Money and tax
Moving the money with the family
Once the visa is settled, one job remains that nobody handles for you: getting your assets out lawfully, and knowing what you still owe Vietnam. This page answers from the instruments in force, with the reference numbers so you can check them yourself.
Moving money
Taking money out when the family leaves
Everybody asks this and almost nobody answers it properly. The law sets no hard ceiling — what governs is how much lawfully acquired Vietnamese wealth you can document.
Legal basis
Circular 20/2022/TT-NHNN of 30 December 2022, in force since 15 February 2023, governs one-way outward remittance by resident individuals. As of 25 August 2026 it remains in force and unreplaced.
The USD 50,000 figure everyone repeats is a misreading
The USD 50,000 threshold circulating in the press and on some commercial bank pages applies to organisations funding education, cultural or medical programmes — it is not a cap on an individual's emigration transfer. Circular 20/2022 sets no numeric ceiling for emigration. Anyone advising you off that figure is citing the wrong provision.
Each purpose is measured differently
- Emigration
- By the value of lawful assets built up in Vietnam before departureNo stated ceiling. The real limit is what you can document, after domestic tax and financial obligations are settled.
- Study, medical treatment
- By the actual costs notified by the institution abroadOffer letter, fee schedule, treatment estimate.
- Family support
- Not exceeding the annual per-capita income of the recipient's country of residenceUpdated yearly from World Bank data.
- Inheritance
- By the actual value of the inherited estate
- Business travel, tourism, visits
- Determined by the bank against reasonable need
Where files actually stall — and it is not the statute
- The real obstacle sits at the bank counter, in documentation, not in the legislation. The bank has to see where the money came from.
- Wealth built from cash, from income with no contract behind it, or from property transferred hastily just before departure are the three that snag most often.
- The Vietnam Banks Association issued a common code on the documents required for one-way outward transfers, applied from 15 March 2025. It is an industry rule rather than legislation, but banks follow it in practice.
- Which is why the financial paperwork should be put in order one to two years before the immigration file is lodged, not after the visa arrives.
Tax residence
You can leave and still owe a Vietnamese return
Families often assume a foreign residence card ends their Vietnamese tax obligations. It does not. One rule keeps people who spend under 183 days in Vietnam inside the Vietnamese tax net — and with it, liability on income earned abroad.
The rule that catches people out
If you keep a permanent home in Vietnam, spend fewer than 183 days there, and CANNOT show you are tax resident somewhere else, you remain a Vietnamese tax resident. The proof is a certificate of tax residence issued by the other country. Leaving is not enough on its own — without that certificate, both jurisdictions count you as theirs.
- First test
- Present in Vietnam for 183 days or more in a calendar year or any rolling 12 months
- Second test
- Maintaining a permanent home in VietnamIncluding rented accommodation whose contracts total 183 days or more — hotels, guesthouses, on-site staff housing, or a home your company rents for you.
- The way out
- A certificate of tax residence from the destination countryWithout it, fewer than 183 days in Vietnam still leaves you a Vietnamese tax resident.
- What residence means
- Taxable on income arising both inside and outside VietnamTax already paid abroad is creditable under the applicable double-taxation treaty.
- Rate bands
- Five bands: 5% · 10% · 20% · 30% · 35%Applied to monthly taxable income up to VND 10m, over 10 to 30, over 30 to 60, over 60 to 100, and above 100 million.
- Property transfers
- 2% of the transfer price, for residents and non-residents alikeSomeone who has emigrated and sells a Vietnamese property pays the same rate as someone at home. Both the proposed 20%-of-gain charge and the holding-period bands were dropped and never entered the law.
What to settle before you go
- Work out which year is your last as a Vietnamese tax resident, and plan backwards from it.
- Apply for the destination country's certificate of tax residence as soon as you qualify, rather than at filing season.
- Review any Vietnamese tenancy or residence registration still in your name — those can create a permanent home without your noticing.
- If income continues to arise in Vietnam after you leave, establish whether it is taxed on the resident or non-resident basis; the two are computed quite differently.
- Selling a home before you leave now runs into a new condition: Decree 253/2026 exempts a sole home or sole residential plot, but attaches a minimum holding period of 183 days. A family that has just inherited or just taken title, and sells quickly to make the move, loses the exemption and pays 2% on the whole sale price. The condition is new, already in force, and lands squarely on the departing-family case.
