From 1 July 2026, Vietnam taxes a resident’s music royalties at 5 percent, but only on the part of each contract above VND20 million, double the old VND10 million allowance. For a working artist, that is worth at most VND500,000 per contract.
The bigger number sits elsewhere in the same law, and how your income is classified decides which one you meet.
What changed on 1 July
PIT means personal income tax. Vietnam’s new PIT law, Law No. 109/2025/QH15, replaced the 2007 statute on 1 July 2026. Its implementing rules sit in Decree 253/2026/ND-CP, issued on 30 June.
- Rate: 5 percent on royalty income, for residents (Article 16) and for non-residents earning royalties in Vietnam (Article 25).
- Allowance: only the portion above VND20 million per contract is taxable, up from VND10 million.
- Timing: the tax point is the moment the payer pays you, not the month the streams happened.
- Scope: royalties mean income from transferring or licensing intellectual property rights.
Three rules in Decree 253 that decide the bill
Article 59 of the decree, as summarised by accounting firm Viet Da, makes the allowance narrower than the headline suggests.
1. Instalments do not multiply the allowance
The VND20 million is counted per contract, regardless of how many payments it arrives in. Twelve monthly instalments get one allowance, not twelve.
2. Splitting a deal does not either
If the same work is licensed to the same user under several contracts, the allowance applies to their combined value. Cutting one sync fee into two contracts saves nothing.
3. Co-owners split the taxable income by certificate
Where a work is co-owned, taxable income is divided among owners according to the state-issued ownership certificate. For co-written songs, that makes a copyright registration certificate the document to have before the money arrives.
The number that matters more: VND500 million
Article 7 of the same law treats business income separately. A resident individual with annual business revenue of VND500 million or less pays no personal income tax on it.
Between VND500 million and VND3 billion, the law offers two methods: 15 percent of profit, or a flat rate on revenue above VND500 million. For digital content, which the law explicitly says includes digital music, that rate is 5 percent.
Vietnam’s tax authorities have already treated YouTube payouts as income from digital content services rather than royalties, according to VietNamNet’s March 2026 explainer.
Same income, two different bills
Take an artist earning VND300 million a year under one distribution agreement.
- Taxed as royalties: 5 percent of VND280 million, or VND14 million.
- Taxed as business revenue: zero, because it sits under the VND500 million line.
At VND800 million a year, the royalty route costs VND39 million. The 5 percent revenue method costs VND15 million.
Classification is not a menu. It follows what the contract actually is: a licence of rights to a user, or revenue from supplying digital content. Check the contract wording, and the income type on the payer’s withholding certificate, before year-end.
Money from abroad still counts
Residents are taxed on income arising inside and outside Vietnam (Article 2). A foreign distributor withholds no Vietnamese tax, so you declare it yourself.
VietNamNet notes that tax already withheld abroad can be credited, capped at the Vietnamese tax due on that income, but the full amount must still be declared.
What to do this quarter
- Read the grant clause: check whether each contract licenses rights or pays a revenue share for content supply.
- Stop splitting: multiple contracts for one work with one user are aggregated anyway.
- Register co-written works so the co-owner split has a state document behind it.
- Keep foreign statements, including tax withheld abroad, for the credit.
- Confirm your classification with a Vietnamese tax adviser; practice under the new decree is still forming.
Every step above is easier with statements that break income out by platform, territory and payee, which is what an artist-facing royalty dashboard should give you. For where Vietnamese listening happens, see our Zing MP3 and NhacCuaTui market analysis. For composer-side collection, read how VCPMC collected a record VND424 billion, and for another royalty tax rewrite, see Belgium’s 7.5 percent to 15 percent shift.
