Do documents proving dependents need to be notarized or authenticated in Vietnam?

1. What is the family circumstances deduction?

Currently, Vietnamese law does not have regulations on the term "family circumstance deduction", but it can be understood as follows:

Family circumstances deduction is the amount deducted from personal income before calculating tax on income from business, income from salary and wages of taxpayers who are resident individuals. Includes deductions for the taxpayers themselves and deductions for dependents.

2. Do documents proving dependents need to be notarized or authenticated in Vietnam?

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 1 of Circular 79/2022/TT-BTC on amendments to some legislative documents promulgated by Ministry of Finance of Vietnam as follows:

- Children:

+ For children under 18 years of age: photocopies of the Certificates of birth and ID cards or Citizen ID cards (if any).

+ For children from 18 years of age and over that are disabled and incapable of work:

++ Photocopies of the Certificates of birth and ID cards or Citizen ID cards (if any).

++ Photocopies of Certificates of disability according to regulations of law on the disabled.

+  For children in school mentioned in sub-point d.1.3 point d clause 1 of this Article:

++ Photocopies of the Certificates of Birth.

++ Photocopies of the student’s cards or declarations certified by the schools, or other papers proving the study at universities, colleges, high schools or vocational schools.

+  For adopted children, illegitimate children, stepchildren: apart from the aforesaid papers, other papers proving the relationship are required, such as photocopies of the decisions on certification of adoption and decisions on recognition of parent or child acknowledgement made by competent authorities.

- For spouse:

= A photocopy of the ID or Citizen ID card.

= A photocopy of the written confirmation of residence or notice of personal identification number and citizen information in national population database or another paper issued by the police authority (which proves the husband and wife relationship) or a photocopy of the Certificate of marriage.

If the spouse is of working age, other papers proving the dependant’s incapability of work are required, apart from the aforesaid papers, such as a photocopy of the Certificate of disability according to regulations of law on the disabled that are incapable of works, a photocopy of the medical record of the ill person incapable of work (suffering from AIDS, cancer, chronic kidney failure, etc.).

- For parents, parents-in-law, stepparents, legitimate adoptive parents:

= Photocopies of ID cards or Citizen ID cards.

= Legitimate papers proving the relationship between the dependants and the taxpayer such as a photocopy of the written confirmation of residence or notice of personal identification number and citizen information in national population database or another paper issued by the police authority, certificates of birth, decisions on recognition of parent or child acknowledgement made by competent authorities.

If the spouse is of working age, other papers proving the dependant’s incapability of work are required, apart from the aforesaid papers, such as a photocopy of the Certificate of disability according to regulations of law on the disabled that are incapable of works, a photocopy of the medical record of the ill person incapable of work (suffering from AIDS, cancer, chronic kidney failure, etc.).

- For other individuals mentioned in sub-point d.4 point d clause 1 of this Article, the proving documents include:

+ Photocopies of ID cards or Citizen ID cards or certificates of birth.

+ Other legitimate papers to determine the custody as prescribed by law.

If the dependants are of working age, other papers proving the dependant’s incapability of work is required, apart from the aforesaid papers, such as the Certificate of disability according to regulations of law on the disabled that are incapable of work, a photocopy of the medical record of the ill person incapable of work (sufferer from AIDS, cancer, chronic kidney failure, etc.)

The legitimate papers mentioned in sub-point g.4.2 point g clause 1 of this Article are any legal document that proves the relationship between the taxpayer and the dependant, such as:

+ Photocopies of the papers proving the custody prescribed by law (if any).

+ A photocopy of the written confirmation of residence or notice of personal identification number and citizen information in national population database or another paper issued by the police authority.

+ A declaration that the dependant is living with the taxpayer, which is made by the taxpayer using the form enclosed with the Circular No. 80/2021/TT-BTC on elaboration of some Articles of the Law on Tax Administration and the Government’s Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 on elaboration of some Articles of the Law on Tax Administration and certified by the People’s Committee of the commune where the taxpayer resides.

+ A declaration that the dependant is residing locally and living alone, which is made by the taxpayer using the form enclosed with the Circular No. 80/2021/TT-BTC on elaboration of some Articles of the Law on Tax Administration and the Government’s Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 on elaboration of some Articles of the Law on Tax Administration and certified by the People’s Committee of the commune where the taxpayer resides.

+ If the resident is a foreigner, equivalent legal documents proving the dependant are required.

+ Where the taxpayer working in economic organizations and public services agencies has specified his dependants being his parents, spouse, children, and other dependants in his or her résumé, the documents proving the dependants are the documents mentioned in sub-points g.1, g.2, g.3, g.4 and g.5 point g clause 1 of this Article or only the dependant registration form certified by the head of the unit on the left which is provided in the Circular No. 80/2021/TT-BTC on elaboration of some Articles of the Law on Tax Administration and the Government’s Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP dated October 19, 2020 on elaboration of some Articles of the Law on Tax Administration.

+ The head of the unit is only responsible for the names of dependants, their years of birth and relationship with the taxpayer. The taxpayer is responsible for other information.

Thus, according to the above provisions, the dossier of family deduction does not need to be notarized or certified, but only needs to be photocopies of documents. Currently, there has not yet been a regulation specifying how the photocopies should be made. However, it can be understood that a photocopy is a copy obtained from capturing originals of documents by devices with capture functions, such as phones or cameras, and can be printed as paper files.

In addition, the current deduction for taxpayers is 11 million VND/month (132 million VND/year) and the deduction for each dependent is 4.4 million VND/month (Resolution 954/2020/UBTVQH14).

Please Login to be able to download