Decree No. 04/2014/ND-CP January 17, 2014 dated January 17, 2014 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP of May 14, 2010, providing for goods sale and service provision invoices

 DECREE

Amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP of May 14, 2010, providing for goods sale and service provision invoices[1]

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the November 29, 2006 Law on Tax Administration and the November 20, 2012 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Tax Administration;

Pursuant to the June 17, 2003 Law on Accounting;

Pursuant to the November 29, 2005 Law on E-Transactions;

Pursuant to the June 3, 2008 Law on Value-Added Tax and the June 19, 2013 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Value-Added Tax;

At the proposal of the Minister of Finance,

The Government promulgates the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP of May 14, 2010, providing for goods sale and service provision invoices.

Article 1. To amend and supplement a number of articles of the Government’s Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP of May 14, 2010, providing for goods sale and service provision invoices as follows:

1. To amend Clauses 1 and 2, Article 4 as follows:

“1. Invoices provided in this Decree are of the following types:

b/ Value-added invoice, which is a goods sale or service provision invoice of an organization that declares value-added tax by the credit method;

c/ Sale invoice, which is a goods sale or service provision invoice of an organization or individual that declares value-added tax by the direct method;

d/ Other types of invoice, including tickets, cards or documents which are otherwise titled but have the forms and contents provided in Clauses 2 and 3 of this Article.

2. An invoice may take one of the following forms:

a/ Self-printed invoice, which is printed by business organizations themselves from information technology devices, cash registers or other machines upon the sale of goods or provision of services;

b/ E-invoice, which is a collection of e-data messages on goods sale or service provision created, made out, sent, received, stored and managed under the Law on E-Transactions and guiding documents;

c/ Invoice printed on order, which is an invoice printed according to a set format on order of a business organization for use upon the sale of goods or provision of services, or on order of a tax office for distribution or sale to organizations and individuals.”

2. To amend and supplement Article 5 as follows:

“Article 5. Principles of creation and issuance of invoices

1. Business organizations that fully satisfy the conditions prescribed in Articles 6 and 7 of this Decree may themselves print invoices or create e-invoices for use in goods sale and service provision.

2. Business organizations that have tax identification numbers but fail to fully satisfy the conditions prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article shall order the printing of invoices for their goods sale and service provision.

3. Tax offices of provinces and centrally run cities (below referred to as provincial-level Tax Departments) shall order the printing of, and issue, invoices for distribution or sale to organizations and individuals under Article 10 of this Decree.

4. Enterprises that fully satisfy the conditions prescribed in Article 22 of this Decree may print invoices for other organizations.

5. Business organizations may concurrently use invoices in different forms. The State encourages the use of e-invoices.

6. Invoice-printing organizations may not print the same serial numbers on invoices bearing the same symbol.

7. Before using invoices for goods sale or service provision, organizations shall notify their issuance under Articles 11 and 12 of this Decree.”

3. To amend Article 6 as follows:

“Article 6. Self-printed invoices

1. Enterprises established in accordance with law in industrial parks, economic zones, export-processing zones or hi-tech parks; enterprises having charter capital at the level prescribed by the Ministry of Finance; and public non-business units conducting production and business activities in accordance with law may themselves print invoices after obtaining their tax identification numbers.

2. Business organizations, except those defined in Clause 1 of this Article, may themselves print invoices for goods sale and service provision if they fully satisfy the following conditions:

a/ Having obtained tax identification numbers;

b/ Having turnover from goods sale and service provision;

c/ Not having been sanctioned for tax-related violations prescribed by the Ministry of Finance for 365 (three hundred and sixty five) consecutive days by the date of notification of the issuance of self-printed invoices;

d/ Having an equipment system for printing and making out invoices upon the sale of goods or provision of services;

dd/ Being accounting units as defined in the Accounting Law and having a goods sale and service provision software linked with the accounting software to ensure that invoices will be printed and made out only when an accounting operation occurs;

e/ Having written requests for use of self-printed invoices approved by tax offices. The tax offices directly managing them shall give opinions on the registration for use of self-printed invoices within 5 working days.

3. Self-printed invoices must ensure the principle that an invoice number is given only once. The number of invoice sheets to be printed depends on specific use needs of sale operations. Organizations shall themselves specify in writing the number of invoice sheets.

