What is a Virtual Office? Is It Legal In Vietnam Or Not?

Setting up trading and working offices in premium and professional office buildings is always the desire of businesses as well as all office workers. However, not all units have the financial capacity to rent the offices they desire. To solve these issues, businesses can choose a new solution – renting a virtual office.

So, what is a virtual office? What about the legality of virtual offices? Let’s explore this with Maison Office in this article!

What is a virtual office?

A virtual office is a term used for a type of office that only provides address and contact services without needing actual space.

A virtual office is a form of office rental with 0m2 space, with services provided including: The business’s transaction location with a specific address, telephone number, fax number, receptionist, company signage, mail reception address, and tax and social insurance notifications, etc.

When using this service, customers do not have to move furniture or equipment but only place their company’s signage and logo there. Customers can also rent meeting rooms for discussions with partners & the cost is usually calculated by the hour.

Globally, virtual office rental services have been around for a long time, while in Vietnam, this service is still relatively new. Using this service, customers do not have to move furniture or equipment but only place their company’s signage and logo there.

Additionally, businesses do not need to have permanent staff. The virtual office’s HR department will answer phones, receive faxes, emails, and related documents as the company’s secretary. Then, all this information will be sent directly to the customer.

Simply put, a virtual office is a form of renting a location for business registration, thus saving costs compared to renting office space in traditional office buildings.

A virtual office is a perfect combination of operating a business remotely through the use of a representative office address. Using a virtual office service allows users to reduce the cost of traditional office rental while still being able to operate the business professionally and efficiently.

Is a virtual office legal?

The term “virtual office” is not regulated in legal documents but has arisen in practice.

The 2014 Enterprise Law defined “business” according to the provisions of Clause 7 Article 4 of the Enterprise Law 2014, which states that a business is an organization with its own name, assets, transaction office, registered according to legal provisions for business purposes. Additionally, the 2014 Enterprise Law also provides regulations on transaction offices, specifically: Article 43. The main office of the business:

“The main office of the business is the contact location of the business on Vietnamese territory, with an identified address including house number, alley, lane, street, village, commune, ward, town, district, city within a province, province, city under central authority; telephone number, fax number, and email (if any).”

Moreover, the Enterprise Law does not specify how many businesses can be located at one address, and the business registration authority cannot control whether a business is actually operating at its registered office or not.

Currently, the law does not specifically regulate the prohibition of businesses renting “virtual offices” for operational headquarters, nor does it have any legal provisions or mechanisms for dealing with this issue.

However, businesses should note that just because the Enterprise Law does not prohibit it does not mean that this practice is in accordance with the law, as a business is not only regulated by the Enterprise Law but also by many other legal regulations, such as taxes, commerce, banking, etc.

Therefore, virtual offices are still accepted for business registration, and the law does not prohibit this case.

Virtual offices – a solution for small and medium enterprises

In times of economic crisis, when the cost of premises becomes a burden for businesses, virtual offices start to attract customers. Following the trend of developing a dynamic economy, nowadays, the young intellectual workforce, those who work freelance or from home but need a business registration address and occasionally need a place to meet or confer with domestic and foreign partners. A virtual office for work is a smart solution for individuals, small and medium businesses to achieve the best business efficiency.

Virtual offices are a lifeline for small and medium businesses today. Business owners, with the desire to balance finances reasonably to maintain, wait for the opportunity to recover and grow, have chosen virtual office services to somewhat save costs for the company.

Virtual office services help businesses save on currently expensive office rental costs. With just about 1 million VND per month, companies can have an office in the city center to register business addresses, transaction addresses, receive guests, meet….

This way of working minimizes unnecessary incurred costs but still ensures work efficiency and a reputable appearance for the company.

In addition, virtual office services also offer services such as meeting rooms, workspaces, hiring representative staff, etc.

Therefore, businesses can focus resources on important business tasks such as sales, debt recovery, technical… Less important tasks like phone calls, documents, secretarial work, bookkeeping, tax declarations can all be outsourced.

However, as businesses grow larger, they have the potential to expand their corporate offices but still use virtual offices as branches.

Bui Duc Huy

Editor and content team manager at Maison Office.

With over 5 years of experience in consulting and extensive content editing in the real estate services and interior design field. Sharing valuable information with customers, partners, and attracting millions of views.