Mr. Doan Van Thuong (HCMC) has a child who graduated from university 1 year ahead of schedule compared to the academic year on his student card due to overdue credits, and received his degree in August 2023.

In May 2024, Mr. Thuong's agency reviewed the records and announced that it would stop recording dependents for family deductions when calculating personal income tax, effective from September 2023.

Mr. Thuong wondered if the timing of ending dependents' family deductions was correct.

Prison guard.jpg
The Personal Income Tax Law clearly stipulates the group of dependents who are eligible for family deductions. Photo: Nam Khanh

Responding to Mr. Thuong's question, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department cited the provisions of Clause 3, Article 19 of the Personal Income Tax Law dated November 21, 2007 on cases of family deductions.

It states: “A dependent is a person that the taxpayer is responsible for supporting, including:

a) Minors; disabled children, children unable to work;

b) Individuals with no income or with income not exceeding the prescribed level, including adult children studying at university, college, vocational high school or vocational training; spouses who are unable to work, parents who are past working age or unable to work, and other people without support that the taxpayer must directly support.

The Government prescribes income levels and declarations to determine dependents eligible for family deductions.

Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department further cited Point d, Clause 1, Article 9 of Circular No. 111 dated August 15, 2013 of the Minister of Finance on guidelines for implementing the Law on Personal Income Tax, the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Personal Income Tax and Decree No. 65/2013 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Personal Income Tax and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Personal Income Tax, regulating deductions.

The cases of children (biological children, legally adopted children, illegitimate children, stepchildren of the wife, stepchildren of the husband) belonging to the group of dependents who are entitled to family deductions include: children under 18 years old (calculated by full month; for example, a child born on July 25, 2014 is considered a dependent from July 2014); children aged 18 years or older who are disabled and unable to work; children studying in Vietnam or abroad at university, college, vocational high school, vocational training, including children aged 18 years or older studying at high school (including during the time waiting for university entrance exam results from June to September of grade 12) who have no income or have an average monthly income in the year from all sources of income not exceeding 1 million VND.

Based on the above regulations, if Mr. Thuong's child graduated from university in August 2023, he is not eligible for family deductions according to Clause 3, Article 19 of the Law on Personal Income Tax.