Personal income tax Vietnam: Automatic refund from 2025

The General Department of Taxation’s decree of 24 January 2025 on the automatic personal income tax (PIT) refund procedure makes it easier for taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations. The new procedure came into effect upon signature. The Ecovis experts explain how the process works.

The introduction of the automatic PIT tax refund (Decision No. 108/QD-TCT) is one of the new applications and methods the tax authority is using to accelerate processes on the IT platform and improve conditions for taxpayers to proactively fulfil their tax obligations. The procedure applies to tax authorities at all levels nationwide.

The automatic PIT refund process sets out the sequence and procedures for tax authorities to deal with PIT refund applications for individuals who directly finalise their taxes and request refunds on their PIT declarations.

There are three main steps:

Step 1: Create the suggested PIT finalisation form

The tax IT application system automatically collates data and creates a suggested PIT finalisation return for taxpayers who are individuals directly declaring PIT. The data is collected from multiple sources including income-paying organisations and individuals, tax registration and dependent registration data, as well as data on tax obligations or taxpayer debts nationwide. Individual taxpayers must check the information on the eTax mobile application, where they can confirm or edit it before submitting the PIT finalisation file.

We would be happy to explain the individual steps of the new income tax procedure to you in detail.

Nghia Tran, Partner, ECOVIS AFA VIETNAM, Da Nang City, Vietnam

Step 2: Automatically resolve the PIT refund

1. The PIT refund subsystem automatically checks and determines whether the files are eligible for automatic processing.
2. If the taxpayer’s PIT refund file meets all the required conditions, the PIT refund subsystem will automatically create a tax refund proposal, prepare a tax refund decision (or a decision to refund and offset PIT) and an order to refund (or an order to refund and offset PIT) to send to the head of the tax authority for electronic signature.
3. If the taxpayer’s PIT refund file does not meet all of the conditions, the tax IT application system will automatically assign and send an email to the department leader and tax officer assigned to handle the PIT refund file instructing them to continue to process the file.

Step 3: Post-refund control

On a quarterly basis, the tax IT application system will automatically analyse data to warn and provide a list to the tax authority about organisations and individuals paying income and deducting PIT, along with additional declarations that may change the tax liability information of individuals who have received PIT refunds. This provides the file processing department with a basis to deal with post-refund control and recover tax refunds (if any).

The automated PIT refund process replaces the previous regulations on processing the PIT refund applications of individuals who directly finalise their tax declarations.

For further information please contact:

Nghia Tran, Partner, ECOVIS AFA VIETNAM, Da Nang City, Vietnam
Email: Nghia.Tran@ecovis.com.vn