Luxembourg-Viet Nam Tax Treaty: Information Exchange Rules From 2027
The protocol amending the Luxembourg-Viet Nam tax treaty entered into force on 14 April 2026, according to the entry-into-force notice published in Memorial A No. 506 on 23 October 2026. Signed in Hanoi on 4 May 2023, the protocol deletes Article 27 of the 1996 double taxation convention, the exchange-of-information article, and replaces it with wording that the Luxembourg government’s explanatory memorandum says corresponds to the 2017 OECD Model Tax Convention. Under the protocol’s own entry-into-force clause, the new text applies to tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2027.
The change lands on the request side of the treaty, with no new periodic return attached. Viet Nam’s competent authority can ask for information that is foreseeably relevant to taxes of every kind, about persons who need not be resident in either country, and Luxembourg cannot decline solely because a bank, nominee or fiduciary holds the data. When such a request reaches a Luxembourg bank, fund administrator or fiduciary, the Law of 25 November 2014 gives the holder one month from notification of an injunction to answer in full.
Related reading: Hong Kong-Slovenia Double Tax Agreement: Lower Withholding
Luxembourg-Viet Nam tax treaty protocol: the dates that matter
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 4 March 1996 | Convention signed in Hanoi |
| 4 May 2023 | Amending protocol signed in Hanoi |
| 17 December 2025 | Approving law signed; published in Memorial A No. 584 on 18 December 2025 |
| 14 April 2026 | Protocol in force for both countries, under Article 2(2) |
| 1 January 2027 | Start of the first tax years the protocol applies to (calculated from Article 2(2)) |
Article 2(2) makes entry into force depend on receipt of the last diplomatic notification. Memorial A No. 506 of 23 October 2026 records 14 April 2026 as the entry-into-force date.
Article 2(2) then sets applicability. The protocol’s provisions apply to tax years beginning on or after 1 January of the calendar year immediately following the year of entry into force. With entry into force in 2026, that points to 1 January 2027; the date is calculated from the article. The protocol contains no other transitional rule.
Article 27 before and after the 2023 protocol
The 1996 article had two paragraphs covering the exchange, secrecy and three grounds for refusal. The replacement has five. The comparison below follows the coordinated text attached to bill No. 8565, which prints the old article struck through above the new one. The table provides English renderings of the French wording. The 2023 protocol was signed in Vietnamese, French and English, with all three texts equally authentic.
| Point | 1996 Article 27 | Article 27 from the 2023 protocol |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Information “necessary” to apply the convention or domestic law, in particular to prevent tax fraud | Information “foreseeably relevant” (vraisemblablement pertinents) to apply the convention or to administer and enforce domestic law |
| Taxes | Domestic law on the taxes covered by the convention, the income and wealth taxes listed in Article 2 | Taxes of every kind and description levied for either State, its political subdivisions or local authorities |
| Persons | No statement | Exchange is not restricted by Articles 1 and 2 |
| Other uses of information received | Only the tax purposes listed | Allowed where the laws of both States permit it and the supplying State’s competent authority authorises it |
| No domestic tax interest | No provision | The requested State uses its gathering powers even without a tax need of its own (paragraph 4) |
| Banks, nominees, fiduciaries, ownership | No provision | No refusal solely because a bank, other financial institution, nominee, agent or fiduciary holds the information, or because it concerns ownership interests (paragraph 5) |
| Grounds for refusal | Paragraph 2(a) to (c): measures at variance with law or practice, information not obtainable, trade secrets or public policy | The same three grounds, now paragraph 3, read with paragraphs 4 and 5 |
The sentence with the widest reach is the last one in paragraph 1. Article 1 generally establishes a resident-based personal scope for the convention, subject to express exceptions such as Article 25(1), while Article 2 identifies the taxes covered by the convention’s ordinary provisions. The replacement Article 27 expressly provides that information exchange is not restricted by Articles 1 and 2. A Vietnamese request can therefore concern a third-country resident or a tax outside Article 2, but the information sought must be foreseeably relevant to the tax matter and the taxation must not be contrary to the convention.
