Destinations · Vietnam
Vietnam
Cheapest cost base in Asia and 5% on dividends, but no visa built for you.
Tax regime
Australia treaty
Flight from Sydney
Timezone
How Vietnam taxes youindicative
Vietnam taxes residents (183+ days, or a permanent/leased home) on worldwide income. Employment and business income runs through progressive rates up to 35%; investment income gets flat final rates instead, 5% on dividends and interest, 0.1% of gross proceeds on securities sales, 20% on gains from private capital transfers, and 2% of proceeds on real estate. The Australia treaty provides a tie-breaker and credits. Enforcement against foreigners' offshore income has historically been light, but the law is worldwide and CRS data-sharing is closing the gap.
- Salary
- Progressive 5, 35% on worldwide employment income; the 35% band starts around A$58k/year equivalent, high earners hit the top rate fast.
- Capital gains
- Securities: 0.1% of gross sale proceeds (final), cheap if you win, painful if you sell at a loss. Private company stakes: 20% on the gain. Property: 2% of proceeds.
- Dividends & interest
- Flat 5% on dividends and bank interest, one of the lowest investment-income rates anywhere.
- Crypto
- Crypto sits in a legal grey zone: not recognised as an asset or payment means, with a regulatory framework legislated to take effect from 2026 (pilot exchanges, expected transaction taxes). Today, taxation of personal crypto gains is untested in practice.
- Social security
- Compulsory social insurance applies to employees on Vietnamese labour contracts (foreigners included, ~10.5% employee side, capped); remote workers for foreign employers are outside it.
Australia has a tax treaty with Vietnam
A treaty gives you two things that matter. First, a tie-breaker: if both countries claim you as a resident, the treaty cascade (permanent home → vital interests → habitual abode → nationality) decides who wins. You can’t simply be fully taxed twice on the same income. Second, reduced withholding on Australian-source income you keep: unfranked dividends at 15% and interest at 10% instead of the default non-treaty rates.
Walk your own facts through the cascade with the Treaty Tie-Breaker tool.
Visa pathways
Every pathway carries a tax-residency consequence, the row most visa guides leave out. A visa gets you in; it doesn’t decide who taxes you.
Work permit + TRC
workindicativeEmployer-sponsored work permit (degree + 3 years relevant experience, or expert status) leading to a temporary residence card of up to 2 years.
- Skilled occupation required
- Employer sponsor required
- Family can come
Timeline: ~3 months from application to arrival
Tax residency: Meeting its conditions makes you tax resident there, usually what you want, because a genuine new tax home is your strongest fact against Australia.
The only stable long-stay route for employees. Paperwork is heavy (legalised degrees, police checks) and rules tightened in 2023.
Investor visa (DT1, DT4)
businessindicativeResidence tied to capital invested in a Vietnamese company: DT4 under VND 3bn (~A$180k) gives visas only; DT3 (VND 3, 50bn) gives a TRC up to 3 years.
- Investment $180,000+
- Family can come
Timeline: ~4 months from application to arrival
Tax residency: Meeting its conditions makes you tax resident there, usually what you want, because a genuine new tax home is your strongest fact against Australia.
Real company, real licensing, real accounting. Popular with founders and F&B owners; small investments get short visas.
E-visa runs (90 days)
nomadindicativeMultiple-entry 90-day e-visas, repeated, the de facto nomad "pathway" since Vietnam has no nomad visa.
- No family inclusion
Timeline: ~0 months from application to arrival
Tax residency: Doesn’t change tax residency either way on its own, your facts on the ground (home, family, time) decide.
Working remotely on a tourist-class e-visa breaches its conditions, and perpetual 90-day cycles leave you without a settled home anywhere, the exact pattern that keeps the ATO's resides test satisfied. There is no legal laptop-visa route here yet.
Spouse/family TRC (TT)
familyindicativeTemporary residence up to 3 years for spouses/children of Vietnamese citizens or TRC holders.
- Family can come
Timeline: ~2 months from application to arrival
Tax residency: Meeting its conditions makes you tax resident there, usually what you want, because a genuine new tax home is your strongest fact against Australia.
Solid for mixed-nationality families; does not itself grant work rights (a work permit is still needed).
What Ho Chi Minh City costsindicative
Typical expat defaults in AUD, the same figures the Break-Even Calculator pre-fills for Vietnam. Treat them as comparison-grade, not budget-grade.
| Rent, family home in Ho Chi Minh City (per month) | est. $2,200indicative |
| Rent, 1, 2br couple/single (per month) | est. $1,200indicative |
| International school (per child, per year) | est. $20,000indicative |
| Private health, family (per year) | est. $4,500indicative |
| Private health, single (per year) | est. $1,500indicative |
| One-off relocation (movers, flights, deposits) | est. $12,000indicative |
| Return flight home (per person) | est. $1,200indicative |
| Day-to-day cost index vs Sydney (ex-rent) | 40%indicative |
Honest downsides
- No digital nomad visa and no retirement visa: unless you have a job, a company or a Vietnamese spouse, there is no compliant way to live here long-term.
- The 35% top band arrives at a low threshold, a good Australian salary earned as a Vietnamese resident is taxed harder than in Australia.
- Banking and moving money is bureaucratic: the dong is not freely convertible and repatriating funds requires documentation.
- Healthcare below international-clinic level is poor; anything serious means Bangkok or Singapore.
- Air quality in Hanoi ranks among the world's worst several months a year.
What most people miss about Vietnam
- Resident from day one if you lease a home: Vietnam treats having a leased residence (183+ days lease term) as residency even below the day count, your "part-year scouting trip" may already be a full tax year.
- Worldwide progressive rates apply to Australian salary or business income you keep earning, at Vietnamese thresholds, 35% starts around A$58k, above Australia's effective take at that income.
- The 0.1%-of-proceeds securities tax applies even when you sell at a loss. It is a turnover tax, not a gains tax, and there is no credit against Australian CGT for a tax on proceeds.
- Non-residents pay a flat 20% on Vietnam-source employment income, mis-time your arrival and the first months are taxed worse than either resident schedule.
Run your numbers for Vietnam
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