Retiring in Vietnam
Vietnam: the tax picture for FIRE
Vietnam taxes employment and business income on a seven-band progressive scale — 5% on the first VND 60 million up to a 35% top rate above VND 960 million a year — after a personal deduction of VND 132 million. Investment income sits outside that scale entirely: securities sales are charged a flat 0.1% of sale proceeds (not of the gain), with no annual exemption, a mechanism retained by the new PIT Law taking effect 1 July 2026; dividends and interest carry a separate flat 5%, which Ember doesn't yet model. Our illustrative cost-of-living factor puts Vietnam at 0.38 against the UK's 1.0 — roughly 38% of UK costs — though that figure is low-confidence.
Ember does not yet model death transfers for Vietnam; the underlying data notes inheritance is instead charged at a flat 10% above a threshold, which isn't modelled. Know the limits: the Vietnam income pack is a low-confidence draft — dependant deductions and compulsory social-insurance contributions aren't modelled, and a pending reform may consolidate the seven bands into five.
Income tax (2026)medium confidence
Tax-free allowance: ₫186,000,000 (then bands apply to income above it).
| Band (above allowance) | Rate |
|---|---|
| ₫0 – ₫120,000,000 | 5% |
| ₫120,000,000 – ₫360,000,000 | 10% |
| ₫360,000,000 – ₫720,000,000 | 20% |
| ₫720,000,000 – ₫1,200,000,000 | 30% |
| above ₫1,200,000,000 | 35% |
What this model doesn’t capture (10)
- dependant deduction (VND 6.2m/month = VND 74.4m/year per registered dependant, raised from VND 4.4m/month) NOT modelled — only the personal deduction is encoded as the allowance; a taxpayer with dependants is over-taxed by this pack
- 5-band reform now IN FORCE: Law 109/2025/QH15 replaced the old 7-band scale with the current 5-band scale (5/10/20/30/35% at annualised 120/360/720/1,200m VND) effective 1 Jul 2026 — wired 2026-07-15 (Opus-verified correction)
- compulsory social/health/unemployment insurance employee contributions (deductible before PIT) not modelled
- flat schedular rates NOW modelled for dividends (5% of gross via dividendTax) and portfolio-drawdown securities transfers (0.1% of gross proceeds via schedularInvestment); still NOT modelled: real-estate transfer 2% of gross proceeds (property sales ride the CGT/sale path, which encodes VN securities 0.1% on GAIN — an understatement for RE), inheritance 10% over threshold, and the 50% PIT reduction on securities/REIT fund dividends (ordinary company dividends stay 5%)
- interest income has NO engine category: individual bank/credit-institution deposit interest is PIT-EXEMPT (would need no charge) while non-bank interest is 5% flat — a retiree's interest currently rides whatever category it is entered under; enter bank interest as non-taxable, not as dividend
- personal deduction is treated as a flat allowance rather than as the statutory monthly deduction (VND 15.5m/month, raised from VND 11m/month by Law 109/2025/QH15) — annual figure assumes 12 full months of residence/eligibility
- no indexation modelled; deduction amounts are fixed nominal figures that the National Assembly periodically resets
- VND currency registry entry (exponent 0, symbol dong) must be added to the currency registry before this pack ships — flagged as a gap in the dossier
- pension income exemption NOT modelled — Vietnamese Social Insurance Fund pensions, monthly voluntary/supplementary pension payments, AND pensions paid by a FOREIGN entity to a VN tax resident are all PIT-EXEMPT (exempt-income list carried into Law 109/2025/QH15). This pack routes pension drawdown through the progressive 5–35% schedule, so a VN-resident retiree drawing a Vietnamese OR foreign (e.g. UK) pension is over-taxed — real VN PIT on that pension income is zero. Do not rely on VN projections for a pension-drawdown retiree until the exemption is modelled (triage 2026-07-22)
- selfEmployment: no regime module — self-employed social contributions / business-income surcharges for this jurisdiction are not modelled
Capital gainsmedium confidence
Capital gains are taxed at a flat 0.1%.
Securities taxed 0.1% of SALE PROCEEDS (not gain) — retained by the new PIT Law 109/2025/QH15 (eff. 1 Jul 2026). Encoded as rate-on-gain, which understates the true proceeds-based tax, though it is negligible either way. Real estate 2% of proceeds; LLC capital transfers 20% on gain — not modelled.
Inheritance & estate taxmedium confidence
Tax is charged on each recipient, scaled by their relationship to the deceased.
Not a standalone inheritance tax: inheritances/gifts above VND 20,000,000 per occurrence are a PIT income category taxed on the RECIPIENT at a flat 10% (Law 109/2025/QH15, threshold effective 1 Jul 2026). The tax is asset-class-keyed in law, not relationship-keyed — all four relationship classes are encoded identically, and the real-estate-to-close-family 0% exemption is a gap, not a class rule.
Cost of living
38%
of a UK baseline (100%) — a rough, illustrative comparison, not a forecast.
UK private pension
Under the UK treaty, a UK-sourced private pension paid to a resident here is generally taxed only where you live (not by the UK).
Common questions
How are capital gains taxed in Vietnam?
Securities sales are taxed at a flat 0.1% of the sale proceeds — not of the gain — with no annual exemption, a mechanism retained by the new PIT Law 109/2025/QH15, effective 1 July 2026. Ember encodes this as 0.1% of the gain, which slightly understates the proceeds-based charge, though at this rate the difference is negligible. Real-estate transfers (2% of proceeds) and LLC capital transfers (20% on gain) are not modelled, and confidence in this data is low.
What income tax would I pay as a resident of Vietnam?
Employment and business income is taxed on a seven-band progressive scale from 5% to 35%, with the top rate applying above VND 960 million a year, after a personal deduction of VND 132 million. Dividends and interest sit outside this scale at a flat 5% (not yet modelled by Ember), and securities transfers at 0.1% of proceeds. Treat the modelling as a low-confidence draft: dependant deductions (VND 52.8 million a year each) and compulsory social-insurance contributions aren't included, so taxpayers with dependants will be over-taxed by the model, and a pending reform may consolidate the schedule to five bands.
Is Vietnam cheaper to live in than the UK?
Our cost-of-living factor puts Vietnam at 0.38 relative to the UK's 1.0 — roughly 38% of UK costs — which can materially shrink the pot a FIRE plan needs. Treat the 0.38 as an illustrative, low-confidence modelling input rather than a budget.
What does Vietnam do to your FIRE date?
The free calculator compares your number across every covered country; the full planner models your actual accounts, pensions, residency moves and these exact tax rules — with the maths behind every figure shown.