Paragraphs 4 and 5 have no counterpart in the 1996 text. Under paragraph 4, Luxembourg has to use its information-gathering powers on a Vietnamese request even where it has no tax interest in the data. Paragraph 5 removes a bank’s or fiduciary’s status as a ground for refusal on its own. Trade secrets and public policy remain available as refusal grounds under paragraph 3(c).
How a Vietnamese request reaches a Luxembourg information holder
The protocol governs what the two competent authorities exchange, and under Article 3(1)(i) of the convention each side’s competent authority is its Minister of Finance or an authorised representative. The domestic route to whoever holds the data is the Law of 25 November 2014 on the procedure for exchange of information on request in tax matters, which applies to requests made under a bilateral double taxation convention (Article 1(1)).
Where the competent administration does not already hold the requested information, the Law of 25 November 2014 governs the procedure, as subsequently amended. Article 8 of the Law of 19 December 2025, effective on 23 December 2025, inserted Article 3(3bis). That provision prohibits an injunction addressed to a lawyer acting as a third-party information holder in the course of judicial representation or legal advice. For information holders to whom an injunction may lawfully be issued, the procedure is as follows (article numbers refer to the coordinated text published by Luxembourg’s direct tax administration, the Administration des contributions directes, ACD):
- The administration checks that the request is formally regular, including its legal basis and requesting authority, and that the information is not devoid of all foreseeable relevance given the person concerned, the holder and the needs of the tax procedure (Article 3(1)).
- The director, or a delegate, notifies the holder of an injunction by registered letter. The request itself is not disclosed; the injunction carries only what the holder needs to identify the information (Article 3(3) and (4)).
- The holder has one month from notification to supply the information in full, precisely and without alteration, including the documents it rests on (Article 2(2)). The ACD’s page on exchange on request says replies to its injunctions may be sent electronically through the State’s One-Time-Exchange (OTX) tool.
- If the requesting State asks that the person concerned not be informed, the administration bars the holder, its managers and its employees from revealing the existence or content of the injunction. A knowing breach carries a fine of EUR 1,250 to EUR 250,000 (Article 4).
- Information not supplied within the month exposes the holder to an administrative tax fine of up to EUR 250,000, set by the director (Article 5(1)).
- The holder can bring an action for annulment of the injunction, or for reformation of a fine, before the administrative tribunal within one month of notification, and the action has suspensive effect (Article 6).
Article 2(3) of the Law of 25 November 2014 addresses information relating to years before the entry into force of the relevant convention or law, where that information is foreseeably relevant to taxable income for a later tax year. It does not itself determine the application date of the replacement Article 27. Under Article 2(2) of the 2023 protocol, the replacement applies to tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2027. In assessing a request involving records created in 2025 or 2026, distinguish the date of the underlying records from the tax year under investigation. The treatment of requests concerning pre-2027 tax years requires a separate assessment of the treaty provisions applicable to those years.
CRS files and treaty-relief claims carry on as before
The replacement Article 27 sets the treaty basis for exchange between the two competent authorities. It leaves Luxembourg’s automatic-exchange lists alone. Viet Nam does not appear among the CRS Reportable Jurisdictions in the ACD’s coordinated text of the grand-ducal regulation of 15 March 2016 (version of 18 March 2026), which sets the list for reports on calendar year 2025 and later years. A reporting financial institution’s CRS file gains no Vietnamese reporting line from this protocol; the filing mechanics are in our CRS reporting guide for Luxembourg financial institutions.
The other automatic returns keep their own legal bases. FATCA reporting runs under the Luxembourg-US intergovernmental agreement approved by the Law of 24 July 2015, as set out in our FATCA reporting guide for Luxembourg, and crypto-asset reporting under the Law of 27 March 2026, covered in our CARF and DAC8 crypto-asset reporting article.
