Decree 123/2020/ND-CP on invoices and documents

DECREE

On invoices and documents

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Pursuant to the June 19, 2015 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the Law on Tax Administration dated June 13, 2019;

Pursuant to the Law on Value-Added Tax dated June 03, 2008; the Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Value-Added Tax dated June 19, 2013; the Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Laws on Taxes dated November 26, 2014; the Law on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Value-Added Tax, the Law on Excise Tax and the Law on Tax Administration dated April 06, 2016;

Pursuant to the Accounting Law dated November 20, 2015;

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

Pursuant to the Law on Information Technology dated June 29, 2006;

At the proposal of the Minister of Finance;

The Government hereby promulgates the Decree on invoices and documents.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Decree prescribes the management and use of invoices for goods sale and service provision; the management and use of documents for carrying out procedures related to taxes, fee and charge collection; tasks, powers and responsibilities of agencies, organizations and individuals in the management and use of invoices and documents.

Article 2. Subjects of application

1. Organizations and individuals selling goods or providing services, including:

a) Enterprises established and operating under Vietnamese laws; branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises operating in Vietnam;

b) Cooperatives and cooperative unions;

c) Business households, individuals and cooperative groups;

d) Public non-business units engaged in selling goods or providing services;

dd) Organizations other than enterprises that conduct business activities.

2. Organizations and individuals purchasing goods and services.

3. Tax, charge and fee- collecting organizations.

4. Tax, charge and fee payers.

5. Personal income tax- withholding organizations.

6. Invoice and document- printing organizations; organizations providing software of self-printing documents; organizations providing electronic invoice and document services.

7. Tax agencies, including the General Department of Taxation, provincial-level Tax Departments and Tax Branches (including regional Tax Branches).

8. Customs agencies, including the General Department of Customs, provincial-level Customs Departments, the Post-Customs Clearance Inspection Department and Customs Branches.

9. Organizations and individuals involved in the management and use of invoices and documents.

Article 3. Interpretation of terms

In this Decree, the terms and phrases below are construed as follows:

1. Invoice means an accounting document which is created by an organization or individual selling goods or providing services to record information about goods sale or service provision. Invoice is represented in the form of electronic invoice or invoice printed on order by the tax agency.

2. Electronic invoice (hereinafter referred to as e-invoice) means an invoice with or without the tax agency’s code, which is represented in electronic data form, is created by an organization or individual selling goods or providing services, records information about goods sale or service provision in accordance with law provisions on accounting and tax, by using an electronic instrument. E-invoices also include those created by POS cash registers with network connection for transmission of electronic data to the tax agency, of which:

a) E-invoice with the tax agency’s code means an e-invoice that is assigned a code by the tax agency before being sent by an organization or individual selling goods or providing services to the buyer.

Tax agency’s code shown on an e-invoice consists of a transactional number which is a sole numerical series created by the tax agency's system and a chain of characters which is encoded by the tax agency based on the information provided by the seller on the invoice.

b) E-invoice without the tax agency’s code means an e-invoice that is sent by an organization selling goods or providing services to the buyer without the tax agency’s code.

3. Invoice printed on order by a tax agency means an invoice which is represented in the paper form, printed on order by the tax agency for sale to an organization or individuals that belongs to subjects and cases entitled to buy tax agencies’ invoices under Article 23 of this Decree for use when selling goods or providing services.

4. Document means a material used to record information on to-be-withheld tax amounts, collected tax, charge and fee amounts belonging to the state budget in accordance with law provisions on tax administration. Document prescribed in this Decree includes personal income tax withholding document, tax, charge or fee receipt which is represented in the electronic form or in the form of printing on order or self-printing.

5. Electronic documents (hereinafter referred to as e-documents), including types of documents and receipts as prescribed in Clause 4 of this Article, which are represented in electronic data form, are granted to the tax payer by tax- withholding organizations or tax, charge and fee- collecting organizations, by using an electronic instrument under the law on charge, fee and tax.

6. Printed-on-order and self-printed documents, including types of documents and receipts as prescribed in Clause 4 of this Article, which are represented in paper form, are printed on order by tax, charge and fee- collecting organizations or printed by themselves from computers, POS cash registers or other devices when withholding tax or collecting taxes, charges or fees in accordance with law provisions on charge, fee and tax.

7. Lawful invoice or document means an invoice or document which is correct and complete in form and content as provided in this Decree.

8. Counterfeit invoice or document means an invoice or document printed or created according to the specimen of an invoice or document already notified to be issued by another organization or individual, or printed or created with the same serial number of an invoice or document with the same symbol or forged from an e-invoice or e-document.

