Legal updates

With the aim of facilitating agencies, organizations, and enterprises in recruiting foreign workers with high professional qualifications and experience, thereby contributing to promoting investment cooperation as well as the development of science, technology, and innovation, on August 7, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 219/2025/NĐ-CP (“Decree 219”) on foreign workers working in Vietnam.

On August 18, 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs issued Official Letter No. 2677/SNV-VLATLD to provide information and guidance on organizing overtime work from over 200 hours to 300 hours per year, specifically as follows:

In case the Company incurs expenses for mid-shift meals for employees working at the Company, and such allowances are clearly stipulated in terms of eligibility conditions and benefit levels in the labor contract, collective labor agreement, or the Company’s internal regulations or policies, the determination of taxable income for PIT purposes for such allowances (effective from June 15, 2025) shall be as follows:

The Employment Department based its guidance on the provisions under Points a and b, Clause 1, Article 2 of Decree No. 152/2020/NĐ-CP dated December 30, 2020 of the Government, which regulates foreign workers working in Vietnam and the recruitment and management of Vietnamese workers working for foreign organizations and individuals in Vietnam:

The taxpayer is only required to register and submit proof documents for each dependent once during the entire period they are eligible for family circumstance-based deductions. However, when changing workplace, since income-paying organizations do not have an information-sharing connection, the new employer will have no basis to apply the dependent deduction for the taxpayer. Therefore, the taxpayer must re-register their dependents to be eligible for the deduction immediately in the tax declaration period within the year at the new workplace.

Pursuant to current regulations, in order to unify the management of participant data through the use of Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) and Citizen Identification Numbers (CID), ensuring integration and synchronization of databases (DB) among agencies for administrative management purposes, and to facilitate individuals and enterprises in resolving administrative procedures, Vietnam Social Security guides provincial Social Security offices to use PIN/CID in replacement of SSN and unit management codes for participants of social insurance (SI) and health insurance (HI) as follows:

In case the Company incurs expenses for mid-shift meals for employees working at the Company, and such allowances are clearly stipulated in terms of eligibility conditions and benefit levels in the labor contract, collective labor agreement, or the Company’s internal regulations or policies, the determination of taxable income for PIT purposes for such allowances (effective from June 15, 2025) shall be as follows:

The current family circumstance deductions under PIT are as follows:

VAT Reduction: A reduction of the VAT rate from 10% to 8% is applied for certain groups of goods and services. The reduction does not apply to:

From July 1, 2025, the personal identification number issued under the Law on Identity shall be used in place of the tax code for Vietnamese individuals. Additionally, the personal identification number of the head of a household, head of a household business, or individual businessperson will also be used instead of the tax identification number for those household businesses or individuals.