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 Viet Nam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC).

The Vietnamese domain name leads the Asia-Pacific region and is eighth in Asia in terms of the total registered domain names, with 404,938. 

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 28th 2016 but was delayed by the VNNIC due to difficulties calculating taxes for transfers.

The VNNIC on Thursday announced that the domains could be transferred without an auction from the beginning of this month.

Vietnamese domain name registrars including PA Viet Nam Joint Stock Company and INET Joint Stock Company have transferred the first five “.vn” domain names since the circular took effect. 

In addition, the General Taxation Department issued documents in January 2015 and March 2017 on taxes for transferring the domain names.

VNNIC said the Vietnamese domain name leads the Asia-Pacific region and is eighth in Asia in terms of the total registered domain names, with 404,938.

With this large number of registered domain names, there has long been demand for direct transfers. However, a lack of synchronous regulations delayed the official implementation of the circular.

“In the past, some transactions in the Vietnamese domain name market were made via domain reimbursement and re-registration, assuming the probability that the domain name could be purchased by third parties,” the centre said.

The VNNIC has work with Vietnamese domain name registrars for the transfers.

The current regulations stipulate that transfers be carried at http://nhadangky.vn.

Businesses owning Vietnamese domain names are required to pay value added tax (VAT) of 10 per cent for the transfer. Individuals have to pay 1 per cent of VAT and 0.5 per cent of corporate income tax for the transfer if their total revenue in a year is more than VND100 million. If the total is less than VND100 million a year, individuals do not pay the taxes.

VNNIC’s Vietnamese domain names registration was officially opened to the public in March 2007.

Vietnamese domain name owners will have to pay an annual fee of VND20,000 (nearly US$1) for a domain name from January 1 this year in accordance with a Ministry of Finance circular on collection, payment, management and usage mechanism of fees and levies of national domain name “.vn”. 

VNS