4. For enterprises committing violations of regulations on invoice management and use or having a high risk of tax-related violations, the Ministry of Finance shall take appropriate measures of supervision and management provided by the law on tax administration and the law on information technology to ensure the observance of regulations on invoices.

5. Enterprises using self-printed invoices which commit invoice-related violations subject to administrative sanctions against tax evasion- or tax fraud-related violations or have a high risk of tax-related violations under the Tax Administration Law may not use self-printed invoices and shall purchase invoices issued by tax offices within the time limit specified in Clause 2, Article 10 of this Decree. The time of ceasing the use of self-printed invoices is counted from the effective date of the decision on sanctioning of tax evasion- or tax fraud-related administrative violations (for enterprises committing invoice-related violations subject to administrative sanctions against tax evasion- or tax fraud-related violations), or specified by tax offices (for enterprises having a high risk of tax-related violations). The Ministry of Finance shall guide this Clause.

6. The Ministry of Finance shall specify and guide the use of cash registers for the printing of goods sale and service provision invoices for production and business establishments in accordance with regulations on invoices.”

4. To amend and supplement Clause 2, Article 8 as follows:

“2. Business organizations and enterprises with tax identification numbers, except business households and individuals and enterprises specified in Clauses 4 and 5, Article 6 of this Decree, may order the printing of invoices for their goods sale and service provision.

Before ordering the printing of invoices for the first time, business organizations and enterprises (except entities eligible to create invoices printed on order) shall send written registrations for use of invoices printed on order to their managing tax offices. The tax offices shall give opinions on the registration for use of invoices printed on order within 5 working days.

Enterprises currently using invoices printed on order which commit invoice-related violations subject to administrative sanctions against tax evasion- or tax fraud-related violations or have a high risk of tax-related violations under the Tax Administration Law may not use invoices printed on order and shall purchase invoices issued by tax offices within the time limit specified in Clause 2, Article 10 of this Decree. The time of ceasing the use of invoices printed on order is counted from the effective date of the decision on sanctioning of tax evasion- or tax fraud-related administrative violations (for enterprises committing invoice-related violations subject to administrative sanctions against tax evasion- or tax fraud-related violations), or specified by tax offices (for enterprises having a high risk of tax-related violations).”

5. To amend and supplement Clause 2, Article 10 as follows:

“2. Invoices printed on order of provincial-level Tax Departments may be sold to organizations other than enterprises which conduct business activities and to business households and individuals with their establishments based in localities and enterprises ineligible to create invoices printed on order and self-printed invoices defined in Clauses 4 and 5, Article 6 and Clause 2, Article 8 of this Decree. Enterprises shall purchase invoices issued by tax offices within 12 months. Past this time limit, if enterprises satisfy the conditions on self-printed invoices or invoices printed on order, tax offices shall notify them of permission for self-creation of invoices, or enterprises shall continue to purchase invoices issued by tax offices if they do not satisfy the conditions on self-printed invoices or invoices printed on order.”

6. To amend Article 22 as follows:

“Article 22. Conditions and responsibilities of invoice-printing organizations and billing software suppliers

1. Conditions and responsibilities of invoice-printing organizations

a/ Conditions:

An invoice-printing organization must be an enterprise with printing license.

b/ Responsibilities:

- To print invoices under signed contracts; not to assign other printing organizations to conduct the whole or any stage of the invoice printing process;

- To manage, preserve and dispose of printing molds, printing blanks, printed invoices and defective printed invoices as agreed between the two parties and provided by law;

- To liquidate printing contracts with ordering organizations or individuals and dispose of printing molds and defective printed invoices under the Finance Ministry’s regulations;

- To send quarterly reports on invoice printing to their managing tax offices.

2. Conditions and responsibilities of billing software suppliers

a/ Conditions:

A billing software supplier must be an enterprise having a business registration certificate (enterprise registration certificate) which indicates the business line of computer programming or software publishing, except cases in which organizations use their own software to print invoices;

b/ Responsibilities:

- To ensure that the billing software provided to a unit complies with regulations on self-printing of invoices; not to provide software for printing counterfeit invoices in forms identical to those in the software provided to other enterprises.

- To send quarterly reports on the supply of billing software to tax offices directly managing them.”

Article 2. Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on March 1, 2014.

2. The Ministry of Finance shall guide this Decree.

3. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees and related organizations and individuals shall implement this Decree.-

On behalf of the Government
Prime Minister
NGUYEN TAN DUNG