How does a brokerage firm with more than 24,000 members do business?
Báo Dân trí•20/08/2024
(Dan Tri) - On its official website, Thien Khoi Group introduces that it has more than 1,700 leaders and managers at all levels, and more than 24,000 employees. At the time of its establishment, the company had a charter capital of 8 billion VND, which was increased to 20 billion VND after 4 days.
According to information from the National Portal on Business Establishment, Thien Khoi Group Joint Stock Company (Thien Khoi Group) was formerly Thien Khoi Real Estate Joint Stock Company. The latest business registration certificate shows that the company is headquartered on the 5th floor of the 18 Tam Trinh building (Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi). The main business lines of the company are consulting, brokerage, real estate auctions, and land use rights auctions. On the official website, Thien Khoi Group introduces itself as a real estate and residential land brokerage business. At the time of establishment, the company introduced its charter capital as 8 billion VND. Only 4 days later, this unit increased its capital to 20 billion VND and has maintained this level until now. A notable point is that on the official website, this group introduces itself as having more than 20 branches with 250 blocks/business departments, more than 1,700 leaders and managers at all levels and more than 24,000 employees.
Self-introduction information of Thien Khoi Group (Screenshot).
However, in the announcement of changes to the business registration content in July 2023, the total number of employees according to the tax registration information of this unit is only 5 people. The legal representative and General Director of the enterprise is Mr. Nguyen Thanh Dung (born in 1979). Mr. Dung is also the legal representative and Director of Thien Khoi Trading and Service Company Limited.
Tax registration information of Thien Khoi Group (Screenshot).
Thien Khoi Trading and Service Company Limited was established in March 2019. The company's headquarters is located on the 2nd floor of Mipec Tower building, Dong Da district, Hanoi. Similar to Thien Khoi Group, Thien Khoi Trading and Service Company Limited operates mainly in the fields of consulting, brokerage, real estate auctions, and land use rights auctions. The company has a charter capital of 1 billion VND. Of which, Thien Khoi Group Joint Stock Company contributed 450 million VND (equivalent to 45% of shares), Mr. Dung contributed 550 million (equivalent to 55% of shares). Explaining the number of 32,000 members announced on the website, Thien Khoi Group said that this is the number of people who registered to use the technology application provided by this unit. This application is essentially similar to e-commerce technology applications or information posting applications. Users of these applications are real estate brokers. Thien Khoi Group does not manage working hours, work locations, assign work or pay salaries to app users. The company only collects application usage fees when there are successful transactions and fully fulfills tax obligations to the State for these revenues. Accordingly, they are absolutely not employees of Thien Khoi Group. The number of 5 employees according to tax declaration information confirmed by Thien Khoi is the number of employees at the time of establishment. The company said that it has completed the procedure to adjust this data and is waiting to update new data. Sharing with Dan Tri reporter from the legal perspective on real estate brokerage activities in general, lawyer Pham Thanh Tuan said that there are differences in real estate brokerage management between the 2014 Law on Real Estate Business and the 2023 Law on Real Estate Business. Specifically, Article 2, Clause 2 of the 2014 Law on Real Estate Business stipulates that individuals with a brokerage certificate can work in a real estate brokerage company or practice independently as an individual and register to pay taxes according to the provisions of the law on tax. Because the 2014 Law on Real Estate Business allows individuals practicing real estate brokerage to operate freely, they are completely free to practice anywhere. Real estate brokerage previously had two business trends. One was to collaborate with real estate trading floors to get information, to become collaborators or secondary brokers. The second is to exploit the source of information about products that need to be sold, mainly houses and land available for brokerage to customers who need to buy. Their goal is only to find a way to sell products quickly and effectively and they are often not responsible to customers and consumers for the products they have brokered.
From August 1, individuals doing real estate brokerage business are no longer allowed to do business under their own names (Photo: Tran Khang).
However, the 2024 Law on Real Estate Business stipulates that individuals with a real estate brokerage certificate must practice in a real estate trading floor service business or a real estate brokerage service business. From August 1, real estate brokers are no longer allowed to do business under their own names as before. However, the 2023 Law on Real Estate Business and Decree 96 only stipulate that individual brokers must "practice" in a brokerage company or trading floor. The trading floor will sign a "contract" with the individual broker (Article 53, Clause 4 and Article 59, Clause 1, Point (b) of the 2023 Law on Real Estate Business). Article 17 of Decree 96 stipulates that a brokerage company or real estate trading floor must sign a "contract" with the individual broker without limiting the signing of this contract to be an employment contract. Thus, the form and type of contract signed between a brokerage company, real estate trading floor and an individual broker shall be implemented according to the agreement of the parties and the provisions of relevant laws. In particular, the principle that these brokerage services are provided by the brokerage company, real estate trading floor where the broker is "practicing" must be ensured; it is not the business activity of the individual broker.
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