Why Vietnam Matters

Vietnam matters to FTR as a source of clients, not as a place to send them. The number of Vietnamese with investable wealth above USD 1 million has grown faster over the last decade than almost anywhere in Asia, on property, manufacturing relocation from China and a young, fast-growing economy. That wealth is largely in dong, Vietnamese property and Vietnamese company shares, and the law makes it hard to move: the dong is not convertible offshore, resident individuals cannot buy foreign securities or property through the banking system, and outbound transfers are permitted only for listed purposes. Demand for compliant, documented cross-border planning is intense, and the supply of shortcuts larger still.

It matters second because of the diaspora. Around five million overseas Vietnamese live in the USA (California and Texas), Australia (Melbourne and Sydney), Canada and France, sending home some USD 16–19 billion a year. The 2025 amendment to the Nationality Law made it materially easier for them to hold or regain Vietnamese citizenship alongside a foreign one, reopening property, inheritance and business questions for a generation that had assumed those doors were shut.

Third, it is a working destination. Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang host large professional expat communities on employer-sponsored residence cards, taxed on worldwide income at up to 35% with no territorial election of the Indonesian kind. Nobody comes to Vietnam for the tax.

Visa and Residency Routes

E-visa. Since August 2023 all nationalities can obtain a 90-day multiple-entry e-visa online, and a couple of dozen countries get 45 days visa-free. It permits no work or residence, and many long-stayers cycle on it.

Investor temporary residence card (DT1–DT4). Tied to registered capital in a Vietnamese enterprise: DT1 for VND 100 billion and above, ten years; DT2 for VND 50–100 billion, five years; DT3 for VND 3–50 billion, three years; DT4 below VND 3 billion, one year and in practice a visa. The DT3 tier, from about USD 116,000 of genuine capital in an operating company, is the realistic route for a foreign business owner.

Work permit and LD residence card. Two years, employer-sponsored, renewable; the route almost every professional expat is on. TT card for spouses and children of card holders or of citizens, three years. Five-year visa exemption certificate for overseas Vietnamese and their families, with 180-day stays, which is how most of the diaspora spends time in the country.

Permanent residence is available in principle after three years on temporary cards with a Vietnamese sponsor, stable income and language ability, and granted mainly to spouses and parents of citizens. Citizenship by naturalisation requires renunciation except in the cases the July 2025 amendment widened, chiefly overseas Vietnamese, their descendants and people of particular merit; foreigners without Vietnamese ancestry should not plan on it.

What does not exist. No retirement visa, no digital nomad visa, no property-linked residence; proposals for a long-term investor or talent visa have circulated since 2025 and nothing usable had been enacted at the time of writing. Foreigners may buy apartments on 50-year renewable leasehold, capped at 30% of a building and 250 houses per ward, but ownership grants no residence right. FTR's use of the routes is limited to the employer or a client's own operating company for foreigners, and the visa exemption certificate for returning diaspora; Vietnam is not somewhere FTR relocates clients for structuring reasons.

Tax Peculiarities and Traps

Residency by lease. Beyond the 183-day test, a foreigner who leases a dwelling in Vietnam for 183 days or more in the tax year is resident whether or not present, and a registered permanent residence does the same. Corporate secondees on housing leases are routinely caught, with a Vietnamese return covering their home-country investment income.

Securities versus capital assignment. Sales of shares in joint-stock companies and listed securities by individuals bear 0.1% of gross proceeds with no gain computation; assignment of a capital interest in a limited liability company is a different transaction, taxed on the net gain at 20% for residents (0.1% of proceeds for non-residents). Converting an LLC to a joint-stock company before a sale changes the tax, and the tax office knows it. The amended PIT Law effective from July 2026 revisits the securities rule, so a resident selling after that date re-checks the position at the time of sale.

Inheritance and gifts. No estate tax, but a receipt of securities, capital, real estate or a registrable asset from anyone outside the exempt family circle is other income taxed at 10% above VND 10 million; cash and unregistered movables are outside the rule.

Capital controls. Resident individuals may not invest abroad except through a licensed outbound investment project under the Investment Law, which in practice means companies, not people. Permitted personal transfers cover education, medical treatment, family support, inheritance, emigration and similar listed purposes, each documented; foreigners repatriate salary and investment returns after tax with the bank's paperwork. There is no legal channel for a resident individual to fund a foreign holding company from onshore wealth, and the informal channels are criminal on both sides.

Foreign contractor tax. A foreign company selling into Vietnam without an entity bears typically 5% VAT and 5% corporate tax on gross, deducted by the Vietnamese customer. Finalisation. Residents finalise annually by the end of April, a departing foreigner finalises before leaving, and foreign-source income is self-declared; the absence of live CRS data has not stopped the tax authority pursuing e-commerce and platform income. No US treaty. The 2015 Vietnam–USA treaty was never ratified in Washington; US persons in Vietnam rely on foreign tax credits.

