Personal Deductions and Legal Tax Deductions: Don't Overpay Tax Due to Lack of Knowledge

Many people pay more tax than necessary for one simple reason: they don't know what they're entitled to deduct. Each unregistered dependent, each missed legal deduction, means tax you're overpaying unnecessarily. This article provides a complete list of what you can deduct.

Personal deductions — the largest amount

This is the amount deducted directly from income before calculating tax, and is the largest deduction for most employees. Rates applicable from the 2026 tax period:

• For yourself: 15.5 triệu đồng/month (186 triệu/year).
• For each dependent: 6.2 triệu đồng/month (74.4 triệu/year).

A person with 2 dependents gets a total deduction of 15.5 + 2 × 6.2 = 27.9 triệu đồng/month before tax calculation — a very significant amount.

Who qualifies as a dependent?

This is where many people miss out on benefits. Eligible dependents typically include:

• Children: under 18 years old; or children attending university/college/vocational school (with income conditions); or children with disabilities unable to work.
• Spouse: unable to work, or has no income/very low income as regulated.
• Parents (including parents-in-law, legal adoptive parents): past working age or unable to work, with no income or income below the regulated threshold.
• Other persons with no support whom you are directly supporting (biological siblings, grandparents, nieces/nephews...) under certain conditions.

General conditions: the dependent has no income or average monthly income below the regulated threshold, and each dependent can only be claimed by one taxpayer.

Other legal deductions

Besides personal deductions, you can also deduct the following from taxable income:

The voluntary pension fund item in particular is a noteworthy tool: it helps you save for retirement while getting tax deductions (see separate article in the Retirement series).

Example: how does one dependent change your tax?

Assume your taxable income is 20 triệu/month (after insurance and personal deduction):

• Without registering a dependent: taxed on 20 triệu.
• Registering 1 dependent: additional 6.2 triệu deduction → taxable income reduced to only 13.8 triệu.

Simply registering one dependent correctly significantly reduces your tax — that's why you should never miss this.

Three mistakes that cause you to overpay tax

1. Not registering dependents because you "find the procedures bothersome" — when you can do it online.
2. Forgetting to declare deductions like voluntary insurance, supplemental retirement, charitable donations.
3. Not filing a tax settlement when you've had more withheld than your actual annual tax liability.

All three lead to the same result: you're leaving your money with the budget unnecessarily.

Note: deduction amounts, dependent conditions, and income thresholds may be adjusted through new guidance documents; check for updated information before filing.

Want to know what deductions you can claim and how much tax you can save? Ask [Sirifin's AI advisor](/vi/ai-advisor), or use [Sirifin's tax calculator](/vi/calculators/tax) to try different scenarios.

Content is informational and educational in nature, not tax advice for specific cases.