9. Use of an unlawful invoice or document means the use of a counterfeit invoice or document; invoice or document without validity or with expired validity; invoice no longer in use during the coerced period by the methods of stop using invoice, unless otherwise permitted by the tax agency’s notice; the use of e-invoice without registration for the use of that e-invoice with the tax agency; the use of an e-invoice without the tax agency’s code in the case of using e-invoices with the tax agency’s code; the use of goods sale or service provision invoice or document that is created from the date on which the tax agency determines that the seller does not operate at the business address registered with the competent state agency; the use of goods sale or service provision invoice or document that is created earlier than the date of determining that the invoice or document-creating party does not operate at the business address registered with the competent state agency, or without tax agency’s notice on the fact that the invoice or document- creating party does not operate at the business address registered with the competent agency, but the tax agency or the police or other functional agencies have concluded that invoice or document is unlawful.

Unlawful use of invoices or documents means the use of  invoices or documents with insufficient compulsory contents as prescribed; invoices erased or modified in contravention to law; the use of fraudulent invoices or documents (i.e. invoices or documents with economic norms and contents but the whole or a part of goods or service purchase is unreal); the use of invoices that do not reflect the actual value incurred, or creating of invoices without real transactions or counterfeit invoices; the use of invoices with differences on goods or service values or with differences on compulsory items among invoice sheets; the repeated use of invoices when transporting goods for sale, or the use of invoices of certain goods or services for evidencing other goods or services; the use of invoices or documents of another organization or individual (except for tax agencies’ invoices and the case of being authorized for creating invoices) for legalization of brought goods or services or sold goods or services; the use of invoices or documents concluded by tax agencies or public security offices or other functional agencies as unlawful.

10. Cancellation of an invoice or document means an act of invalidating an invoice or document.

11. Destruction of an invoice or document:

a) Destruction of an invoice or document means a method of making an e-invoice or e-document no longer existing on the information system, and making information contained in such e-invoice or e-document inaccessible and irreferable.

b) Destruction of an invoice printed on order by a tax agency, destruction of an invoice or document which is printed on order or self-printed means the use of methods of burning, cutting, shredding or other forms of destruction, ensuring that the information and data recorded in the invoice or document with destroyed number could not be re-used.

12. E-invoice service provider means an organization providing solutions in creating and connecting to receive, transmitting, receiving, storing and processing data of an e-invoice with and without the tax agency’s code. E-invoice service providers include: Organizations providing e-invoice solutions with and without the tax agency’s code for sellers and buyers; organizations of connecting to receive, transmit, and store e-invoice data with the tax agency.

13. E-invoice or e-document database means a collection of information data about e-invoices of organizations, enterprises and individuals for goods sale, service provision, and information about e-documents of organizations and individuals.

Article 4. Principles of creation, management and use of invoices and documents

1. When selling goods or providing services, the seller must create an invoice to the buyer (including goods or services for promotion or advertising or used as samples; goods and services donated, granted, presented as gifts, exchanged or given as salary for employees and for internal consumption (except goods internally circulated for further production); and goods loaned, lent or returned); and must fill in all contents as required in Article 10 of this Decree; in case of using e-invoices, the seller must use the standardized data format provided by the tax agency as prescribed in Article 12 of this Decree.

2. When withholding personal income tax, or collecting taxes, fees and charges, the tax- withholding organization must create and deliver tax withholding documents, tax, fee and charge collection receipts to persons with income subject to withholding, tax, charge and fee payers and must fill in all contents as prescribed in Article 32 of this Decree. In case of using electronic receipts (hereinafter referred to as e-receipts), the standardized data format provided by the tax agency must be used. In case where an individual authorizes to make tax finalization, personal income tax withholding documents shall not be issued.

For the cases that individuals do not sign labor contracts or sign labor contracts with a term of under 03 months, the income paying organizations or individuals may select to issue a tax withholding document for each time of tax withholding or issue one tax withholding document for many time of tax withholding in one tax period. An individual who signs a labor contract with a term of 03 months or more shall be issued only one tax withholding document in one tax period by the income paying organization or individual.

3. Before using an invoice or receipt, enterprises, business organizations, other organizations and business households or individuals, tax, fee and charge collecting organizations must carry out the use registration with tax agencies or notify their issuance in accordance with Article 15, Article 34 and Clause 1, Article 36 of this Decree. For invoices and receipts printed on order by the tax agency, such tax agency shall notify the issuance in accordance with Clause 3, Article 24 and Clause 2, Article 36 of this Decree.

