Official pension increases from July 1st, are people receiving high pensions subject to personal income tax?

Reader Luong Thi Nha in Gia Binh commune, Bac Ninh reflected that, according to Decree 162/2026/ND-CP of the Government, from July 1, 2026, pensions and social insurance allowances will increase by 8%. Accordingly, from July 1, her pension will be more than 16 million VND/month.

Ms. Nha expressed that she does not know whether with this income level, Ms. Nha has to pay personal income tax or not?

Lawyer Nguyen Thu Trang, Deputy Director of Heva Law Company Limited, said: Article 4 of the Personal Income Tax Law also takes effect from July 1, 2026, stipulating tax-exempt income as follows:

Income from transfer, inheritance, gifts of real estate between husband and wife; biological father, biological mother with biological child; adoptive father, adoptive mother with adopted child; father-in-law, mother-in-law with daughter-in-law; father-in-law, mother-in-law with son-in-law; paternal grandfather, paternal grandmother with grandson; maternal grandfather, maternal grandmother with maternal grandchild; siblings with each other.

Income from the transfer of houses, residential land use rights and assets attached to residential land of individuals in cases where individuals only have one house or residential land in Vietnam.

Income from the value of land use rights of individuals allocated land by the State.

Income of households and individuals directly producing crops, planted forests, livestock, aquaculture, and fishing products that have not been processed into other products or only through ordinary preliminary processing; salt production; income from share dividends of cooperative members, agricultural cooperative unions, and individuals who are farmers signing contracts with businesses participating in "large fields", planting production forests, and aquaculture.

Income from the conversion of agricultural land of households and individuals allocated by the State for production.

Income from government bond interest, local government bond interest, deposit interest at credit institutions, interest from life insurance contracts.

Income from remittances.

Night work salary, overtime, salary, wages paid for days without leave according to the provisions of law.

Pensions paid by the Social Insurance Fund; income paid by supplementary pension insurance funds and voluntary pension funds.

Income from scholarships, including:

Scholarships received from the state budget;

Scholarships received from domestic and foreign organizations under the organization's scholarship support program.

Income from compensation for life insurance contracts, non-life insurance contracts, labor accident compensation, state compensation and other compensation according to the provisions of law.

Income received from charitable organizations and funds authorized or recognized by competent state agencies, operating for charitable, humanitarian purposes, not for profit.

Income received from foreign aid for charitable and humanitarian purposes in the form of government and non-governmental organizations approved by competent state agencies.

Income from salaries and wages of Vietnamese crew members working for foreign shipping lines or Vietnamese international shipping lines.

Income of individuals who are ship owners, individuals with the right to use ships and individuals working on ships from activities providing goods and services directly serving offshore fishing and fishing activities.

Income from the first transfer of greenhouse gas emission reduction results of individuals recognized as greenhouse gas emission reduction results, carbon credits of individuals granted carbon credits; income from green bond interest; income from the first transfer of green bonds after issuance.

Income from salaries and wages from performing scientific, technological and innovation tasks.

Income from copyright of science, technology and innovation tasks when the task results are commercialized according to the provisions of the law on science, technology and innovation, and the law on intellectual property.

Income of individual investors, experts from creative startup projects, founders for creative startups, individual investors contributing capital to venture capital funds.

Income from salaries and wages of foreign experts working at programs and projects funded by non-refundable ODA capital, foreign non-governmental programs and projects in Vietnam; individuals who are Vietnamese working at representative offices of international organizations under the United Nations System in Vietnam; individuals participating in United Nations peacekeeping forces.

Income after corporate income tax payment of individuals who are owners of private enterprises, individuals who are owners of one-member limited liability companies.

Thus, according to regulations from July 1, pensions are still one of the types of income not subject to personal income tax. Therefore, no matter how much people receive pensions, they are not taxed.

Read the original here