The Structural Layer

Vietnam has no controlled foreign company rules, so a Vietnamese tax resident who owns a Panamanian SA through a Panamanian Private Interest Foundation is not taxed on its retained profits; dividends when paid are investment income at 5%, and a director's salary is employment income at the progressive rates. On paper FTR's default works better here than in Indonesia or Australia. The binding constraint is funding: a resident cannot lawfully move onshore capital into the structure.

The default therefore fits three profiles. Overseas Vietnamese whose wealth is already abroad and who are reacquiring citizenship or returning: the foundation holds the foreign assets, the SA carries any foreign business, Vietnamese assets stay onshore. Vietnamese families with assets legitimately outside the country, from foreign employment or business, documented education or emigration transfers, or an earlier generation's departure: the structure organises succession across a family whose children are in Sydney or California. And foreign professionals resident in Vietnam, who declare the salary and the 5% on dividends and get a clean position.

Where it needs adapting: the operating company stays Vietnamese, because foreign contractor tax, licensing and the capital account make an offshore operating entity impractical for a business with Vietnamese customers. Succession inside Vietnam follows the 2015 Civil Code, which reserves two-thirds of an intestate share to minor children, parents and spouse regardless of the will, and the foundation is drafted around it. Where it plainly does not fit: any plan that begins with onshore dong leaving the country. FTR does not structure around capital controls, and a client who has already done so informally has a compliance problem before a structuring one.

Info-Sharing Reality (CRS and FATCA)

Vietnam agreed a FATCA Model 1 arrangement in 2016, so Vietnamese banks have reported US persons' accounts through the tax authority for years; Vietnamese-Americans with accounts at home are visible. On the CRS, Vietnam joined the Global Forum in 2019 and has committed to the standard, but automatic exchange has lagged, and the honest position in 2026 is that the pipeline is being built rather than flowing. That cuts both ways: a Vietnamese family's Singapore or Australian accounts reach Hanoi only once the exchange relationship activates, and the first exchange then covers the previous year's balances; a foreign resident's Vietnamese accounts are likewise not yet arriving in Canberra or Ottawa automatically, which is not the same as being private, because banks collect tax-residency self-certifications now on the assumption that reporting follows.

Vietnam has been on the FATF grey list since June 2023, so correspondent banks apply enhanced scrutiny to Vietnamese transfers and domestic banks have tightened source-of-funds questions. Nobody should describe Vietnam as discreet; the state's visibility over its citizens' finances is high, the controls are on money leaving, and the international reporting gap is closing. The Chinese Plan-B lens does not apply: Vietnam is where Chinese manufacturers relocate factories, not where Chinese families relocate themselves.

Banking Reality

Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank and Agribank are the state-linked majors; Techcombank, VPBank, MB and ACB the private leaders; HSBC, Standard Chartered, UOB, Shinhan and Woori serve foreigners and corporates. A full personal account needs a visa or residence card of 12 months or more and opens in person in a week or two; short-stay visitors get limited payment accounts at some banks. Dong and foreign-currency accounts are available, with the foreign-currency account the only lawful route out, each transfer documented to a permitted purpose. Cash above USD 5,000 or VND 15 million is declared at the border. Priority banking starts at VND 1 billion at HSBC and VND 2–5 billion at the domestic banks; Vietnamese HNW families bank the serious money with DBS, UOB and Bank of Singapore. Grey-list status has not cut SWIFT access, but USD wires attract more questions and occasional delays; Vietnam is on no blacklist.

Cost of Doing Business

A foreign-invested limited liability company needs an Investment Registration Certificate and an Enterprise Registration Certificate, takes one to three months and costs USD 3,000–8,000; capital is contributed within 90 days and conditional sectors carry extra licensing. Annual maintenance runs USD 3,000–7,000 for tax filings, a statutory audit, labour registration and the annual investment report. A representative office is cheaper and cannot trade.

Against the set: a Panamanian SA costs USD 1,500–2,500 to establish and USD 1,000–1,800 a year; Singapore about three times the Panamanian setup at USD 4,500–7,500 with USD 4,000–8,000 annual compliance. Vietnam sits between them on fees, with time and capital-account paperwork the real expense. The Vietnamese entity is for Vietnamese operations; the holding layer sits in Singapore or Panama.

Cost of Living

Figures for Ho Chi Minh City (Thao Dien, District 1 and 2) and Hanoi (Tay Ho); Da Nang runs 25–35% lower.

