Circular No. 32/2011/TT-BTC dated March 14, 2011 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the creation, issuance and use of e-invoices for goods sale and service provision

FORMALLY USE E-INVOICES FROM MAY 1ST

On March 14, 2011, the Ministry of Finance issued the Circular No. 32/2011/TT-BTC guiding the creation, issuance and use of e-invoices for goods sale and service provision.

According to this Circular, E-invoices shall be created, billed and processed in the computer system of an organization having a tax identification number upon sale of goods or provision of services and stored in computers of involved parties under the law on e-transactions. Invoices which are billed in paper but processed, transmitted or stored in e-devices are not e-invoices.

An e-invoice is legally valid when it fully satisfies the following conditions:  reliability for the integrity of information contained in the e-invoice is assured. Criteria for information integrity evaluation are completeness and intactness except changes in appearance arising in the exchange, storage or display of an e-invoice; information contained in an e-invoice can be accessed and used in complete form when necessary.

A seller that chooses to use e-invoices for goods sale or service provision shall notify a buyer of the format of its e-invoices, the mode of transmission and receipt of e-invoices between the seller and buyer.

A goods seller or service provider which creates e-invoices must satisfy the following conditions: Being an economic organization or being an economic organization; Having a place and lines for information transmission and communication networks and transmission devices; Having qualified and capable personnel for creating, billing and using e-invoices under regulations; Having e-signature under law; Having goods sale or service provision software; Having processes for backup, recovery and storage of data.

Before creating e-invoices, an organization shall issue a decision on application of e-invoices (made according to a form provided in the Appendix to this Circular, not printed herein) and send it to its managing tax office in hard copy or electronically through the tax office’s website and take responsibility for this decision.