Most cross-border online shopping in Việt Nam arrives the same way: a small parcel, ordered from a platform abroad, carried by the national postal operator or an international express company, and cleared on a simplified low-value declaration. On 29 September 2026 the Ministry of Finance changed the rules for that channel. Thông tư 142/2026/TT-BTC amends the two circulars that have governed postal and express customs clearance since 2015. The most important change for the digital economy is a single new requirement: the person clearing a low-value parcel must go through electronic identification and authentication (định danh, xác thực điện tử).
The document
- Number: Thông tư 142/2026/TT-BTC
- Issued by: Ministry of Finance (Bộ Tài chính), signed for the Minister by Deputy Minister Nguyễn Đức Chi, on the proposal of the Director of the Customs Department (Cục Hải quan)
- Signed: 29 September 2026
- Effective: 16 November 2026
- Structure: 4 articles plus five annexes of forms and data-field specifications
It amends Thông tư 49/2015/TT-BTC (customs procedures for letters, packets and parcels sent through the designated postal operator), Thông tư 191/2015/TT-BTC (customs procedures for goods sent through international express services), and the later amending circulars 56/2019/TT-BTC and 29/2025/TT-BTC. Its legal bases include the Law on Tax Administration 108/2025/QH15 and Nghị định 254/2026/NĐ-CP on e-invoices and electronic documents.
What changes
1. Electronic identification for low-value goods. The new point g of Article 4(3) of Thông tư 49/2015 requires the customs declarant to carry out electronic identification and authentication “under the law on electronic identification and authentication” when clearing group 1 postal goods — low-value parcels. For express shipments, new Article 5(12) of Thông tư 191/2015 imposes the same duty for group 1 and group 2 goods (documents without commercial value and low-value goods). According to LuatVietnam’s comparison table, the provisions being amended contained no equivalent requirement before.
2. Carriers must bring the buyer into the check. Usually the declarant is not the shopper but the postal or express company acting on the shopper’s behalf. In that case the carrier must now notify the sender (for exports) or the recipient (for imports) to cooperate with customs in the identification and authentication process (new Article 4(5)(o) of Thông tư 49 and Article 5(13) of Thông tư 191). In practice the person receiving a parcel from abroad becomes part of the clearance step.
3. Group definitions tightened. A parcel qualifies for the simplified low-value group only if its customs value is within the duty-free threshold and it is either exempt from licences, conditions and specialised inspection or not subject to them at all. Value alone is no longer enough; the product’s regulatory status must be checked too.
4. Declarants must meet the general e-customs conditions. Anyone filing through the customs electronic system must meet Article 6(5) of Thông tư 38/2015/TT-BTC as amended by Thông tư 121/2025/TT-BTC, and electronic documents follow Article 3 of the same circular.
5. Per-declaration tax deduction from prepaid deposits. Carriers that pay on behalf of the consignee prepay into the customs deposit account at the State Treasury. Each declaration’s taxes and fees are then deducted from that balance before the goods are released. Express companies may pay taxes, fines, late-payment interest, assessed taxes, customs fees and transit charges for the owner, and must self-declare, self-calculate and self-pay. For postal imports, customs must debit the tax, issue state-budget payment documents daily or weekly, and supply a reconciliation summary on the new form HQ 08-BTH-TT on request.
6. Receipts under the e-invoice decree. Express companies that hand receipts to consignees must issue them under Nghị định 254/2026/NĐ-CP, including its registration, format and numbering rules.
7. Transit and border transfer join the general rules. Postal items collected abroad and brought into Việt Nam only for sorting and onward international dispatch now follow the transit procedure in Article 51a of Thông tư 38/2015. Goods moved between border gates follow Articles 50 and 51. The separate, parcel-specific procedures are gone.
8. Housekeeping. “Yellow channel” and “red channel” become channel 2 and channel 3. Goods must be presented for physical inspection only when a declaration is placed on channel 3. Requirements to submit “01 bản chụp” (one copy) are deleted. Agency names are updated to the post-2025 customs structure. Several old forms are abolished. The low-value import declaration keeps type code A45, with P for postal, E for express and G for gifts. The detailed goods lists (HQ 01a/06a-BKCTHH) now carry VAT lines.
Who is affected
- Online shoppers buying from abroad. From 16 November, receiving a low-value parcel may involve an identity check that you have to take part in when the carrier asks.
- Vietnam Post and international express companies. They need new notification flows, updated declaration software and forms, and reconciled deposit accounts. The circular gives no grace period after 16 November.
- Cross-border e-commerce sellers and platforms. The data trail for each parcel becomes tied to a verified person. That fits the direction set by the amended Customs Law, which we covered in Luật 11/2026/QH16.
- Exporters shipping small parcels. The same duties apply to outbound group 1 (and, for express, group 2) goods, where the sender is the one who must cooperate.
Open questions
- Which identity system? The circular refers to “the law on electronic identification and authentication” but does not name VNeID, the level of account required, or how a foreign recipient would be verified. The declaration guidance still allows “NN-” plus a passport number when there is no personal identification number.
- Is the system ready? Article 4(2) makes the Customs Department responsible for building the electronic data processing system and issuing message formats. With the rules in force on 16 November, both carriers and customs have about six weeks to integrate.
- What happens if a recipient does not respond? The text sets the carrier’s duty to notify but not the consequence for a parcel whose recipient never completes verification.
Low-value parcels lost their old tax exemption when the 1 million đồng threshold for express shipments was abolished from 18 February 2025. Thông tư 142 takes the next step: it ties each of those parcels to an identifiable person.
Sources
- LuatVietnam: Thông tư 142/2026/TT-BTC (full text)
- LuatVietnam: Comparison table of Thông tư 142/2026/TT-BTC with Thông tư 49/2015 and 191/2015
- Thuế & Hải quan Online (Tạp chí Kinh tế – Tài chính): Thay đổi cách làm thủ tục hải quan với hàng bưu chính, chuyển phát nhanh
- Thời báo Tài chính Việt Nam: Bộ Tài chính đẩy mạnh số hóa thủ tục hải quan với hàng bưu chính, chuyển phát nhanh
- Xây dựng chính sách (Government portal): Bãi bỏ quy định miễn thuế hàng nhập khẩu dưới 1 triệu đồng gửi qua chuyển phát nhanh từ 18/2/2025
This post is general information, not legal advice.