Clause 8, Article 4 of the 2025 Personal Income Tax Law specifically stipulates the portion of income entitled to personal income tax exemption as follows:
Tax-exempt income
1. Income from transferring, receiving inheritance, gifts that are real estate between husband and wife; biological father, biological mother with biological child; adoptive father, adoptive mother with adopted child; father-in-law, mother-in-law with daughter-in-law; father-in-law, mother-in-law with son-in-law; paternal grandfather, paternal grandmother with paternal grandchildren; brothers, sisters, and younger siblings with each other.
2. Income from the transfer of houses, residential land use rights and assets attached to residential land of individuals in cases where individuals only have one house or residential land in Vietnam.
3. Income from the value of land use rights of individuals allocated land by the State.
4. Income of households and individuals directly producing crops, planted forests, livestock, aquaculture, and fishing products that have not been processed into other products or only through ordinary preliminary processing; salt production; income from share dividends of cooperative members, agricultural cooperative unions, and individuals who are farmers signing contracts with enterprises participating in "Big Fields", planting production forests, and aquaculture.
5. Income from converting agricultural land of households and individuals assigned by the State for production.
6. Income from interest on government bonds, interest on local government bonds, interest on deposits at credit institutions, interest from life insurance contracts.
7. Income from remittances.
8. Salary for night work, overtime, salary, wages paid for non-holiday days according to the provisions of law.
Thus, all overtime wages of employees from January 1, 2026 are exempt from personal income tax, and there is no longer a regulation on personal income tax exemption for part of overtime wages of employees as previously regulated.
In addition, income from salaries and wages is also exempt from personal income tax from January 1, 2026:
- Nighttime salary,
- Salaries and wages for employees are paid for non-holiday days according to legal regulations.
What is the difference between regulations on personal income tax exemption for overtime wages before November 1, 2020?
Based on the provisions of Clause 9, Article 4 of the 2007 Law on Personal Income Tax, it is stipulated as follows:
Tax-exempt income
1. Income from real estate transfer between husband and wife; biological father, biological mother with biological child; adoptive father, adoptive mother with adopted child; father-in-law, mother-in-law with daughter-in-law; father-in-law, mother-in-law with son-in-law; paternal grandfather, paternal grandmother with paternal grandchildren; maternal grandfather, maternal grandmother with maternal grandchildren; brothers, sisters, and younger siblings with each other.
2. Income from the transfer of houses, residential land use rights and assets attached to residential land of individuals in cases where individuals only have one house or residential land.
...
7. Income from deposit interest at credit institutions, interest from life insurance contracts.
8. Income from remittances.
9. The salary for working at night and overtime is paid higher than the salary for working during the day and working in hours according to the provisions of law.
Accordingly, regulations before January 1, 2026 stipulated the exemption from personal income tax for part-time wages paid higher than part-time wages according to legal regulations.
That is, the difference in salary that employees receive when working overtime compared to the salary earned during working hours is the salary that is exempt from personal income tax according to Clause 9 of this Article.
Accordingly, current regulations from January 1, 2026 have differences compared to previous regulations. Currently, the entire overtime salary is an income that is exempt from personal income tax for employees according to the regulations mentioned in the above section.