Legal basis
Law on Personal Income Tax 109/2025/QH15, in force 1 July 2026 — though the provisions on business and employment income for residents apply from the 2026 tax year, reaching back to 1 January 2026. Decree 253/2026/ND-CP of 30 June 2026: Article 4 defines residence, Article 6 sets the scope of taxable income. Personal allowances under Resolution 110/2025/UBTVQH15: VND 15.5m a month for the taxpayer, 6.2m per dependant.
Investing abroad
The 7-billion-dong threshold, and why it changes things
Since 3 April 2026, a project under VND 7 billion that does not fall in a conditional sector no longer needs an outward investment registration certificate. It is a genuine loosening — with a trap sitting in the second half of that sentence.
Legal basis
Investment Law 143/2025/QH15, passed 11 December 2025, in force 1 March 2026 — with the conditional-sector list taking effect 1 July 2026. Decree 103/2026/ND-CP of 31 March 2026, in force 3 April 2026, replacing Chapter VI of Decree 31/2021. Forms under Circular 38/2026/TT-BTC, in force 15 April 2026.
- Under VND 7 billion
- No outward investment registration certificate requiredProvided the project is NOT in a conditional outward-investment sector. Foreign-exchange registration with the State Bank is still required.
- Declaration still required
- File the project on the National Investment Information SystemIncluding the split between cash and in-kind capital, to obtain the automatic file code before registering the currency transaction.
- VND 7 billion and above
- The Ministry of Finance issues the certificate within 15 working daysThe in-principle approval step was abolished on 1 March 2026. Projects above VND 1,600 billion are reported to the Prime Minister first.
- The document that decides it
- A tax-authority letter confirming obligations are settledIt must still be valid within three months of the filing date.
- Applying anyway
- An investor may request the certificate voluntarilyUseful when a foreign bank or counterparty wants formal paperwork from Vietnam.
The trap is in the second half
The exemption applies only where the project is both under VND 7 billion and outside the conditional outward-investment sectors. Real estate, finance, banking and insurance are all sensitive areas — a project landing in one goes back through the permit route regardless of how small it is. Read Article 41 of the 2025 Investment Law before celebrating.
One thing worth saying plainly
Decree 103/2026 contains no provisions specific to individual investors — it is written mainly for companies. Vietnamese individuals remain entitled to invest abroad under the Investment Law, and the 7-billion exemption attaches to the project rather than to the type of investor. We say so rather than let you read it as a carve-out for individuals.
Before the flight
Unpaid tax can stop you at the airport
Rarely discussed, and the only risk on this page that lands on the day you travel. Decree 252/2026 names Vietnamese nationals departing to settle abroad as a category subject to exit suspension where overdue tax remains.
Legal basis
Decree 252/2026/ND-CP implementing the Law on Tax Administration 108/2025/QH15, issued 30 June 2026, in force 1 July 2026, replacing the arrangement under Decree 49/2025/ND-CP.
- Individual traders, household business owners
- Debt from VND 50 million, overdue by 120 days or more
- Company legal representatives
- Debt from VND 500 million, overdue by 120 days or moreIt reaches beneficial owners of the company as well.
- No longer operating at the registered address
- The threshold falls to VND 1 million
- Vietnamese nationals leaving to settle abroad
- Suspended where overdue tax remainsThe decree names this group separately, outside the thresholds above.
- Lifting the suspension
- Once the debt falls below the threshold, the tax office issues a cancellationIt travels through the tax administration system to the immigration authority — which takes time, not effect on the spot.
Do this early, not the week before
- Check your own tax position on the General Department of Taxation portal before booking flights, rather than discovering it at the airport.
- Include the easily forgotten items: personal income tax on a property sale, on rental income, and any obligation left behind by a household business that has since closed.
- If you were ever the legal representative of a company, check whether it still owes tax or has abandoned its registered address — the obligation follows the individual.
- Lifting a suspension takes time to move through the system, so settle any debt at least several weeks before departure.
This page is for reference, based on the instruments in force at the time of writing. It is not legal advice on your file. Actual limits and documentation are decided transaction by transaction by your bank, so before moving a large sum, let us go through it with the bank against your family's circumstances.
Sort the money before you sort the paperwork
Documenting the source of funds and shedding Vietnamese tax residence both take a year of preparation. The earlier it starts, the fewer obstacles later.