Remitting inherited money abroad is the final link of a cross-border inheritance chain, and a bank examines it as a foreign-exchange transaction requiring proof of lawful origin, not as an ordinary personal transfer. This article presents the banking procedure for inherited money in Vietnam: the estate file comes before the transfer order, tax duties are settled before money leaves the account, and the double-taxation question is answered under the actual treaty mechanism.
Legal basis for remitting inherited money abroad
Origin of funds is the first condition of the transaction: the 2005 Ordinance on Foreign Exchange (28/2005/PL-UBTVQH11, amended and supplemented in 2013) allows residents and non-residents to transfer foreign currency abroad for lawful needs, and inherited money is a lawful source when established by a notarised declaration or division of estate. A bank executes an outward one-way transfer on the basis of the file proving this origin, under the control mechanism of banking and foreign-exchange law.
Before inherited money is transferred, the recipient’s tax duty in Vietnam must be settled: inheritance income is taxed at ten percent on the value exceeding twenty million dong for registrable assets under the 2025 Personal Income Tax Law 109/2025/QH15 and Decree 253/2026/ND-CP, except for the exempt group of inheritances between close relatives. A bank is not a tax collector, but an inherited-money transfer file missing tax evidence or an exemption confirmation will be asked to supplement before the transaction is executed.
The notarised document standing between the estate and the bank must follow the 2024 Notarisation Law (46/2024/QH15, effective 1 July 2025): a declaration of inheritance or estate-division agreement stating clearly the recipient and their amount or asset share. Where the inherited asset is real estate sold before the transfer, the file chain also includes the sale contract and price evidence, so the bank can connect the account balance to the original estate as one continuous money flow.
Applying the rules to each question about remitting inherited money abroad
Can inherited money in Vietnam be sent home? Inherited money in Vietnam can be sent home, by transfer through the commercial bank where the inherited-money account is held, provided the sender proves three paperwork layers: heir status, the amount belonging to their share, and completed tax duties. The bank will convert or transfer in the original currency depending on the account’s currency and the foreign-exchange rules at transaction time, and large-value transactions usually require scheduling and prior explanation rather than instant execution at the counter.
Is an estate-division document required? An estate-division document is in practice mandatory for remitting inherited money abroad where there are two or more heirs, because the bank needs an independent basis showing the transferred amount equals exactly the requester’s share. Where there is a sole heir, their own declaration of inheritance plays the equivalent role, and in all cases the death certificate and heir-relationship documents remain the two foundation pieces of the banking file.
Could the money be taxed twice? Whether the money is taxed twice depends more on the law of the receiving country than on Vietnam: the Vietnamese side taxes once at the moment of receiving the inheritance for taxable assets, while the recipient’s country of residence may count the inheritance into their taxable income or wealth under its own law. The double taxation treaties Vietnam has signed mainly cover ordinary income tax and not every treaty reaches inheritance tax, so the recipient should ask a tax adviser at home about crediting the tax paid in Vietnam instead of assuming an exemption.
Safe steps for remitting inherited money abroad
- Complete the notarised declaration or division of estate, stating clearly the money share of the person who will remit abroad.
- Settle the Vietnamese inheritance tax duty: pay ten percent on the excess over the threshold or obtain an exemption confirmation.
- Go to the account-holding bank and submit the source-of-funds file: estate document, death certificate, identity papers and tax evidence.
- Execute the transfer order to the heir’s account abroad and keep the order and the transfer message for later explanation.
Common risks in remitting inherited money abroad
The most common risk in remitting inherited money abroad is trying informal channels to avoid banking paperwork, while those very channels erase the funds’ trace and can violate the foreign-exchange law of both countries. The second risk is transferring before settling Vietnamese inheritance tax: when the tax file is reopened, the money that already left the account is no longer a base for resolving the duty, and the heir must handle it from afar at far greater cost.
Remitting inherited money abroad through a bank is a procedure of proving origin more than a procedure of moving money: the notarised estate document, tax evidence and heir-relationship papers form one chain, and the bank only lets the money go when that chain is continuous. A family that prepares this file chain from the start of the inheritance makes the final step — money arriving in the account abroad — the lightest step of the whole journey.
Frequently asked questions about remitting inherited money abroad
Can inherited money in Vietnam be sent home?
An heir should open or keep an account at the very bank holding the inherited money and ask in advance for that bank’s document list for outward transfers, because each bank interprets source-of-funds file details somewhat differently within the same foreign-exchange framework. Inherited money in Vietnam can be sent home, by transfer through the commercial bank where the inherited-money account is held, provided the sender proves three paperwork layers: heir status, the amount belonging to their share, and completed tax duties. The bank will convert or transfer in the original currency depending on the account’s currency and the foreign-exchange rules at transaction time, and large-value transactions usually require scheduling and prior explanation rather than instant execution at the counter.
Is an estate-division document required?
If the estate includes unsold real estate, the optimal order is to complete the inheritance and name transfer, sell the asset, settle tax for both transactions, and only then remit the inherited money abroad in one or several fully documented transfer orders. An estate-division document is in practice mandatory for remitting inherited money abroad where there are two or more heirs, because the bank needs an independent basis showing the transferred amount equals exactly the requester’s share. Where there is a sole heir, their own declaration of inheritance plays the equivalent role, and in all cases the death certificate and heir-relationship documents remain the two foundation pieces of the banking file.
Could the money be taxed twice?
On double taxation of inherited money, the recipient should keep the Vietnamese tax payment evidence stating clearly the amount and the calculation basis, because that document is the sole proof for claiming a credit or explaining the funds’ origin to the tax authority and bank in the receiving country. Whether the money is taxed twice depends more on the law of the receiving country than on Vietnam: the Vietnamese side taxes once at the moment of receiving the inheritance for taxable assets, while the recipient’s country of residence may count the inheritance into their taxable income or wealth under its own law. The double taxation treaties Vietnam has signed mainly cover ordinary income tax and not every treaty reaches inheritance tax, so the recipient should ask a tax adviser at home about crediting the tax paid in Vietnam instead of assuming an exemption.
