Rental Income Tax in Vietnam for Foreign Landlords (2026)

If you own — or are about to buy — an apartment in Vietnam and plan to rent it out, the rent you collect is taxable here, even though you live abroad and the money may never touch a Vietnamese bank account you control day to day. The good news is that the regime for individual landlords is simple and the rates are low; the catch is that the rules are changing in 2026, the thresholds moved, and you have to register and declare correctly to keep your money flowing out of the country.

This guide explains how a foreign individual is taxed on Vietnamese rental income in 2026 — the VAT and personal income tax (PIT) that apply, the new tax-free thresholds, how to get a tax code, who actually files, how it differs if the property sits inside a company, and why your home country usually wants to hear about the income too. It is general information, current to mid-2026 and based on public sources while guiding circulars are still being issued — not legal or tax advice. Confirm your own position with a licensed Vietnamese tax adviser.

The two taxes on individual rental income: VAT + PIT

When a private individual (Vietnamese or foreign) leases out residential property, Vietnam does not tax the profit. It applies two flat, presumptive taxes to the gross rent:

• Value-added tax (VAT) at 5%, and
• Personal income tax (PIT) at 5%.

That is a combined headline rate of roughly 10% of gross rent. There is no deduction for expenses, management fees, mortgage interest, repairs, furniture, or depreciation — the rate is applied to the rent itself, which is what makes the individual regime so administratively light. This presumptive 5% + 5% treatment is specific to property leasing (along with a few other service categories); it is not the progressive PIT scale that applies to salaries.

For most foreign owners of one or two apartments, this is the regime you will be in. If you want the operational side of being a landlord — leases, furnishing, finding tenants, handling deposits — see our companion guide on renting out your apartment in Vietnam.

The 2026 thresholds: when rent becomes taxable

Here is where 2026 matters. Vietnam taxes individual leasing income only once annual gross rent crosses a tax-free threshold — and that threshold is moving sharply upward this year.

Period	Annual tax-free threshold	What it means
Up to 31 Dec 2025	VND 100 million	Rent below ~VND 100m/year was outside VAT/PIT
From 1 Jan 2026	VND 200 million	Threshold doubled under the new framework
From 1 Jul 2026	VND 500 million	Amended PIT Law lifts it to ~US$19,000/year

In practice this is a generous lift. From the second half of 2026, a foreign owner whose apartment earns under roughly VND 500 million a year (about VND 41–42 million / ~US$1,600 a month) should fall below the threshold and owe no VAT or PIT on the rent at all.

A few honest caveats. Public sources are not fully consistent on the timeline — some describe a single jump straight to VND 500 million in 2026, others (and the legislative record) describe the VND 200 million intermediate step from 1 January with the VND 500 million figure tied to the amended PIT Law from 1 July 2026. Detailed implementing circulars were still being issued at the time of writing, and exact figures and effective dates can shift. Treat the numbers above as indicative and confirm the live threshold before you rely on it.

How the tax is calculated (with a worked example)

PIT on the portion of rent above the threshold is straightforward:

PIT payable = (Annual gross rent − threshold) × 5%

The treatment of VAT is the point where public commentary diverges, and you should be aware of it. Some older guidance applied VAT to the entire gross rent once the threshold was crossed, while the most concrete 2026 worked examples in the Vietnamese press apply both the 5% PIT and the 5% VAT only to the amount above the threshold. Until the implementing circular settles it definitively, treat the example below as the widely-cited illustration and have your adviser confirm the VAT base for your specific lease.

Worked example — a foreign owner of a Ho Chi Minh City apartment renting for VND 50 million/month = VND 600 million/year, against a VND 500 million threshold (post-1 July 2026):

Item	Calculation	Amount (VND)
Annual gross rent	50m × 12	600,000,000
Tax-free threshold	—	500,000,000
Taxable base (excess)	600m − 500m	100,000,000
VAT	100m × 5%	5,000,000
PIT	100m × 5%	5,000,000
Total annual tax	100m × 10%	10,000,000
Effective rate on total rent	10m / 600m	~1.7%

So a landlord earning VND 600 million a year pays around VND 10 million — roughly 1.7% of total rent, because only the slice above the threshold is taxed. If the same apartment earned exactly VND 500 million or less, the tax would be zero. This is why rental tax rarely changes the underlying investment maths; for how the gross yield itself stacks up, see rental yield in Ho Chi Minh City.

The business-license fee is gone from 2026

There is a second piece of good news. Historically, individuals running a leasing “business” could be liable for an annual business-license fee (lệ phí môn bài) on top of VAT and PIT. Under Resolution No. 198/2025/QH15, this license fee is abolished from 1 January 2026 for household and individual businesses — including those leasing property.

For a foreign landlord that removes a small annual charge and one more filing obligation. Combined with the higher thresholds, the direction of travel in 2026 is clearly toward less tax friction for small-scale individual landlords, not more.

Getting a tax code and registering

You cannot pay rental tax — or, in practice, remit the rent abroad — without a Vietnamese tax code. A foreign individual earning rental income must register at the district tax office where the property is located. Key points:

• The rental tax code is separate from any tax code tied to employment income in Vietnam.
• You can register in person, or through an authorized representative using a notarized power of attorney (POA) — this is the normal route for owners who live abroad.
• Banks generally require proof of tax payment before they will process an overseas transfer of rental income, so registration is not optional if you ever want the money out of Vietnam.

