Finance Ministry Circular No. 55/2007/TT-BTC of May 29 exempts from personal income tax income earned from the execution of programs or projects funded with foreign non-governmental aid in Vietnam by foreign experts who bear foreign nationalities and are selected to perform functions related to programs or projects funded with foreign non-governmental aid in Vietnam on the basis of agreements between foreign non-governmental organizations and Vietnamese agencies managing those programs or projects in program or project documents approved by those Vietnamese agencies in compliance with current regulations on management and use of non-governmental aid and terms of reference (ToR) to foreign experts.
Finance Ministry Circular No. 55/2007/TT-BTC of May 29 exempts from personal income tax income earned from the execution of programs or projects funded with foreign non-governmental aid in Vietnam by foreign experts who bear foreign nationalities and are selected to perform functions related to programs or projects funded with foreign non-governmental aid in Vietnam on the basis of agreements between foreign non-governmental organizations and Vietnamese agencies managing those programs or projects in program or project documents approved by those Vietnamese agencies in compliance with current regulations on management and use of non-governmental aid and terms of reference (ToR) to foreign experts.
Other foreigners, including foreign staff of representative offices or project offices or project consultants, are not exempt from personal income tax under this Circular.
An eligible foreign expert is required to present to the Tax Department of the province or city in which the project management unit or owner is headquartered the following documents:
- A written request of the non-governmental organization for non-collection of personal income tax on incomes from the foreign expert’s activities in executing a program or project;
- Certification by the management agency competent to approve a program or project funded with non-governmental aid that the foreign expert is executing that program or project, stating his/her full name, nationality, passport number and duration of work in Vietnam, made according to a set form; and,
- Documents related to tax-exempted income of the foreign expert.
Tax offices will then issue certificates of personal income tax exemption to foreign experts.
(Source: VietnamLaw)