Lean, single or couple: USD 1,200–2,000 a month: one-bedroom apartment USD 500–900, Grab and a motorbike, groceries and street food USD 300–400, international health cover USD 100–200.

Comfortable, family of four: USD 3,500–6,000: three-bedroom apartment or compound house USD 1,500–2,800, one child at a mid-tier international school (USD 12,000–20,000 a year), family health cover with evacuation to Bangkok or Singapore USD 300–500, car with driver USD 700–1,000; ISHCMC, BIS or UNIS Hanoi at USD 25,000–35,000 a year per child pushes the figure past USD 7,000.

HNW: USD 8,000–15,000 and up: a villa in Thao Dien or a Tay Ho lakeside house, two children at ISHCMC or BIS, staff, and a standing arrangement with FV Hospital, Vinmec or a Singapore hospital.

Cultural and Practical Considerations

The state. Vietnam is a one-party state. Criticism of the government is prosecuted, foreigners are expected to stay out of politics, and the internet is monitored; day to day the state is invisible to a foreigner who keeps to business, and a client who cannot resist commenting on politics should live elsewhere. Anti-corruption campaigns since 2016 have reached the top of the Party and the largest private conglomerates, and the July 2025 merger of 63 provinces into 34 changed addresses, offices and responsible officials for every registration in the country.

Language. Vietnamese is tonal and hard for Europeans; English works in expat districts, hotels and international firms and nowhere official. Banks, the tax office, notaries and courts operate in Vietnamese with sworn translations, so a foreigner runs their affairs through a bilingual accountant or lawyer.

Integration. Vietnamese people are warm, curious and hospitable, and the society is closed to outsiders in the ways that matter: family, business networks and trust. Expat life in Thao Dien and Tay Ho is complete and self-contained, and few foreigners move beyond it even after ten years. Returning overseas Vietnamese find the reverse problem: expected to be insiders and treated as neither.

Women and LGBT residents. No legal constraints on women; Vietnam is one of Asia's safest countries for a woman living alone, and women run a large share of businesses. Same-sex relations are legal, same-sex marriage has been neither recognised nor prohibited since 2014, urban attitudes are relaxed and there is no legal risk, but no recognition or partner immigration route either.

Noise, pace, chaos. Constant: horns, construction, karaoke and forty million motorbikes; traffic is dangerous and the road death rate high. Hanoi's winter air pollution is among the worst measured in any capital, Ho Chi Minh City is hot and humid all year, and dengue is endemic. Someone who needs quiet and clean air will not last in either city.

Bureaucracy. Paper-heavy, red-stamp, notarised and slow, with timelines that slip and requirements that change between visits; it works, eventually, through a good local firm. Facilitation payments are common and FTR clients do not make them.

Schooling, security, volatility. ISHCMC, BIS and the Australian and European international schools in Ho Chi Minh City and UNIS in Hanoi are strong. Violent crime against foreigners is rare; bag-snatching from motorbikes is not. Political volatility for a foreign resident is low and regulatory volatility high.

For Retirees

There is no route and no tax case; retire in Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines and visit.

For Digital Nomads and Remote Professionals

The 90-day e-visa and a hotel address keep a nomad non-resident; a lease of 183 days makes them resident and taxable on worldwide income.

For Online Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Company offshore, no Vietnamese customers without foreign contractor tax, and a residence card only through an employer or a real Vietnamese entity.

For Multinational Business Owners

China-plus-one manufacturing, 10% incentive rates in high-technology zones, a Singapore holding company, and patience with licensing.

For High Net Worth (HNW) Families and Investors

The outbound side: Australia's investor stream closed in 2024 and its replacement targets talent, the US EB-5 and Canadian routes remain, Singapore and the UAE serve as wealth bases, and every plan starts with a lawful source of foreign funds and the documents to prove it; children's education is the most common lawful transfer channel and the usual starting point.

Common Traps

Moving dong out of Vietnam informally and structuring the proceeds. FTR will not do it, and a client who has done it carries the problem into every later step.

Retiring here. No visa, no tax case, no healthcare beyond the two big cities.

Assuming the securities tax is a rate on gains; it is 0.1% on proceeds, and an LLC interest is different.

Treating a housing lease as tax-neutral.

Relying on the Vietnam–USA treaty; it does not exist in force.

Anyone who needs quiet, clean air, punctual bureaucracy or the freedom to criticise the government.

Next Steps

If your family's wealth is in Vietnam and your children are in Sydney, California or Paris, or you are an overseas Vietnamese thinking about reacquiring citizenship or returning, book a scoping call. The work is in the lawful funding channel, the succession design and the timing against CRS activation; the structure itself is the easy part.

Important note: General information. Not personal tax, legal, or financial advice. Speak to a qualified adviser at FTR or elsewhere before acting.