Vietnam’s New Labor and Social Insurance Penalties｜Decree 283/2026 Fine Table by Violation

On September 10, 2026, Vietnam’s new administrative penalty decree for labor and social insurance (Decree 283/2026/ND-CP) took effect.
It fully replaces Decree 12/2022/ND-CP, and its most significant change is that “late payment” and “evasion” of social insurance are now separated into distinct penalty regimes for the first time.

This article focuses on the violation types foreign-invested companies most commonly encounter, presenting the fine amounts for each violation in table form.

Decree 283/2026 at a Glance

Item	Detail
Decree number	Nghị định 283/2026/ND-CP
Issued	July 15, 2026
Effective	September 10, 2026
Replaces	Decree 12/2022/ND-CP (in full)
Structure	6 chapters, 68 articles
Scope	Labor, social insurance, overseas contract workers

Statute of Limitations

• Labor and social insurance violations: 1 year (unchanged)
• Overseas contract worker violations: 2 years (extended from 1 year)

The Key Change: “Late Payment” vs “Evasion”

The change with the greatest practical impact is that unpaid social insurance is now split into chậm đóng (late payment) and trốn đóng (evasion), with a different penalty applied to each.

The dividing line is generally whether 60 days have passed since the authority’s demand notice. If non-payment continues beyond 60 days — or if the contribution base salary was declared below the legal level — it is treated as evasion and attracts the heavier penalty.

Category	Article	Fine (individual)	Fine (organization = 2×)
Late payment chậm đóng	Art. 43(3)	12–15% of the overdue amount (max 75 million VND)	max 150 million VND
Evasion trốn đóng	Art. 44(2)	18–20% of the evaded amount (max 75 million VND)	max 150 million VND

Note that if the unpaid amount is under 400,000 VND at the time the violation report is drawn up, the result is a warning rather than a fine.

Failure to Register for Social Insurance (Art. 43, 44)

Registration failures are penalized on a sliding scale based on the number of employees affected. Which article applies depends on whether you are within 60 days of the demand notice or beyond it.

Employees affected	Within 60 days (Art. 43 / individual)	Beyond 60 days (Art. 44 / individual)	Organization (2×)
Under 10	5–10 million VND	6–12 million VND	12–24 million VND
10–50	10–15 million VND	–	20–30 million VND
50–100	15–20 million VND	–	30–40 million VND
1,000 or more	60–75 million VND	70–75 million VND	140–150 million VND

Unemployment Insurance Penalties (Art. 45, 46)

Violation	Article	Fine (individual)	Fine (organization)
Late or incomplete registration	Art. 45(2)	500,000–35 million VND	1–70 million VND
Late payment	Art. 45(3)	12–15% of overdue amount (max 75 million VND)	max 150 million VND
Evading registration	Art. 46(1)	1–40 million VND	2–80 million VND
Evading payment	Art. 46(2)	18–20% of evaded amount (max 75 million VND)	max 150 million VND

Labor Information Registration (Art. 12, new)

Since July 1, 2026, labor information must be registered at the same time as social insurance enrollment. Decree 283 introduces penalties for failing to do so.

Violation	Fine (individual)	Fine (organization = 2×)
Worker fails to provide information or provides it incompletely	1–2 million VND	– (applies to the worker)
Employer fails to register (1–50 workers)	5–10 million VND	10–20 million VND
Employer fails to register (51–100 workers)	10–15 million VND	20–30 million VND
Employer fails to register (101+ workers)	15–20 million VND	30–40 million VND

Other Notable Penalties

Violation	Article	Fine (individual)	Fine (organization)
Forging or altering work permit documents	Art. 13(4)	40–60 million VND	80–120 million VND
Suppressing or retaliating against strikes	Art. 30(3)	5–10 million VND	10–20 million VND
Issuing false safety training results	Art. 36(2)(c)	–	30–50 million VND
Conducting safety training while suspended or outside scope	Art. 36(2)(d)	–	120–140 million VND

Conduct That May Be Referred for Criminal Investigation (Art. 4, new)

Decree 12/2022 contained no such provision. The following may go beyond administrative penalties and be referred to criminal proceedings.

The treatment of worker data in particular connects to the Personal Data Protection Law (Law 91/2025/QH15), in force since January 1, 2026. Companies that share HR data with a parent company or affiliates should review their internal handling rules.

Three Procedural Changes Worth Knowing

1. Household businesses are treated as individuals (Art. 7(3))

It is now explicit that violations by household businesses are penalized as individuals, not organizations — meaning the fine is not doubled.

2. Multiple violations and aggravating circumstances (Art. 7(4))

As a rule each violation is penalized separately. However, where union fund, social insurance and unemployment insurance late payment or evasion occurred at different times and remains unsettled and within the limitation period, they are penalized as a single violation with an aggravating circumstance (tình tiết tăng nặng) applied.

3. Electronic service of notices (Art. 6)

Violation notices and penalty decisions may now be delivered by the following means. Waiting for paper mail risks a delayed response.

• Email
• Digital identity app (level 2 authentication or above)
• SMS to the registered phone number
• Sector-specific e-government portals

What to Check Right Now

Under-declaring the contribution base is especially common: companies assume “allowances are outside the base” and carry that assumption for years, so the retroactive amount can become substantial.
Under Decree 283, this is classified not as late payment (12–15%) but as evasion (18–20%).

👉 On how the contribution base is determined, see “ Allowances in Vietnam: Tax and Social Insurance Treatment ”.

Summary

Decree 283/2026 took effect on September 10, 2026, drawing a clear line between late payment (12–15%) and evasion (18–20%) of social insurance.
Fines for organizations are double the stated figures, and a 0.03% daily surcharge applies on top — so leaving arrears unresolved costs considerably more than it used to.

The most reliable way to limit exposure is to track the contribution base and enrolled headcount correctly every month, and build on-time payment into your process.
EST centralizes the automatic calculation of the social insurance base and the management of enrolled employees, preventing the declaration gaps and calculation errors that manual work introduces.

👉 See also “ Social Insurance Eligibility and Contribution Calculation ” and “ How Payroll Deductions Work (SI / HI / UI / PIT) ”.

* This article summarizes the principal penalties under Decree 283/2026/ND-CP from a practical standpoint. For application to a specific case, please confirm against the original text of the decree and with a qualified professional.