Free goods, promotions and staff gifts: when Vietnamese VAT applies to things you do not sell

In Vietnam, goods and services that a company gives away, exchanges or uses for purposes other than its own taxable production can carry output VAT even though nobody pays for them. The main exception is goods used in trade promotions carried out under the commercial law, where the rules have long set the taxable value at zero provided the promotion follows the prescribed procedure. Goods moved within the company to continue production do not carry output VAT.

For marketing and HR teams in foreign-invested companies, the practical risk is simple: a campaign or a staff gift programme is designed at group level, launched locally, and nobody checks the VAT (and often personal income tax) consequences until year end. The rules below are set by Law 48/2024/QH15 on Value Added Tax and Decree 181/2025/ND-CP; check the current text before each campaign rather than relying on last year's answer.

Four situations, four treatments

The table describes how these cases are usually treated; the precise conditions, and the way value is measured, are in the implementing decree. The distinctions matter because the same carton of product can fall in any of the four rows depending on who receives it and why.

Trade promotions: the procedure is the condition

Vietnam's commercial law regulates trade promotions: free samples, gifts with purchase, discounts, lucky draws and similar programmes. Some forms must be registered with, or notified to, the trade authorities before they start, and the programme must stay within the limits set for its form.

For VAT, the zero taxable value for promotional goods depends on the promotion being carried out in line with that law. In practice that means:

• The programme is designed in one of the recognised forms, not as an informal giveaway.
• Any registration or notification required for that form was made on time, and the file is kept.
• The goods actually given match the programme — quantity, period, recipients.
• The invoicing treatment for promotional goods follows the invoice rules in force.

A promotion that skipped the procedure, ran past its approved period or gave away more than planned falls back to the general rule for gifts, with output VAT on the value of the goods. Marketing should send the draft programme to finance before it is announced, not after the goods have left the warehouse.

Gifts to customers and partners

Hampers at Tet, product gifts to distributors, goods handed out at a trade fair without a registered programme: these are gifts, and output VAT is generally due on the value of the same or similar goods at the time they are given. If the gifts were bought in rather than produced, the company still accounts for output VAT on them and credits the input VAT on the purchase under the normal conditions.

Two separate tests follow the VAT one. Whether the cost is deductible for corporate income tax depends on the CIT rules for such expenses. And a gift to an individual can be income for that individual. Keep a list of what was given, to whom and why; it answers all three questions at once.

Staff gifts and benefits in kind

Companies that give their own products to employees — a festive gift box, an annual product allowance, a staff sale below cost — should treat these as supplies for VAT. Output VAT is generally due on the value of the same or similar goods, and the benefit may be taxable income for the employee under personal income tax.

The usual failure is fragmented ownership: HR designs the benefit, the warehouse releases the goods, and finance sees only an inventory write-down. Put three steps into the approval of any staff benefit in goods:

1. Finance confirms the VAT value and books output VAT with the invoice required by the invoice rules.
2. Payroll confirms whether the benefit is taxable for employees and includes it in withholding.
3. The cost is recorded in a way that supports CIT deductibility — in the labour contract, collective agreement or internal regulations where the rules require it.

Samples, testing and internal use

Not every item leaving stock is a supply. Goods consumed inside the business to produce taxable goods — materials moved from one workshop to another, components used for testing on the production line — carry no output VAT. Goods taken for purposes outside taxable production are treated differently.

Samples are a grey area in practice because the word covers very different things: a product sent to a prospective customer, a unit sent to the parent company for quality testing, a unit destroyed in internal testing. The rules treat some samples specially; others are gifts or exports. Classify each flow by what actually happens to the goods and document it — a delivery note to a named recipient, a test report, a destruction record — rather than using one "samples" account for everything.

Lucky draws, vouchers and loyalty points

Consumer-facing FIEs increasingly run programmes that are not simple gifts: lucky draws with prizes, vouchers sold or handed out, loyalty points redeemed for products. Each has a VAT side and often a personal income tax side.

• Lucky draws. A draw is a form of trade promotion under the commercial law and usually requires registration before it runs. The prize goods follow the promotion treatment if the procedure is followed. Separately, prize winnings can be taxable income for the winner, and the organiser may have to withhold tax before handing over a prize above the level set in the personal income tax rules — check the current level.
• Vouchers. A voucher sold for money and a voucher handed out free are different things. When the VAT arises on a sold voucher — at sale or at redemption — depends on what the voucher can be exchanged for; read the current guidance before launching one.
• Loyalty points. Points redeemed against a later purchase can work as a price reduction on that purchase, while points redeemed for free goods may be a promotion or a gift. Design the scheme with one treatment in mind and document it.

Group-designed loyalty schemes often assume the treatment used in another country. Test the Vietnamese treatment before the scheme goes live, because changing a live scheme is harder than setting it up correctly.

Before the next campaign: a short review

1. Classify the programme: qualifying trade promotion, gift, staff benefit or internal use.
2. Check the procedure for the promotion form and confirm registration or notification if required.
3. Fix the value used for output VAT where VAT applies, and set up the invoicing.
4. Check personal income tax where individuals receive something of value.
5. Record the outflows: who received what, when, with quantities that reconcile to inventory.

A campaign that passes these five checks rarely causes a tax problem. One that skips them tends to surface in an audit as an inventory gap with no documents and a VAT assessment on the full value.

Where to check your own position

Your e-invoice records should show the invoices issued for promotional goods, gifts and staff benefits where the rules require them; your company's e-tax account shows the VAT returns in which they were declared. If inventory records show goods leaving stock with no matching invoice or promotion file, investigate before year end. Your managing tax office — shown on the taxpayer information lookup — is the right place to ask about an unusual programme before it starts.