Withholding relief is equally untouched. The protocol has two articles: Article 1 replaces Article 27, and Article 2 deals with ratification, entry into force and applicability. The dividend, interest and royalty articles (Articles 10 to 12) and the elimination of double taxation article (Article 24) apply to payments between the two countries exactly as they did before 14 April 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the protocol add an anti-abuse clause or change the mutual agreement procedure?
The 2023 protocol does not add an anti-abuse clause or amend Article 26. However, the convention is already subject to the principal purposes test under Article 7(1) of the OECD Multilateral Instrument (MLI).
According to the ACD’s Luxembourg-Viet Nam synthesised treaty text, the MLI provisions generally apply to withholding-tax events from 1 January 2024 in both jurisdictions. For other taxes, the relevant taxable periods begin on or after 1 March 2024 in Luxembourg and 1 January 2025 in Viet Nam. Article 26 retains the three-year period for presenting a mutual agreement procedure case, measured from first notification of the action giving rise to taxation not in accordance with the convention. Treaty-relief positions should therefore be assessed against the convention as modified by the MLI, alongside the 2023 protocol.
A Vietnamese request concerns a tax the ACD does not administer. Which Luxembourg administration issues the injunction?
Article 1(2) of the 2014 law gives the request to whichever of the ACD, the registration and estates administration (AED) or the customs and excise administration is competent for the tax concerned, as determined by the laws and regulations in force. Where none of them is competent, the ACD handles the request (Article 1(3)).
Related Articles
- CRS Reporting in Luxembourg: Practical Guide for Financial Institutions: entity classification, due diligence, filing, deadlines and penalties under Luxembourg’s CRS law.
- FATCA Reporting in Luxembourg: Practical Guide for Financial Institutions: the legal framework, GIIN registration, due diligence, TIN collection and filing with the ACD.
- CARF Reporting in Luxembourg: DAC8 Crypto Filing by 30 June: which crypto-asset service providers file, what the report contains and the 30 June deadline.
- Hong Kong-Slovenia Double Tax Agreement: Lower Withholding: new withholding caps under another bilateral treaty and why they apply only after entry into force.
Sources and References
- Law of 17 December 2025 approving the protocol, with its text, Memorial A No. 584 (18 December 2025)
- Bill No. 8565, deposit document (30 June 2025): explanatory memorandum, commentary, coordinated convention text
- Bill No. 8565, Finance Committee report (14 November 2025)
- ACD coordinated text, Law of 25 November 2014 on exchange of information on request (historical consolidation dated 11 March 2019; read together with Article 8 of the Law of 19 December 2025, Memorial A No. 614)
- Law of 19 December 2025, Memorial A No. 614 (22 December 2025): Article 8 (Article 3(3bis) of the 2014 law) and Article 10 (entry into force)
- ACD: exchange of information on request (OTX reply route)
- ACD coordinated text, grand-ducal regulation of 15 March 2016 on CRS jurisdictions (version of 18 March 2026)
- Law of 27 March 2026 on the automatic exchange of information reported by crypto-asset service providers, Memorial A No. 144 (27 March 2026)
- Law of 24 July 2015 approving the Luxembourg-US FATCA agreement signed on 28 March 2014, Memorial A No. 145 (29 July 2015)
- Memorial A No. 506 (23 October 2026): Luxembourg-Viet Nam protocol entry into force (14 April 2026)
- ACD: Luxembourg-Viet Nam synthesised treaty text (21 September 2023): MLI commencement provisions and Article 7(1) principal purposes test
Tax years from 1 January 2027: the next checkpoint
The date to diarise is 1 January 2027, the start of the first tax years governed by the replacement Article 27. The workflow it tests already exists under the 2014 law: an injunction answered completely and without alteration within one month of notification, with any non-disclosure instruction applied to managers and staff. Holders of account, ownership or fiduciary data linked to Viet Nam can test that workflow, and the OTX reply route described on the ACD’s page, against the one-month clock now.
Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.