Still Unsure About Gold Bullion Transaction Taxes?

The Ministry of Finance has recently submitted a report on the draft Law on Personal Income Tax (PIT, amended), clarifying the taxation scheme for gold bar transactions. Specifically, it will set a clear threshold for the taxable value of gold bars, excluding cases where individuals buy and sell gold for savings or storage purposes (not for business).

Carefully Calculating the Gold Bar Value Threshold

According to the latest draft law, income from gold bar transfers will be subject to PIT. The Ministry of Finance proposes a tax rate of 0.1% on the transfer price per transaction, meaning sellers will have to pay tax based on the total transaction value, regardless of whether they make a profit or loss.

Amid concerns from many National Assembly delegates that this regulation could affect people who buy gold for savings or storage rather than speculation, the Ministry of Finance has made an important adjustment.

Accordingly, the Government will specify the taxable threshold for gold bars. This regulation aims to “exclude cases where individuals buy and sell gold for savings or storage purposes (not for business), in line with the current gold accumulation habits of a segment of the population.”

This means individuals buying and selling small amounts of gold, below the specified threshold, will not be subject to tax. Conversely, individuals trading large quantities, with speculative or short-term trading characteristics, will be the main targets of this policy.

However, what is the taxable threshold for gold? Mr. Le Hoang (resident of Long Phuoc Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) said that for many years, he has been buying a few taels of gold annually, including 1 tael, 2 tael, or 5 tael gold bars. “When there’s a wedding, I often give 1 tael of gold. If I buy gold bars for weddings, do I have to pay transaction tax, and how is the buyer’s purpose determined?”—Mr. Hoang wondered.

Speaking with reporters from the Labor Newspaper, some experts said that not taxing small gold transactions for savings or weddings is correct, but determining the threshold is not easy.

Gold expert Tran Duy Phuong analyzed that physical gold transactions have never been taxed. Now, if taxes are imposed to prevent speculation as per the Ministry of Finance’s view, the accumulation threshold should be over 10 taels of gold (about 1.5 billion VND), and taxing income from transferring 10 taels of gold bars or more would be reasonable. However, even setting it at 10 taels requires further discussion.

Mr. Phuong argued that this 10-tael transaction threshold would apply for how long—a day, a week, or a month? If this 10-tael threshold is considered based on the buyer’s ID number within a specific period, it might work. But they could also ask relatives or friends to buy on their behalf, so how would that be calculated? This transfer tax threshold needs to be clearly defined for effective implementation.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Goldsmiths and Jewelers (SJA), said the taxable threshold for gold transactions should be based on clear, specific criteria for gold trading businesses to follow. For example, tax exemption could be considered for small transactions under 2 taels/month or under 24 taels/year, based on ID numbers and total transactions within 30 days. Conversely, large transactions exceeding 24 taels of gold bars/year would be subject to higher taxes. “The State must carefully calculate these thresholds, as simply setting a uniform tax rate of 0.1% for all transactions is very difficult”—Mr. Dung said.

Should VAT Be Applied?

Explaining the reason for applying this tax, the Ministry of Finance emphasized that it is a necessary step to contribute to the tight management of gold trading activities, limit speculation, and attract societal resources to production and business.

Regarding the implementation timeline, instead of rigidly applying the law upon its effective date, the draft law grants the Government the authority to decide the start date for tax collection and adjust the tax rate based on the actual management of the gold market.

Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc, General Director of Trong Tin Accounting and Tax Consulting Company, pointed out the biggest legal gray area that speculators and gold price manipulators have long exploited to distort the market: the lack of clear regulations on “individual gold bar traders.” He cited a case in May 2025 where the State Bank Inspectorate discovered several individuals at a bank and related gold company trading gold bars with high frequency and turnover of thousands of billions of VND/year but were not required to pay PIT. “This is a loophole that allows individual speculators and short-term gold bar traders to evade taxes”—Mr. Duoc stated.

According to some experts, it is currently difficult to tax the price difference between buying and selling because many people have been accumulating gold for years. During that time, invoice and document management was not synchronized, so there is no basis to accurately determine the purchase price. “Consider adding gold bars to the VAT list to ensure consistency with jewelry and art gold, which are already considered goods and fully taxed under current regulations”—Mr. Duoc proposed.

The view of applying VAT to gold bar transactions was also supported by lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, Director of ANVI Law Firm, who said gold is considered a commodity, while essential goods like rice, vegetables, and condiments are subject to VAT. Gold is not encouraged by the state for speculative trading or accumulation, so it should not receive tax incentives. “If a 10% VAT is applied to gold, PIT should not be imposed, as PIT should only apply to income from wages and salaries. Moreover, many people have accumulated 1 tael or 2 taels of gold for 10 or 20 years, and now when they need to sell it for expenses, taxing them is unreasonable. Imposing PIT on transaction value does not align with the nature of this tax, which should only apply to profits”—lawyer Duc said.