Vietnam is no longer one of the 10 most financially complex countries in the world for business, dropping to no. 11 from no. 5 in TMF Group's second annual Financial Complexity Index 2018.

China is now the most complex place in the world for accounting and tax compliance, displacing Turkey, followed by Brazil, Italy and Argentina.

As a leading provider of global business and compliance services, we ranked 94 jurisdictions across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas; 1 being most complex through to 94 the least complex. For a second year, the Cayman Islands came in as the least complex place for compliance from an accounting and tax perspective.

To determine the rankings with its in-country experts, TMF Group used a 74-question survey with weighted complexity parameters, namely; regulatory compliance, tax, statutory reporting and bookkeeping.

Top 5 most complex jurisdictions in APAC

Ranking Jurisdiction
1 China
2 Vietnam
3 India
4 Philippines
5 Thailand

Commenting on the rankings, TMF Vietnam's Managing Director Jack Nguyen said: "It's good to see Vietnam's efforts to simplify its notoriously complex reporting system for small and medium-sized enterprises are starting to take effect, even at this early stage. Vietnam is definitely moving in the right direction to fulfil its promise of easing ways of doing business to foreign investors. That does not mean, however, that Vietnam is a less complex place to do business than it was in 2017.

"The ever-changing tax system and moves towards digital reporting can make it incredibly difficult to do business in Vietnam. Persist, though, and you'll find a country that welcomes foreign investment and a GDP growth rate of more than 7%. Vietnam is ripe for investment."

Find out why you should invest in Vietnam here.

TMF Group's Head of APAC Paolo Tavolato added: "In this era, it's no longer nice to be doing business in Asia – it's essential. While three of our traditionally biggest economies are in the top 20 most complex, APAC is still a growing and exciting region in which to invest. What this Financial Complexity Index shows is the need for partners on the ground locally to help you navigate the complexity and make the most of the opportunities."

Download the FREE report here.

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TMF Group helps its clients operate internationally and 'belong' wherever they are in the world. We do this by making sure they are properly set up to do business in any country and compliant with local and international regulations.

Our work includes helping companies of all sizes with business services such as HR and payroll, accounting and tax, corporate secretarial, global governance and administration services for structured finance, private equity and real estate investments. We have more than 7,000 in-country experts in over 80 jurisdictions worldwide.

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