4. During the use of invoices and receipts, business organizations, households and individuals must report the use of invoices bought from tax agencies, and report the use of receipts printed on order, self-printed or bought from tax agencies in accordance with Articles 29 and 38 of this Decree.

5. The registration, management and use of e-invoices and e-documents must comply with the laws on electronic transactions, accounting, taxation and tax administration, and this Decree.

6. Invoice or document data about goods sale or service provision, document data about transactions of tax payment, tax withholding and remittance of tax, charge and fee amount shall be collected to build a database serving tax administration and providing invoice or document information for related organizations or individuals.

7. Goods sellers and service providers who are enterprises, business organizations or other organizations may authorize the third party to create e-invoices for the goods sale and service provision. In an invoice created by an authorized party, the name of the authorizing party shall be written in the item “seller”. The authorization must be made in writing between the involved parties, with sufficient information in invoices to be created under authorization (authorization purpose and duration; mode of payment of invoices created under authorization). Such authorization must be notified to tax agencies when the registration for using e-invoices is carried out. In case where invoices created under authorization are invoices without the tax agency’s code, the authorizing party must transmit e-invoice data to tax agencies through service providers. The Ministry of Finance shall guide in detail this content.

8. The charge and fee- collecting organization may authorize the third party to create charge and fee collection receipts. In a receipt created by an authorized party, the name of the authorizing party shall be written in the item “charge and fee- collecting organization”. The authorization must be made in writing between the involved parties, with sufficient information in receipts to be created under authorization (authorization purpose and duration; mode of payment of receipts created under authorization). Such authorization must be notified to tax agencies when the receipt issuance notice is carried out.

Article 5. Prohibited acts in the fields of invoices and documents

1. For tax officers

a) Causing troubles or difficulties for organizations and individuals coming to buy invoices and documents;

b) Having acts of covering up and colluding with organizations or individuals for the purpose of using unlawful invoices and documents;

c) Receiving bribes when inspecting and checking invoices.

2. For organizations and individuals selling goods or providing services, and organizations or individuals with related rights and obligations

a) Committing fraudulent acts such as use of unlawful invoices, unlawful use of invoices;

b) Obstructing tax officers from performing their official duties, specifically acts to obstruct the health and dignity of tax officers while inspecting and checking invoices and documents;

c) Illegally accessing, falsifying or destroying information systems on invoices and documents;

d) Bribing or committing other acts related to invoices and documents for illegal purposes.

Article 6. Preservation and storage of invoices and documents

1. Invoices and documents that are preserved and stored must ensure:

a) Their safety, confidentiality, integrity, completeness, and avoidance of any change or deviation during the storage period;

b) They are stored for a period specified in the accounting law.

2. E-invoices and e-documents shall be preserved and stored by electronic means. Agencies, organizations and individuals are entitled to select and use methods of preservation and storage of e-invoices and e-documents suitable to their business conditions and technological applicability. E-invoices and e-documents must be ready to print or look up upon request.

3. Invoices and documents printed on order or self-printed by tax agencies shall be preserved and stored to ensure the following requirements:

a) Invoices and documents not yet created shall be stored and preserved in warehouses under regulations on archive and preservation of valuable documents.

b) Invoices and documents already created by accounting units shall be archived under regulations on custody and preservation of accounting documents.

c) Invoices and documents already created by organizations and individuals other than accounting units shall be stored and preserved like private assets of such organizations and individuals.

Article 7. Conversion of e-invoices and e-documents into paper invoices and documents

1. A lawful e-invoice or e-document shall be converted into a paper invoice or document when there is a request for economic or financial operations or at the request of tax administration agencies, audit, inspection, examination, and investigation agencies and in accordance with the law on inspection, examination and investigation.

2. Contents of an e-invoice or e-document and a paper invoice or document which is converted from such e-invoice must match.

3. In case an e-invoice or e-document is converted into a paper invoice or document, the paper invoice or document shall be retained for recording and monitoring purposes only in accordance with the laws on accounting and electronic transactions, and is not valid for use in transactions or payments, except for invoices created from POS cash registers with network connection for transmission of electronic data to the tax agency according to this Decree.

Chapter II
PROVISIONS ON INVOICES

Section 1

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 8. Types of invoices

Invoices provided in this Decree take the following types:

1. Value-added tax invoice (hereinafter referred to as the VAT invoice) means an invoice reserved for organizations and individuals that declare value-added tax by the withholding method for the following activities:

a) Selling goods and providing services in the country;

b) International transport;

c) Exporting to non-tariff zones and circumstances considered as export;

d) Exporting goods or providing services to other countries.

