Vietnam VAT Refund 2026: New Rules Since 1 July
Vietnam has had a tourist VAT refund for years, and most visitors never use it โ partly because it is barely advertised, and partly because the two or three steps that break a claim are the ones nobody tells you about until it is too late to fix them.
Here is the whole thing, in the order you will actually meet it.
Who Can Claim
Foreign nationals, and Vietnamese nationals resident abroad, who hold a foreign-issued passport or international travel document and use that document to leave Vietnam. You must depart through a checkpoint that operates the refund scheme โ in practice, the international airports and seaports.
The Six Conditions the Goods Must Meet
All six, together. Missing one is enough for the claim to be refused.
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Bought at a registered refund shop | Not every shop participates. Look for the refund signage, or ask before you pay โ afterwards is too late |
| At least 2 million VND | One shop, one day. Several receipts from the same shop on the same day can be added together |
| Invoice within 60 days | Counted back from your departure date |
| Unused, original packaging intact | Wear the dress once and the claim is gone |
| Not banned from export or licence-controlled | Excludes antiques and anything needing a Ministry of Industry and Trade export licence |
| Not banned from the aircraft | If it cannot fly, it cannot be refunded |
How Much You Actually Get Back
85% of the VAT on the qualifying goods. The remaining 15% is the commercial bank’s service fee for acting as the refund agent.
So the refund is not the full tax, and the advertised VAT rate is not what lands in your hand. Payment is made in Vietnamese dong. If you want it in a freely convertible currency, the bank will sell you foreign currency at its posted rate at that moment, which is a second small cost.
The Three Steps
Show your passport, get the combined invoice
Present your passport or international travel document at the time of purchase. The shop issues a VAT invoice combined with a refund declaration, signs it digitally, transmits the data to the customs refund system, and prints a copy for you.
Check what is printed before you leave the counter โ your name, passport number, the description of the goods, the value and the VAT figure. An error here is far easier to fix at the shop than at the airport.
Customs inspection, before your bags go on the belt
Present your passport, the invoice-cum-declaration, and the goods themselves. The inspection counter is located in the baggage check-in area, or at the boarding-pass check area โ deliberately, because customs has to be able to see the items.
Deadline: no later than 30 minutes before the aircraft departs. Customs cross-checks your passport against the invoice data, the refund system and the e-invoice system, and inspects the goods on a risk basis. If the details do not match, or the goods do not correspond to the invoice, the refund can be refused.
Collect the money at the bank counter
After customs has confirmed, take the stamped paperwork to the commercial bank’s refund counter, which sits inside the departure isolation area. Payment is made in cash or onto an international card.
Customs and the banks are required to staff these counters on working days, weekends, public holidays and outside office hours โ so a late-night flight is not in itself a reason the desk will be closed.
Claiming a refund on your way out?
Add the inspection to three queues that already reset each time. All three lanes handled for $45 per person.
Where the Refund Fits Into Your Departure
Leaving Vietnam already means three separate queues โ check-in, immigration, security โ and the refund inspection adds a fourth stop at the busiest end of the terminal, before you have even dropped your bags.
The 30-minute cut-off is a hard one, and it is measured against departure time, not against when you arrived at the airport. If the check-in hall is full, that deadline arrives faster than you expect.
How the three departure queues actually work โ
Common Questions
Two million VND, counted per shop per day. Several invoices from the same shop on the same day can be combined to reach the threshold, but purchases from different shops cannot be added together, and neither can purchases from the same shop on different days.
85% of the VAT on the qualifying goods. The other 15% is retained by the commercial bank as its fee for handling the refund. Payment is made in Vietnamese dong; converting it to another currency at the counter is a separate transaction at the bank’s posted rate.
No. The goods must be unused and still in their original, unopened packaging when customs inspects them. This is a condition of the scheme rather than a matter of the officer’s discretion, so wearing an item once or opening the box to try something rules it out.
Before you drop your checked bags. The customs inspection point sits in the baggage check-in area precisely so that the goods can still be produced. The paperwork must be submitted and the goods presented no later than 30 minutes before the aircraft departs, and the money is then collected at a bank counter inside the airside area.
No. Only businesses registered as VAT-refund sellers can issue the combined invoice and refund declaration, and only that document works at the airport. An ordinary receipt cannot be converted into a refund claim afterwards, so ask before you pay rather than after.
Yes. Circular 84/2026/TT-BTC took effect on 1 July 2026 and replaced Circular 72/2014 and Circular 92/2019. The change digitises the process end to end: the shop transmits the invoice data electronically, and the customs refund system is linked directly to the tax authority’s e-invoice system. Guides describing a purely paper process are out of date.
Based on Circular 84/2026/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance, in force from 1 July 2026, together with the goods conditions in Appendix IV of Decree 181/2025/ND-CP. Current as of September 2026. Which shops participate changes over time โ confirm at the point of purchase.
