New policies take effect in July 2026

Personal income tax

The Law No. 109/2025/QH15, adopted by the National Assembly on December 10, 2025, shall come into effect on July 1, 2026.

Under the law, personal deduction shall be increased to VND15.5 million per month from current VND11 million.

Taxpayers shall also be entitled to mandatory insurance deductions and contributions to charity and humanitarian funds.

Noticeably, the law expands space for economic management as it stipulates a tax rate of 0.1 percent on the transfer price for digital assets, gold bars, carbon credits, and auctioned license plates.

In a bid to spur the development of spearhead sectors, Viet Nam shall exempt personal income tax on high-quality workforce working in the semiconductor chip and artificial intelligence.

Base salary increase

Base salary for public employees shall be increased to VND2,530,00 from current VND2,340,000 from July 1, according to the Government’s Decree No. 161/2026/ND-CP dated May 15, 2026.

This means the base salary shall be increased by 8 percent, or from US$88 to US$96.

The base salary serves as the basis for calculating monthly salaries for cadres, civil servants, and public employees by multiplying it by their corresponding coefficient.

Pensions, social insurance benefits, monthly allowances

Pensions, social insurance benefits, and monthly allowances shall be increased by 8 percent from July 1, according to the Government’s Decree No. 162/2026/ND-CP dated May 15, 2026.

In particular, the Government raises the pensions, social insurance allowances and monthly allowances to VND3.8 million per month for certain cases whose post‑adjustment entitlements remain low.

Control of assets and income in public sector

The Government promulgated Decree No. 164/2026/ND-CP dated on May 15, 2026 to strengthen control of assets and income of civil servants and public employees who hold managerial posts.

The decree, scheduled to take effect from July 1, requires civil servants and public employees who hold managerial posts to declare their assets and income.

Declared assets shall include land use rights, housing, money (Vietnamese currency and foreign currency), gold, stocks, digital assets, debts, assets abroad, among others.

Anyone who fails to honestly declare his/her assets and income shall be subject to fines from warnings to being removed from his/her positions.

Reduction of conditional business lines

The Government promulgated Resolution No. 66.17/2026/NQ-CP dated May 15, 2026 on streamlining and amending conditional business lines in the Appendix IV of the Law on Investment (Law No. 143/2025/QH15).

Under the Resolution, the Government decided to reduce the number of conditional business lines to 142 from current 198, from July 1.

The abolished conditional business lines cover a wide range of areas, such as insurance, securities, gold trading, petrol and oil trading, air transport, real estate, higher education, telecommunication, notarization, judicial expertise, medical examination and treatment./.