The short answer: a private FDI enterprise does not have to post its audit report on a public portal for anyone to look up, but it does carry a duty to “disclose” its financial statements under the Accounting Law — and the two ideas are routinely confused. Drawing the line correctly lets the company comply without exposing more of its numbers to competitors than necessary.
The Accounting Law duty: 120 days, in the prescribed form
Clause 3, Article 32 of the Accounting Law 88/2015/QH13 provides that a business accounting entity must disclose its annual financial statements within 120 days from the end of the annual accounting period, in the content and form prescribed by the Ministry of Finance; where a sector law (securities, credit, insurance) provides otherwise, the sector law prevails. For an ordinary FDI enterprise, “disclosure” is in practice performed mainly by filing the audited financial statements with state authorities under the accounting regime — the directly managing tax authority, the finance authority and the statistics authority — within the 90-day filing deadline from the fiscal year end. Non-disclosure or incomplete disclosure is administratively fined under Decree 41/2018/ND-CP (disclosing statements without the audit report where audit is mandatory sits in the VND 10–20 million bracket in Clause 2, Article 12; failure to disclose financial statements is fined VND 40–50 million under Clause 4, Article 12 — see the FDI-LC-2055 to 2059 group on financial-statement penalties). Note that what is “disclosed” here is the financial statements together with the audit report for entities under mandatory audit such as FDI enterprises — filing unaudited statements does not discharge the duty.
The stricter public-company regime — and the competitor question
If the enterprise is a public or listed company, the regime switches entirely to securities law: under Circular 96/2020/TT-BTC, audited annual financial statements must be disclosed within 90 days of the fiscal year end and within 10 days of the audit report signing date; the annual report (containing the audited statements) within 110 days. That is genuine public disclosure on the State Securities Commission and exchange portals — anyone can download it. As for the practical question “can a competitor look up our audit report”: for a private FDI enterprise, there is no public lookup portal — statements filed with the tax, finance and statistics authorities are administrative files, not open data; competitors reach them only through informal channels or from the company itself in tenders, credit appraisal or fundraising. The converse is equally true: when an FDI company needs to prove financial capacity to a counterparty, it volunteers the audit report — and the cleanliness of the audit opinion becomes its “capability file” (see FDI-LC-2029 and FDI-LC-2032 on the consequences of a non-clean opinion). In short: a private FDI enterprise’s duty is to file with the right authority, on time, with the audit report attached — not to publish to the general public; but the audit report should never be treated as an invisible internal document, because every serious counterparty will ask to see it.
Frequently asked questions
Must an FDI enterprise publicly disclose its audit report?
It must disclose its annual financial statements within 120 days of the accounting year end (Clause 3, Article 32 of the Accounting Law 88/2015/QH13) — for a private FDI firm this is performed by filing the audited statements with the tax, finance and statistics authorities within 90 days, not by posting them publicly.
Must the audit report be published on the company website?
No, for an ordinary private FDI enterprise. Public posting duties apply only to public and listed companies under Circular 96/2020/TT-BTC (annual statements: 90 days, and 10 days after the audit report is signed).
Can competitors look up the company’s audit report?
Not through official channels: a private FDI firm’s filings are administrative records with no public search portal. Competitors see the report only when the company provides it in tenders, credit appraisal or fundraising — or if the company is public.
What are the fines for non-disclosure or filing without the audit report?
Under Article 12 of Decree 41/2018/ND-CP: disclosing statements without the mandatory audit report falls in the VND 10–20 million bracket (Clause 2); failure to disclose financial statements is fined VND 40–50 million (Clause 4).
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council
