Detailed regulations on business seals

Question: What are the detailed regulations on the amount, form and content of business seals as stipulated in Decree 96/2015/ND-CP providing in detail some articles of the 2014 Law on Enterprises?

Answer: According to Decree 96, the number of seals and seal samples (including the form, size, content, ink sea color) of enterprises as well as branches and representative offices of enterprises will be determined by the private business owner for private enterprises, the Board of members or chairman of the company for limited liability companies, or the Board of Directors for joint stock companies, except where company charter otherwise provides.

Each business may have multiple seals, however, it must have a unified form of seal for the content, form sand size. Enterprises are entitled to additional languages and other images regarding the contents of the seal except for contents that are not permitted by law.

Specifying the notification obligation of samples of seals to the business registration agency

Decree 96 specifically listed cases where enterprises have an obligation to provide a stamp sample to the competent authorities, including (1) to provide the seal for the first time after the registration of the enterprise; (2) change the number, content, form, pattern and ink color of the seal; and (3) cancellation of the seal.

For enterprises already established before the Law on Enterprises 2014 took effect, they may continue to use the seal issued without notifying the business registration agency and must only have to go through this process if they want to make additional seals or change the ink color of the seal.

However, if enterprises were established before July 1, 2015 and want to make new seals under the current regulations, they must return their recent seals and certificates of seal sample registration to the police department which issued the certificate of seal sample registration. Where seals or certificates of seal sample registration are lost, enterprises are allowed to re-make new seals according to current regulations and they must notify the loss of seals and certificates of seal sample registration to the police./.