PIT finalization for tax year 2025: what employers must prepare
Deadlines under the Law on Tax Administration, the documents to reconcile, the mistakes that trigger penalties — and the new family deductions that apply from the 2026 tax year.
Every finalization season, personal income tax (PIT) places a real administrative burden on employers: collecting authorizations, reconciling income data and filing on time. Getting it wrong is expensive — in penalties, and in employee trust. This guide covers the deadlines, the dossier, the common mistakes, and the deduction change that takes effect from the 2026 tax year.
Who must finalize
Employers finalize PIT on behalf of employees who authorize them and who earned employment income from a single source during the year. Employees with income from multiple sources, or who finalize to claim a refund, file directly with the tax authority.
Deadlines under the Law on Tax Administration 38/2019
- Employer-filed finalization: no later than the last day of the third month after the calendar year ends — for tax year 2025, that was 31 March 2026.
- Individuals filing directly: no later than the last day of the fourth month after year-end; if the deadline falls on a public holiday, it moves to the next working day.
- Collect authorization letters and outstanding dependent registrations early in the first quarter — they are the most common bottleneck.
Family deductions: new levels from the 2026 tax year
For tax year 2025 the deduction remains 11 million VND/month for the taxpayer and 4.4 million VND/month per dependent. Under Resolution 110/2025/UBTVQH15 (17 October 2025), the levels rise to 15.5 million and 6.2 million VND/month from the 2026 tax year — payroll teams should have updated monthly withholding from January 2026, and must be careful not to apply the new levels retroactively to the 2025 finalization.
Documents to gather
Income and withholding records, dependent registrations, compulsory insurance contributions and evidence for other deductions. Reconcile all of them against your payroll system before filing — mismatches between the declaration and payroll data are the single most common source of tax-authority queries.
Common mistakes
- Registering dependents late, or missing the supporting documents for the deduction.
- Finalizing on behalf of employees who had income from more than one source during the year.
- Insurance figures that do not match the social-insurance agency's records.
- Applying the wrong deduction level when rules change between tax years.
If you would rather not manage this in-house, our payroll team handles PIT finalization end-to-end for both Vietnamese and foreign staff — from authorization letters to filing and explanation letters.
Book a free 30-minute consultation with a Clarity specialist.
Articles are prepared by Clarity Consulting's tax, accounting and corporate-advisory team, based on current Vietnamese regulations at the time of writing.