Payroll parking in Vietnam means placing your employees on the payroll of a licensed Vietnamese company that acts as their Employer of Record (EOR) while they work for you. The EOR signs the labour contract under the Labour Code 2019, registers the employee for social, health and unemployment insurance, withholds and finalises personal income tax, pays the trade union fee and, for foreigners, sponsors the work permit. You direct the work, set the targets and manage performance.
Vietnam has one feature that sets it apart from Singapore or Malaysia: supplying labour to another company is a licensed activity. Only a provider holding a labour outsourcing licence (often translated as labour leasing) issued under the Labour Code may lawfully place its employees with a client. A great deal of what is sold as “EOR in Vietnam” is not licensed, and the risk of that lands on you and your employees. The first question to ask any provider is to see the licence.
What payroll parking covers in Vietnam
- A labour contract that complies with the Labour Code 2019: probation of up to 60 days for most professional roles (180 for enterprise managers) at no less than 85% of salary, a maximum of two fixed-term contracts before the role becomes indefinite, the 48-hour week, and notice of 30 days on fixed-term and 45 days on indefinite contracts
- Registration with Vietnam Social Security and monthly contributions of 17.5% social insurance, 3% health insurance and 1% unemployment insurance from the employer, plus the 2% trade union fee, and 8%, 1.5% and 1% from the employee, on salary capped at 20 times the statutory base (VND 46.8 million a month in 2026)
- For foreign employees on work permits, the same contributions less unemployment insurance (22.5% employer, 9.5% employee)
- Monthly personal income tax withholding and the annual finalisation, including the 1 July 2026 switch to the five-bracket schedule from 5% to 35% and the VND 15.5 million monthly personal deduction
- Compliance with the regional minimum wages under Decree 293/2025, VND 5.31 million a month in Region I (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang) and lower in Regions II to IV, with the uplift for trained workers
- Thirteenth-month salary accrual where contractual, Tet bonus administration, leave (12 working days after a year) and public holidays including the Tet week
- Work permit sponsorship under Decree 219/2025, including the foreign labour demand approval, the permit and the LD visa and residence card
- Termination in line with the Code, including severance allowance of half a month’s salary per year of service for periods not covered by unemployment insurance
How the arrangement is set up
- Licence check and agreement. Confirm the provider’s labour outsourcing licence, then agree roles, salaries, allowances, location and reporting lines in a service agreement.
- Onboarding. The EOR collects the employee’s ID, social insurance book number, tax code and bank details, and issues a Vietnamese and English labour contract.
- Monthly cycle. You confirm variable pay, overtime (capped at 40 hours a month and 200 a year, 300 by exception) and leave. The EOR pays salaries, remits insurance and PIT, and invoices you once.
- Annual events. Tet bonus and thirteenth-month payments in January or February, PIT finalisation by the end of March, and the insurance salary review each time the base salary or regional minimum changes.
- Exit or transfer. When your own Vietnamese company holds its Investment Registration Certificate and Enterprise Registration Certificate, staff transfer with service continuity; if a role ends, the EOR manages notice and severance.
What payroll parking costs in Vietnam
Fees are usually a monthly amount per employee or a percentage of gross salary, with salary and statutory costs passed through. Statutory on-costs are significant: 23.5% employer contributions for Vietnamese staff, plus a thirteenth month in most professional roles, so budget roughly 30% on top of gross pay before the EOR fee. The alternative is two to four months of entity setup, a Vietnamese accountant and payroll officer, chief accountant obligations, and the cost of being wrong on a rule that changes mid-year, as PIT does in July 2026. For teams under fifteen to twenty people, parking is usually cheaper and much faster.
When payroll parking is the right answer in Vietnam
- Hiring ahead of incorporation. You want a country manager and first team in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi now, while the investment and enterprise registrations run.
- Small or project teams. A regional business with a few account managers, or a twelve-month engineering team, may never need an entity.
- Expatriates. The EOR sponsors the Decree 219 work permit process, which realistically takes three to four months including legalisation.
- Testing the market. Vietnam’s procedural intensity is easier to absorb once you know the team and the revenue are real.
- One regional payroll. Companies with staff across Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia often park all five payrolls with one provider.
When it is not
If you are building a factory, need a Vietnamese entity for licences or tenders, or will pass fifty staff within a year, incorporate early and use parking as the bridge. And however the payroll is structured, the Labour Code’s protections for the employee are the same.
Payroll parking with People Profilers Vietnam
People Profilers Vietnam holds a labour outsourcing licence and has provided payroll parking and Employer of Record services from Ho Chi Minh City for many years, alongside our teams in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Employees are parked under our Vietnamese headcount, paid through our cloud payroll platform with self-service payslips, leave and claims, and kept compliant with social, health and unemployment insurance, PIT and the Labour Code as the rules change.
See our EOR and payroll parking services in Vietnam and payroll outsourcing in Vietnam, or talk to People Profilers Vietnam.