The mechanics of getting documents notarized and legalized from overseas, and running the property remotely, are covered in our guide on managing your Vietnam property from abroad.

Who declares and when

You have two realistic models as a foreign owner:

1. Declare yourself. You (or your POA holder) register the rental, file the declaration, and pay the tax directly to the tax authority.
2. Have your management company or a tax agent do it. Under a notarized POA, a property-management company, the agent collecting your rent, or a licensed tax-service firm can handle registration, periodic declarations, and payment on your behalf. Organizations can also declare on behalf of multiple individual landlords on a consolidated form.

Filing frequency depends on how the lease pays. Declarations are commonly made per payment under the lease, or on a half-yearly / annual basis, with deadlines often cited around 31 January (annual) and 31 July (mid-year). Whichever model you choose, the legal responsibility for a correct declaration stays with you as the owner — so pick a reputable agent and keep copies of every filing and receipt. A POA delegates the work, not the liability.

How it differs if a company holds the property

Some investors hold Vietnamese real estate through a company rather than in their personal name. The tax picture changes completely:

Feature	Individual landlord	Company-held property
Income tax	5% PIT on gross rent above threshold	~20% corporate income tax on net profit
VAT	5% (presumptive, on leasing)	Standard-rate VAT (commonly 10%) on lease invoices
Tax-free threshold	Yes (VND 200m → 500m in 2026)	No threshold — corporate rules from the first dong
Expense deductions	None — flat on gross rent	Yes — deduct costs, depreciation, interest (net basis)
Compliance burden	Light (register + periodic filing)	Heavy — bookkeeping, audited accounts, CIT/VAT returns
Business-license fee	Abolished from 2026	Standard corporate fees apply

For the typical foreign buyer of a single apartment, the individual regime is simpler and usually cheaper at small scale: a flat ~10% on the excess over a high threshold, no accounts to audit. The company route can deduct real costs and can suit a larger portfolio, commercial leasing, or an investor already operating a Vietnamese entity — but it brings corporate income tax (around 20%), full accounting and audit obligations, and standard-rate VAT. Note that recent corporate guidance (Circular 20, effective 12 March 2026) tightened how VAT interacts with CIT-taxable revenue, another reason the corporate path needs professional handling. Which structure is right is a decision for a Vietnamese lawyer and tax adviser before you buy — not something to retrofit later.

The home-country angle: worldwide income and tax treaties

Paying tax in Vietnam is usually only half the story. If you are tax-resident in a country that taxes worldwide income — the UK, Australia, Canada, the US, most of Europe, and many others — your Vietnamese rent is generally reportable at home too, on top of your Vietnamese filing.

This is where double-tax treaties matter. Vietnam has roughly 80 double-tax agreements (DTAs). Most follow the international standard that income from immovable property is taxable in the country where the property is located (typically Article 6 of the treaty) — so Vietnam gets the first right to tax the rent. Your home country then usually relieves the double tax in one of two ways:

• a foreign tax credit for the Vietnamese VAT/PIT you actually paid, offset against your home-country liability on the same income; or
• an exemption of the foreign-sourced rent, depending on the specific treaty and your residence rules.

Two practical points. First, treaty relief generally covers income tax, and is limited to tax actually paid in Vietnam — which is another reason to keep clean records and receipts. Second, the home-country mechanics differ enormously between countries (and US citizens are taxed on worldwide income regardless of residence). Do not assume your Vietnamese tax is the end of it — confirm the reporting and credit position with a tax adviser in your country of residence.

How rental tax fits the total cost of ownership

Rental income tax is one line in a bigger picture. When you buy, there are registration fees, VAT on the purchase, and other one-off costs; while you hold, there are management and sinking-fund charges as well as this rental tax; and the rent itself drives your yield. To see the buying-side costs in full, read taxes and costs when buying property in Vietnam, and pair it with the rental yield in Ho Chi Minh City guide so you are modelling net returns, not just gross rent.

For most foreign owners of a single apartment, the headline is reassuring: with the 2026 thresholds, a sizeable chunk of typical rent is tax-free, and only the excess is taxed at a flat ~10% — often an effective rate of just a couple of percent on total rent.

Key takeaways

• Individual foreign landlords pay 5% VAT + 5% PIT (~10% combined) on rent above an annual threshold — no expense deductions.
• The tax-free threshold rose in steps to VND 500 million per year in 2026 (amended PIT Law; via a VND 200 million intermediate step from 1 January); figures are indicative while circulars are finalised.
• The business-license fee is abolished from 2026 (Resolution 198/2025/QH15).
• You need a Vietnamese tax code; a management company or tax agent can declare and pay under a notarized POA, but the liability stays with you.
• A company-held property is taxed under the corporate regime (~20% CIT + standard VAT) — usually only worth it at portfolio scale.
• Your home country likely taxes the income too; DTAs and foreign tax credits prevent double taxation, but the mechanics vary by country.

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This article is general information only, current to mid-2026, and is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Vietnamese tax rules — including the 2026 thresholds and implementing circulars — are still settling and can change; rates and figures are indicative. Before acting, consult a licensed Vietnamese lawyer and tax adviser, and a tax adviser in your country of residence.

Thinking about buying a Vietnamese apartment to rent out, and want the tax and yield numbers run on a specific unit? Message Happy Land on Zalo or WhatsApp — we sell at the developer’s price with live inventory and can walk you through the post-purchase rental and tax picture before you commit. Browse our project listings to start.