VCCI has recently conducted a nationwide survey of household businesses. The 2026 survey report shows that the household business sector remains a vital pillar of household economies and social security.

However, household businesses are operating in a state of weakened health, thin profit margins, and prolonged defensive sentiment. Most households earn only small profits. Revenue and customer numbers have declined broadly. The prevailing trend over the next two years is to maintain or downsize rather than expand, with only a small proportion intending to convert into enterprises.

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According to VCCI, fundamentally, the bottleneck of the household business sector today lies not only in weak demand or rising input costs, but also in the mismatch between increasingly complex regulatory requirements and the compliance capacity of a sector largely composed of micro and small units.

Notably, VCCI pointed out that tax obligations, compliance requirements, and e-invoice implementation remain challenging for household businesses.

Specifically, only a small proportion of household businesses truly understand the new regulations on tax and accounting (49.8% of surveyed households reported having a basic understanding; 33.9% had heard about them). Most households reported difficulties with tax and accounting tasks such as issuing invoices, cost accounting, tax declaration, and tax payment.

At the same time, household businesses indicated that the impact of new compliance costs tends to increase with revenue scale. For example, regarding compliance time, the proportion rating the impact as large or very large rises from 61.5% in the group with revenue below VND 500 million, to 77.1% in the group from VND 500 million to VND 3 billion, and 87.3% in the group above VND 3 billion.

More than 70% of household businesses are concerned about complex procedures; nearly 70% fear the risk of penalties; over 60% consider compliance costs high and worry about not being able to keep up with regulatory updates.

Given this reality, VCCI recommends prioritizing the simplification of tax, accounting, and e-invoice regulations in a way that better matches the actual capabilities of household businesses, particularly micro-scale, low-education, and older groups.

There is also a need to develop low-cost, user-friendly compliance support tools, such as simple accounting software, easy-to-understand filing guidelines, and direct support mechanisms at the local level, instead of assuming that most household businesses can absorb new regulations without intermediary support.

Support policies should clearly identify priority groups. Households fully dependent on business activities for their livelihoods should be prioritized in shock mitigation and resilience-building policies; micro and vulnerable groups need support in compliance and basic governance; while larger-scale groups with B2B customers or clearer needs for contract signing and capital mobilization should be the focus of programs promoting conversion into enterprises.

Regarding policies for conversion into enterprises, VCCI emphasized that the focus should shift to “reducing actual transition costs.” Accordingly, conditional financial incentive packages should be provided in the initial phase. Administrative procedures after conversion should be simplified, accounting and tax support should be offered in the early years of operation, and a gradual roadmap of obligations should be established instead of imposing a sudden increase in compliance requirements immediately after conversion.

“If the issues of costs and perceived risks after conversion are not addressed, the willingness of household businesses to transform into enterprises will remain low,” the VCCI report recommends.