Overseas Vietnamese obliged to pay import tax on luggage excess

Question (a Vietnamese resident in France): I am entrusted to work in Việt Nam from 3 to 5 years. Do I have to pay import tax for tables, machines or clothes that I bring along with me when entering Việt Nam?

Answer: All individuals entering Việt Nam are allowed to bring in some duty-free luggage limited quantity, including wine, alcohol beverages, cigarette, tea, coffee, clothes and other personal belongings. These items must be valued below VND 5 million in total.

The luggage and commodity excess must be subjected to import tax.

For machines like laptops or cameras, if they actually serve working purposes, they will be exempted from tax.

The above regulations are stipulated in Article 6 of the Government’s Decree 66/2002/NĐ-CP dated on July 1, 2002 and Circular 59/2007/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance dated on June 14, 2007 on detailed implementation of import and export tax.