Foreign NGO workers enjoy tax breaks
The Ministry of Finance has issued a circular guiding foreign people working on aid projects and programmes for foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Vietnam to file dossiers on personal income tax exemption.
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Under Circular No. 96/2016/TT-BTC, tax agencies will confirm personal income tax exemption for eligible people, or reply to ineligible dossiers within 15 days from when they receive the documents.
The circular will come into force on August 15.
The exemptions, approved by the Prime Minister, took effect on May 1.
Eligible non-native people are those who directly engage in foreign NGO aid programmes and projects approved by Vietnam’s authorised agencies.
They must hold foreign passports and have contracts with the NGOs, the projects’ managerial agencies, or the providers of the NGO aid. Their contracts with foreign NGOs must be enclosed with confirmation of the NGOs’ aid providers.
Tax-exempt income is that which comes from directly implementing foreign NGO aid programmes and projects.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese citizens entitled to the exemption must be employed by Vietnam-based representative agencies of international organisations under the UN system.
The tax-exempt incomes are salaries and wages paid by the representative agencies.
However, part-time employees do not qualify for the personal income tax exemption.
