Renting Out Your Vietnam Apartment From Abroad: Airbnb Legality, Tax You Owe, and Getting Rent Out

Can I Airbnb my apartment, or only long-term — and what changed?

What changed: the Housing Law 2023 took effect on 1 August 2024. Article 3.8 prohibits using a residential apartment for purposes other than living. Building on that, Ho Chi Minh City issued Decision 26/2025/QD-UBND (dated 27 February 2025) which expressly bans daily and hourly accommodation — i.e. short-term, under-30-day, Airbnb-style stays — in apartment buildings licensed for residential use only. The practical line most operators and management boards now use is 30 days: a lease of 30 days or more reads as residential; anything shorter reads as tourism accommodation and is not permitted in an ordinary block.

1. Allowed: long-term residential leases (typically 6–12 months, or month-to-month at 30 days or more). This is the safe default for an absentee owner.
2. Not allowed in an ordinary residential building: nightly/weekly Airbnb, Booking.com, hourly rentals — in HCMC this can trigger fines and management-board enforcement.
3. Exempt: units in a licensed condotel or a mixed-use tourism development zoned for short-stay accommodation. If yield from short-stay matters to you, buy that product type from the outset — you cannot retrofit the licence onto a plain apartment.
4. Status note: the rule is contested. The HCM City Real Estate Association has asked the Ministry of Construction to amend the Housing Law, and there is no single national statute defining 'short-term' in days. Treat the HCMC ban as live and confirm your specific building's management rules in writing.

How much rental tax do I owe?

Rental income is taxed as a household-business activity, not on a net-profit basis — the tax is a flat percentage of gross rent, with no deduction for mortgage, furniture or management fees. Two taxes stack: VAT at 5% and PIT at 5%, so roughly 10% of gross rent. Below the annual revenue threshold you owe neither, plus you are exempt from the small annual business-licence fee.

1. Combined rate: about 10% of gross annual rent (5% VAT + 5% PIT). No expense deductions — it is on the headline rent.
2. Threshold (in flux): historically VND 100m/year; raised to VND 200m/year from 1 January 2026; the amended PIT Law passed 10 December 2025 legislates a further rise toward VND 500m/year. Confirm which figure is live on your filing date — do not assume.
3. Worked example at the VND 200m threshold: rent of VND 18m/month = VND 216m/year. That is above VND 200m, so the whole amount is taxable: ~VND 10.8m VAT + ~VND 10.8m PIT ≈ VND 21.6m for the year. Rent of VND 16m/month (VND 192m/year) falls under the threshold and owes zero.
4. If you own more than one unit, revenue is aggregated per individual to test the threshold — several small leases can push you over.

Registering a tax code and filing as a foreigner

A foreign landlord registers the same way a Vietnamese individual does, and can do it remotely through an appointed local agent. The core document is tax-registration form 03-DK-TCT; the authority issues the tax code within about three working days of a complete dossier. Filing can be done per rental period or annually.

1. Documents: passport copy; the signed lease agreement; proof of ownership (the pink book / 'So hong' or the developer sale-and-purchase contract pending title); tax-registration form 03-DK-TCT.
2. Output: a personal tax identification number (tax code) tied to you — this is what the bank and the tax office key everything to.
3. Filing cadence: monthly/per-period returns are due within 10 days of the start of the rental period per the payment schedule, or you can file annually. Your manager or a licensed tax agent normally lodges this.
4. Keep every tax payment certificate (bien lai/chung tu nop thue). These are the documents the bank later demands before any overseas transfer — losing them is what creates exit friction.

Who collects the rent while you live overseas — and the tourist-visa trap

You do not have to be in Vietnam, but you cannot personally run a letting 'business' on a tourist visa, and you should not have rent paid in cash to an informal middleman. The compliant structure is a notarized Power of Attorney (POA) to a resident manager plus a dedicated VND bank account in your own name that the rent flows into.

1. Appoint a local manager — your property manager, the leasing agent, or a professional tax agent — to sign leases, collect rent, file tax and liaise with the bank on your behalf.
2. POA execution from abroad: sign the POA, have it legalized/consularized at the Vietnamese consulate in your home country, then sent to Vietnam for notarization. If you are physically in Vietnam, you and the representative sign before a Vietnamese notary. A POA done only on home-country letterhead is not enough.
3. Open a dedicated rental-income account in your name (not the manager's). Rent should land here so there is a clean, auditable trail tying gross rent to tax paid to remittance — banks reward this and penalize commingled cash.
4. Tourist-visa reality: a tourist entry does not authorize you to operate a rental enterprise in-country. Owning and earning passively via a registered tax code and a local agent is the route — do not try to manage it hands-on while on a 30-day stamp.

Remitting rent home each year

Vietnam permits a foreign owner to send rental income abroad through the banking system, but only after tax is satisfied. Commercial banks act as the gatekeeper for foreign-exchange compliance and will not release funds without evidence the VAT and PIT have been paid.

1. Step 1: register the tax code and notify the bank of your ownership and registration so the account is flagged as a foreign owner's rental account.
2. Step 2: file and pay VAT + PIT for the period, and collect the tax payment certificates.
3. Step 3: present those certificates to the bank; it remits the after-tax balance to an overseas account in your own name (not a third party's).
4. Practical tip: remit periodically (e.g. quarterly or annually after filing) rather than ad hoc — a clean run of return + certificate + transfer keeps each year's paperwork self-contained and the bank comfortable.

Why skipping rental tax freezes your future sale exit

This is the point absentee owners underestimate. Vietnam's foreign-exchange rules let you take money out only through official banking channels, and those channels are tax-gated. If you never registered or never paid rental tax, the unpaid liability surfaces at the worst moment — when you try to take rent or, far more painfully, the sale price out of the country.

1. On sale you owe a separate 2% PIT transfer tax on the sale (transfer) value — this is distinct from rental tax and is settled at the notarized transfer.
2. To remit sale proceeds abroad the bank typically wants: the notarized sale contract, the ownership/transfer certificate, the tax payment receipts, and proof the original purchase funds came from overseas.
3. Back rental tax that was never paid generally has to be cleared — often with interest and penalties — before the bank will release either rent or sale proceeds. Years of 'quiet' undeclared rent can therefore strand your exit capital in Vietnam until you regularize it.
4. The cheap insurance is to register and file from year one, even small amounts, so your repatriation paper trail is unbroken when you eventually sell.

A practical checklist before you let

1. Confirm your building's status: ordinary residential (long-term only) vs. licensed condotel (short-stay allowed). Get the management board's written rules.
2. Default to leases of 30 days or more to stay clear of the HCMC short-term ban.
3. Register a tax code (form 03-DK-TCT) and keep proof of ownership ready.
4. Sign a consularized + notarized POA to a vetted local manager.
5. Open a dedicated VND rental account in your own name.
6. File VAT + PIT each period above the live threshold; archive every payment certificate.
7. Verify the current threshold (VND 100m / 200m / 500m question) and the live HCMC short-term rule with a VPM advisor or licensed tax agent before you commit — both are moving.