Lawyer Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong, YouMe Law Firm replied:

Clause 3, Article 30 of Circular 59/2015/TT-BLDTBXH detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Social Insurance regarding compulsory social insurance as amended by Clause 26, Article 1 of Circular 06 2021/TT-BLDTBXH stipulates the monthly salary for which compulsory social insurance is paid as follows:

3. The monthly salary on which the compulsory social insurance premium is based, excluding other regimes and benefits such as bonuses as prescribed in Article 104 of the Labor Code, initiative bonuses; Mid-shift meal; allowances for petrol, phone, travel, housing, child care, child rearing; support when employees have relatives died, employees have relatives getting married, employees' birthdays, allowances for employees in difficult circumstances when suffering from occupational accidents, occupational diseases and Other supports and allowances shall be recorded in separate sections in the labor contract specified in Item c2, Point c, Clause 5, Article 3 of Circular No. 10/2020/TT-BLDTBXH.

Article 104 of the Labor Code 2019 provides for bonuses as follows:

1. Bonus is the amount of money or property or in other forms that the employer rewards the employee based on the production and business results and the employee's job completion level.

2. Regulations on bonus are decided by the employer and publicly announced at the workplace after consulting with the employee representative organization at the grassroots level for the place where the representative organization is located.

Thus, the Lunar New Year bonus is a bonus according to the provisions of Article 104 of the Labor Code 2019, so it does not serve as a basis for calculating social insurance premiums.