents themselves, they need to be careful to avoid having their documents rejected by state agencies, avoiding having to submit them over and over again).

2.2. What steps are included in the procedures for adding business lines?

Step 1: Submit the necessary documents

The legal representative of the enterprise or the authorized person submits the documents to the Business Registration Office of the Department of Planning and Investment of the province where the company has its head office.

Step 2: Receive the documents

– The staff of the Business Registration Office receives the documents.

– In case the documents are sufficient, the staff receiving the documents will proceed to change or supplement the business registration field for the unit.

– In case the necessary documents are not sufficient, the staff must explain the reason for returning the documents and instruct the applicant to supplement the documents according to regulations.

Step 3: Receive the results

– After changing or supplementing the business registration field, the staff receiving the documents will write a receipt and set a date to return the results.

– The enterprise will receive the results as a confirmation of the change in business registration content directly at the business registration office or via postal service.

2.3. Cost of changing business lines

When submitting a dossier to change or add a business line, the fee for announcing a change in business registration is: VND 100,000.

2.4. Time to change or add a business line

The time for the business registration authority to process the dossier to change or add a business line is 03 working days after receiving all valid documents.

3. What to note when changing or adding business lines

To be able to change or add business lines quickly and easily, businesses need to note the following:

• Businesses need to know whether the changed or added business lines are on the list of qualified business lines and what the business conditions are.
• Businesses must practice coding the business lines they want to change or add to the level 4 business lines prescribed in the Vietnamese economic industry system.
• For some business lines that require statutory capital, when changing or adding business lines, businesses need to adjust their capital to meet the capital requirements.
• For changing or adding conditional business lines, it is necessary to apply for a business eligibility certificate, so the unit must apply for a license before the business activities take place.
• For business lines that the unit does not need to operate or have been amended or removed according to Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg on the Vietnamese economic sector system, the unit needs to remove or amend the business line according to current regulations.
• For business lines that require a practice certificate: the enterprise must ensure that during the operation it possesses sufficient practice certificates (if not a member of the organization, submit the labor contract and the decision to supplement the corresponding title).

Note on applying the Vietnamese economic sector code in the documents supplementing and changing business lines in 2024

• For fields specified in the Vietnamese economic sector code stipulated in Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg on the Vietnamese economic sector system issued by the Prime Minister, when supplementing or changing business lines, the enterprise must apply the business sector code for the business fields of the enterprise according to the level 4 industry code;
• For industry codes implemented according to specialized laws: the unit records the industry according to specialized legal documents and then finds the corresponding code to apply to the level 4 field code in the dossier of supplementing and changing business lines.
• In case the company changes its business lines and professions while the old business lines and professions have not been coded according to Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg, the company needs to make amendments: withdraw the industry and then add the industry according to the field code in Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg, or amend the industry details according to Decision 27/2018/QD-TTg.

4. Announcement of changes and additions to business lines on the National Information Portal

According to the provisions of the Law on Enterprises 68/2014/QH13, after completing the change of business lines (receiving the certificate of recognition of the new business line), the enterprise is obliged to proceed with the dossier of announcement of the change of the field on the National Information Portal on company registration (change of the main field is one of the contents of business registration change).

Note: The Law on Enterprises exempts the announcement of change information when making changes to the content for enterprises dependent on the unit such as business locations, company branches, representative offices of the company, etc.

Time limit for announcement of change information: Within 30 days from the date of being granted the Certificate of Business Registration (certificate of recognition of business lines after being supplemented or shortened), the enterprise must announce the content of business registration on the National Information Portal on business registration.

Above is the content of the article related to “procedures for adding business lines” that we have provided. Hopefully the article will be useful for readers in the future, please contact Viet My Accounting so that we can answer all your questions and concerns quickly and effectively.