The Ministry of Finance has just submitted to the Government a draft Decree stipulating a number of articles on the Law on Personal Income Tax, which specifically proposes the level of family deduction for medical and educational expenses.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance officially proposed to supplement the regulation that taxpayers are entitled to a maximum deduction of 47 million VND/year for expenses for health, education - training into taxable income before calculating personal income tax.
According to the draft, taxpayers who are resident individuals are entitled to deductions from taxable income before tax calculation for income from salaries, wages, expenses for health, education - training of taxpayers and dependents of taxpayers.
Expenses for medical examination and treatment at domestic medical facilities within the scope of the list paid by health insurance are reduced by no more than 23 million VND/year.
For education and training, expenses at domestic education and training institutions are reduced by no more than 24 million VND/year. This amount includes tuition fees for preschool education, general education, vocational education and university education according to the provisions of the law on education and training and other professional skills at education and training institutions.
The Ministry of Finance said that the application of this regulation will contribute to reducing tax obligations for all taxpayers who incur health, education - training costs; taxpayers at low tax brackets will be reduced tax at a higher rate.
Deductions for social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance, in cases where each taxpayer has 1 dependent and incurs medical, education - training expenses, individuals may be deducted the following amounts:
Deduction for oneself 15.5 million VND/month x 12 months + deduction for dependents 6.2 million VND/person/month x 12 months + deduction for healthcare 23 million VND/year + deduction for education - training 24 million VND/year = 307.4 million VND/year.
This level is nearly 2.45 times the average income per capita of Vietnam in 2025, which is 125.5 million VND/person/year.
Previously, sharing at the regular press conference for the first quarter of 2026 of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Luu Duc Huy said that these levels are built on the basis of actual spending statistics.
In 2024, the average spending on healthcare for people is 3.5 million VND/person/year, of which inpatient expenses are about 10.2 million VND/person/year. For education and training, the average spending level is 9.6 million VND/person/year.
With a taxpayer-to-dependent ratio of about 0.8, the drafting agency estimates that medical expenses are about 20.4 million VND/year and education is about 19.2 million VND/year.
According to Mr. Luu Duc Huy - Deputy Director of the Department of Tax, Fee and Charge Policy Management and Supervision (Ministry of Finance), the policy is expected to reduce budget revenue by about 7,697 billion VND per year. However, in return, people's tax obligations are significantly reduced.
For taxpayers with 1 dependent, an income of about 28 million VND/month is still not subject to personal income tax. Only from about 28.63 million VND/month or more, taxpayers will begin to pay tax for the excess income, with a tax rate of 5% and the amount of tax incurred at a very small level.
He emphasized that this policy clearly shows humanity when reducing tax payment obligations for people.
To ensure no policy duplication, the draft decree stipulates that expenses that taxpayers are entitled to reduce must meet the following conditions: have invoices and documents according to the provisions of law; specifically for medical expenses, there must be an additional list of medical examination and treatment costs used at medical examination and treatment facilities according to the regulations of the Minister of Health...
The draft decree stipulates that it takes effect from July 1, 2026 to be consistent with the effectiveness of the 2025 Personal Income Tax Law.
Specifically, regulations related to income from business, from salaries and wages of resident individuals apply from the tax period of 2026.
