Investing Basics · Go deeper · Beginner
Connected to: What is total return?
Taxes on investing in Vietnamese securities: what beginners need to know
Selling securities: a 0.1% tax applies to the sale value of each sale, even when you sell at a loss.
Dividends: cash dividends are taxed at 5%, which is usually withheld before the money reaches your account.
Open-ended fund certificates: selling them is tax-exempt if you have held them for 2 years or more, under the law in force from 1 July 2026.
Taxes are not fees: tax rates are set by law, while trading fees are set by each securities company.
Updated October 2026, based on Vietnam's Personal Income Tax Law No. 109/2025/QH15, in force from 1 July 2026. Tax rules can change, so check the current legal text before you make a decision. This lesson explains general rules for individual investors; it is not tax advice, and your own situation may differ. If in doubt, check with your securities company, the tax authority or a qualified adviser.
Which taxes do individual investors pay?
When you invest in securities in Vietnam as an individual, you will usually meet two kinds of personal income tax:
Tax when you sell securities: 0.1% of the sale value of each sale.
Tax on dividends: 5% of the cash dividends you receive.
Both rates are set out in the Personal Income Tax Law (Articles 12 and 13; page in Vietnamese). For listed shares, these taxes are usually withheld before the money reaches your account, so individual investors rarely have to file a tax return for each trade themselves.
Tax on selling securities: 0.1% of the sale value
The tax is calculated on the total sale value, not on your profit. This means that even when you sell at a loss, you still pay 0.1% of the amount you sold for. According to government guidance, the transfer price of securities (page in Vietnamese) for listed securities is the actual selling price, meaning the matched price or the negotiated price.
Hypothetical examples:
You sell 1,000 shares at VND 25,000 each: the sale value is VND 25,000,000 and the tax is VND 25,000.
You sell 1,000 shares at VND 18,000 each, below your purchase price of VND 20,000: the sale value is VND 18,000,000, and you still pay VND 18,000 in tax.
The 0.1% rate applies to shares, bonds, fund certificates and other securities, except where an exemption applies, such as the one for open-ended fund certificates described below. If you trade often, you sell more times, so your total taxes and fees rise too.
Tax on dividends: 5%
Cash dividends count as income from capital investment and are taxed at 5%. For example, if you own 1,000 shares and the company pays a dividend of VND 1,000 per share, your dividend is VND 1,000,000. The 5% tax is VND 50,000, so you actually receive VND 950,000.
Dividends paid in shares and bonus shares are taxed in a different way. If you receive these, ask your securities company how tax is being withheld on your account.
Tax incentives for fund certificates
The new Personal Income Tax Law includes two incentives related to funds:
No tax when you sell open-ended fund certificates if you have held them for 2 years or more from the date of purchase. If you have held them for less than 2 years, the 0.1% tax on the sale value still applies.
A 50% tax reduction on profit distributions that individual investors receive from securities investment funds, for a period set by the Government.
If you want to understand how open-ended funds work, the lesson on fund certificates explains the basics.
How are taxes different from trading fees?
Taxes and fees both reduce the money you actually receive, but they are two different things:
Item | Tax | Trading fee |
|---|---|---|
Who collects it | The State | Your securities company |
Rate | Set by law: 0.1% on sales, 5% on dividends | Set by each securities company |
When it applies | When you sell and when you receive dividends | Usually both when you buy and when you sell |
So when you compare two securities companies, the tax rates are the same, but the fees can differ.
How do taxes affect your return?
As the lesson on total return explains, your return includes both price changes and income such as dividends. Taxes and fees are deducted from those same amounts.
Hypothetical example: you buy 1,000 shares at VND 20,000, receive VND 1,000,000 in dividends, and then sell at VND 25,000.
Gain from the price change: VND 5,000,000.
Dividends: VND 1,000,000, with VND 50,000 in tax.
Tax on the sale: VND 25,000.
Return before trading fees: VND 6,000,000 − VND 50,000 − VND 25,000 = VND 5,925,000.
At this scale, the tax is small. But if you trade frequently with large amounts, the 0.1% tax on every sale plus trading fees can eat into your returns significantly. If you invest in US stocks, the rules are completely different; that topic is covered in a separate lesson on US stock taxes.
Next step
Taxes and fees reduce the part of your return that you actually keep, so when you compare investment results, look at the figure after taxes and fees. That raises a bigger-picture question: how do you tell what the market as a whole is doing, not just your own holdings? The next lesson on the main path explains stock market indexes, which measure how a whole market is moving and lay the groundwork for understanding ETFs.
Continue the main path: What is a stock market index?
Back to the core lesson: What is total return?
This content is for personal finance education only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Consider your own goals, time horizon, ability to bear losses, and financial circumstances before investing.