The personal income tax calendar for expatriates and their employers in Vietnam: arrival, year end and departure

For an expatriate employed in Vietnam, personal income tax follows three layers of dates. During the year, the employer withholds PIT from salary and files withholding returns monthly (by the 20th of the following month) or quarterly (by the last day of the first month of the following quarter). After the year, the finalisation is due by the last day of the third month — 31 March — if the employer finalises on the employee's behalf, or by the last day of the fourth month — 30 April — if the individual finalises personally. And at one-off moments — arrival, a change of employer, and departure — extra steps are needed. These deadlines come from the Law on Tax Administration (Law 38/2019/QH14).

PIT rules for individuals were given new implementing documents from 1 July 2026: Decree 253/2026/NĐ-CP guiding the Law on Personal Income Tax and Circular 87/2026/TT-BTC detailing it. We name them so you know where the detail lives; we do not summarise their provisions here, and residence tests, tax rates and procedures should be confirmed against the current texts. What follows is the calendar and the division of work between employer, employee and group HR.

The calendar in one table

If a deadline falls on a weekend or public holiday, it moves to the next working day. The 30 April date sits inside a public holiday period, which in practice means the effective deadline is in early May — but plan for the end of April.

Arrival: the steps that make the rest of the year easy

• Tax registration. Vietnamese citizens now use their personal identification number in place of a separate tax code, from 1 July 2025. A foreign employee without a Vietnamese identification number still needs to be registered for tax; the employer usually does this. Circular 90/2026/TT-BTC is the current circular on tax registration.
• Residence status. Whether the employee is taxed as a resident or a non-resident for the year depends on the residence test in the PIT law — days of presence and whether the person has a habitual residence in Vietnam. The status decides how income is taxed, so assess it at arrival and again during the year.
• Dependants. Family deduction for dependants requires registration and supporting documents. From the 2026 tax year the deduction is VND 15.5 million per month for the taxpayer and VND 6.2 million per month per dependant (Resolution 110/2025/UBTVQH15). Register dependants early so payroll can apply the deduction during the year rather than only at finalisation.
• Offshore pay. Agree with group HR which parts of the package are paid in Vietnam and which abroad, and how offshore pay will be reported in Vietnam.

During the year: withholding, benefits and offshore pay

The employer's monthly or quarterly withholding is the backbone. Three items cause most errors for expatriates:

1. Benefits in kind. Housing, school fees, home leave flights, car and driver. Some are taxable in full, some only in part or under conditions; the treatment depends on how the benefit is provided and documented. Put each benefit through payroll on a consistent basis rather than deciding case by case at year end.
2. Income paid offshore. A bonus or part of salary paid by the parent company abroad is still income for work in Vietnam. If the Vietnamese employer does not include it in withholding, the individual must declare it on the periodic basis in the rules. Group HR should send the data to Vietnam every month or quarter, not once a year.
3. Equity awards. Shares or options granted by the parent are taxed when the rules say they are, which may not match when the group books them. Track grant, vesting and sale dates for each employee.

Payments to individuals who are not employees — a visiting trainer, a short-term consultant — follow a different rule: a Vietnamese payer generally withholds 10% on payments of VND 2 million or more each time to individuals without a labour contract or with a contract under three months. Low-income individuals can make a commitment under the form in the current circular to avoid withholding.

Year end: who finalises, and by when

An employee can authorise the employer to finalise on their behalf when the conditions in the rules are met — typically when the person has had income only from that employer, or only small other income, during the year. For those employees the employer's finalisation, due by 31 March, covers them.

Employees who do not qualify, or prefer not to authorise, finalise personally by 30 April. Expatriates often fall into this group because of offshore income, a change of employer during the year or income from more than one country. They need from the employer, in time, a withholding certificate and a breakdown of taxable income, including benefits.

Two practical points for HR teams:

• Collect authorisations in January with a short explanation of the conditions. An authorisation from an employee who did not qualify creates work later.
• Do not wait for employees to ask for certificates. Issue them to everyone who will finalise personally by early March.

Departure: finalising before the assignment ends

When a foreign employee ends an assignment in Vietnam, the rules require PIT for the period in Vietnam to be finalised under the procedure set for departing individuals; in some cases the employer can handle it under the employee's authorisation. Leaving it until after the person has gone is where problems begin: the individual is abroad, offshore payroll data is with another team, and the Vietnamese employer is left explaining gaps to the tax office.

A departure checklist that works:

1. Confirm the last working day and the last payroll date in Vietnam.
2. Collect offshore income data for the whole period in Vietnam, including any bonus payable after departure that relates to work in Vietnam.
3. Decide who finalises — the employee personally or the employer under authorisation — and prepare the documents before the final month.
4. Settle any balance payable, or document any overpayment and how the refund will be handled.
5. If the departing person is also the company's legal representative, register the change promptly and review powers of attorney they issued.

Changing employer inside Vietnam

An expatriate who moves from one Vietnamese employer to another during the year usually cannot authorise either employer to finalise the full year, because income came from two payers. Each employer withholds on the income it pays and issues a certificate; the individual finalises personally by 30 April. In a group reorganisation where the employee transfers between group companies as part of a restructuring, the rules may allow the new employer to finalise; check the conditions for that case rather than assuming it.

Registered dependants do not automatically follow the employee to the new employer. The new payroll needs the registration details to continue applying the family deduction.

Where to check

• The individual's e-tax account — withholding reported by employers, filings and payments. Expatriates should have access and look at it at least once before finalisation.
• The mobile tax app — a simpler view for individuals, including dependant registrations.
• The employer's e-tax account — withholding returns and the employer finalisation.
• The managing tax office — for departure cases and refunds; since 1 July 2025 the tax administration has three tiers: the central Tax Department, provincial and city tax offices and grassroots tax offices.