Accordingly, starting July 1, 2025, individuals and related entities interacting with the tax system will transition from using traditional tax codes to their citizen identification numbers, as stipulated by Article 35 of the Law on Tax Administration.
This change is formalized by Circular No. 86/2024/TT-BTC, issued by the Minister of Finance and effective since February 2025, which governs tax registration. Specifically, Points b of Clause 1 and Clause 5 of Article 5 within this circular outline the new structure for tax identifiers used by households, business households, and individuals.
While tax agencies previously issued specific tax codes for various registration scenarios, the updated regulation mandates that the citizen identification number, issued by the Ministry of Public Security under the Law on Identification, will now serve as the primary tax identifier for cases specified in Clause 5 of Article 5.
The personal identification number for Vietnamese citizens, a unique 12-digit sequence established by the Ministry of Public Security via the National Population Database, will replace the tax codes for individual taxpayers and their dependants, as detailed in Points K, L, and N of Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular 86.
Furthermore, the citizen identification number of representatives for households, business households, and individual business persons will also function as the tax code for these entities.
The individuals covered under Points K, L, and N of Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular 86 encompass individuals with income subject to personal income tax (excluding individual business persons), dependants as defined by personal income tax law, and other organizations, households, and individuals with state budget obligations.
Tax codes previously issued by tax agencies to individuals, households, and business households will remain valid only until June 30, 2025. The mandatory switch to using citizen identification numbers for tax purposes for all relevant parties involved in tax code usage, as per Article 35 of the Law on Tax Administration, takes full effect from July 1, 2025.
This transition leverages the existing framework established by Article 12 of the Law on Identification, which defines a Vietnamese citizen’s personal identification number:
- The citizen identification number of a Vietnamese citizen is a natural number sequence comprising 12 digits, established by the National Population Database for Vietnamese citizens.
- The citizen identification number of a Vietnamese citizen is uniformly managed nationwide by the Ministry of Public Security and established for each Vietnamese citizen, not duplicated for other persons.
- The citizen identification number of a Vietnamese citizen is used for issuing his or her citizen identification card, exploiting information about citizens in the National Population Database and other national databases, specialized databases, the national data center, the public service portal, and the information system for handling administrative procedures.
