Taxable income will be calculated at the time the transfer contract becomes effective or upon the registration of ownership or usage rights.

This means the ministry has abandoned its previous proposal from July to apply a 20% tax on profit (the difference between the buying and selling prices).

Additionally, it has scrapped the option of taxing based on the holding period. In the earlier draft, the Ministry of Finance proposed that if the purchase price and related costs could not be determined, personal income tax would be calculated according to how long the property was held.

Specifically:

Less than 2 years: 10%
From 2 to under 5 years: 6%
From 5 to under 10 years: 4%
10 years or more: 2%

At a regular press conference on October 3, Luu Duc Huy, Deputy Director of the Department of Tax Policy Management and Supervision under the Ministry of Finance, stated that the ministry had considered feedback from other ministries and agencies and decided to retain the current regulation.

According to Huy, there are already tax policies applied at each stage of a real estate transaction, from registration and usage to transfer.

“Personal income tax on real estate transfers will still be based on the current legal framework. The National Assembly’s Economic and Financial Committee has reviewed the legal basis for taxation, and the Ministry of Finance will continue refining the draft law to present to the National Assembly in the upcoming 10th session,” Huy said.

Speaking at a recent forum, Dr. Can Van Luc, Chief Economist at BIDV and member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, suggested that anti-speculation tax policies should be implemented to help reduce real estate prices.

International experience shows that three types of taxes could be considered: transaction taxes (based on revenue or profit), taxes on second homes, and inheritance taxes. However, Luc noted that implementation must follow a clear roadmap and be based on transparent, synchronized data systems. It could take 1–2 years to fully prepare for such a rollout.

Nguyen Le