NGƯỜI LAO ĐỘNG ỦY QUYỀN CHO CÁ NHÂN KHÁC NHẬN LƯƠNG THÌ CÓ CẦN CÔNG CHỨNG, CHỨNG THỰC VĂN BẢN ỦY QUY

Legal situation: Hello Lawyer, I have entered into a one-year employment contract with Company A. Currently, I would like to authorize my wife to receive my salary on my behalf. Is it mandatory for the power of attorney to be notarized or certified?  I look forward to receiving your advice.

FDVN’s opinion:

Thank you for submitting your question to FDVN Law Firm ("FDVN"). After reviewing the relevant legal provisions, we would like to provide the following advice: 

According to Clause 1 Article 94 of the Labor Code No. 45/2019/QH14 dated November 20, 2019 regarding salary payment principles: 

“1. Employers shall directly, fully and punctually pay salaries to their employees. In the cases where an employee is not able to directly receive his/her salary, the employer may pay it through a person legally authorized by the employee. ”

Accordingly, the law permits an employee to authorize another person to receive salary on his or her behalf when the employee is unable to receive the salary directly. However, such authorization must be lawful.

At present, Vietnamese civil law does not generally require an authorization by one individual to another individual to be notarized or certified. However, guidance issued by tax authorities provides additional requirements in certain circumstances. For example, Official Letter No. 654/TN1-QLDN1 issued by the Tay Ninh Tax Department on 4 February 2026 regarding corporate income tax policies provides, at Section 2, that where an employee of a company does not have a bank account and lawfully authorizes another individual to receive salary on his or her behalf, the company may transfer the salary to the bank account of the authorized person. Such expense may be treated as a deductible expense for corporate income tax purposes, provided that all of the following conditions are satisfied:

- Labor records: There must be a valid employment contract, attendance records, and payroll documents evidencing that the salary expense was actually incurred for the company's production and business activities.

- Validity of the authorization: There must be a Power of Attorney or Authorization Agreement established in accordance with civil law requirements (and notarized or certified by a competent state authority), clearly stating the authorization to receive salary, the personal information of both the principal and the authorized person, and the bank account information of the authorized person.

- Payment documentation: There must be non-cash payment records (for payments of VND 5 million or more) showing the transfer to the authorized person's bank account. The payment description should clearly indicate that the transfer is salary payment made on behalf of the employee pursuant to the relevant authorization document.

Therefore, based on the guidance provided by the Tay Ninh Tax Department, if you authorize another person to receive salary on your behalf under an employment contract, the Power of Attorney or Authorization Agreement should be notarized or certified.

The above constitutes FDVN’s legal opinion based on our review of the applicable legal provisions. We hope that this advice is helpful to you.

Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang - FDVN Law Firm