2. Sales invoice means an invoice reserved for the following organizations and individuals:

a) Organizations and individuals that declare and determine value-added tax by the direct method, for the following activities:

- Selling goods and providing services in the country;

- International transport;

- Exporting to non-tariff zones and circumstances considered as export;

- Exporting goods or providing services to other countries.

b) Organizations and individuals in non-tariff zones when selling goods or providing services to the inland and when selling goods or providing services among organizations and individuals in the same non-tariff zone, exporting goods and providing services to other countries, on the invoice clearly states "For organizations and individuals in the non-tariff zone”.

3. Public asset sales e-invoices shall be used when selling the following assets:

a) Public assets at agencies, organizations and units (including state-owned houses);

b) Infrastructure assets;

c) Public assets assigned by the State to enterprises for management, excluding the state capital component in the enterprise;

d) Assets of projects using state capital;

dd) Property established for public ownership;

e) Public assets recovered under a decision of a competent agency or competent person;

g) Supplies and materials recovered from the disposal of public assets.

4. National reserve commodity sales e-invoices shall be used when agencies and units under the system of state reserve agencies sell national reserve commodities according to the provisions of law.

5. Other types of invoices, including:

a) Stamps, tickets and cards with forms and contents as prescribed in this Decree;

b) Air freight receipts; international freight vouchers; receipts of banking service charges, except for the cases specified at Point a of this Clause, of which the forms and contents comply with international practices and relevant laws.

6. Documents which are printed, issued, used and managed like invoices include ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slips and ex-warehousing-cum-consignment slips.

7. The Ministry of Finance shall guide the form of displaying types of invoices for the subjects specified in Article 2 of this Decree for reference during the course of implementation.

Article 9. Invoicing time

1. The time of creating an invoice for goods sale (including sale of state property,  property confiscated and expropriated to the state fund and sales of national reserve commodities) is the time of transfer of the right to own or use goods to the buyer, regardless of whether the invoiced amount is paid or not.

2. The time of creating an invoice for service provision shall be the time of completion of provision of services, regardless of whether the invoiced amount is paid or not. When the service provider collects service charges before or upon providing the service, the date of making out the invoice is the date of collecting charges (excluding the case of collecting deposits or advances to ensure the performance of contracts of providing the following services: Accounting, audit, financial and tax consultancy; valuation; technical survey and design; supervision consultancy; and formulation of a construction investment project).

3. In case of multiple delivery of goods or transfer of goods item by item or services stage by stage, an invoice must be created for each delivery and transfer for the volume and value of delivered or transferred goods or services.

4. The time of creating an invoice for specific cases is prescribed as follows:

a) For cases of providing large quantities of services, which arise regularly, and take time to check data between service providers and customers, partners, as in the case of supplying direct support services for air transportation, aviation fuel supply, electricity supply activities (except for the subjects specified at Point h of this Clause), water, television services, postal services transmission (including agency services, collection and payment services), telecommunications services (including value-added telecommunications services), logistics services, information technology services (except for the cases specified at Point b of this Clause) that are sold in a certain period, the time of creating an invoice shall be the time of completion of data checking between the parties but not later than the 7th of the month preceding the month when the service provision arises or not more than 07 days from the end of the conventional period. The conventional period shall be used as a basis for calculating the quantity of goods and services under the agreement between the goods seller or the service provider and the buyer.

a) For telecommunications services (including value-added telecommunications services), and information technology services (including payment intermediary services using telecommunications and information technology platforms), which require to check connection data among service business establishments, the time of creating an invoice shall be the time of completion of checking data on service charges under economic contracts among service business establishments, but not more than 02 months from the month of arising the connection service charges.

In case of providing telecommunications services (including value-added telecommunications services) through the sale of prepaid cards, charging roaming charges when customers register to use the service without requiring the issuance of value-added tax invoices (hereinafter referred to as VAT invoices) or without providing his/her name, address, and tax identification number, at the end of each day or every month, the service business establishment shall create a single VAT invoice recording the total revenue generated by each service that the customer does not require an invoice or does not provide name, address and tax identification number.

c) For construction and installation, the time of creating an invoice shall be the time of acceptance or handover of works, work items, construction and installation volumes, whether the invoiced amount is paid or not.

d) For organizations dealing in real estate, infrastructure construction or residential building for sale or transfer:

d.1) In case the ownership or use right has not been transferred yet: If the payment is made according to the project implementation schedule or the payment schedule specified in the contract, the time of creating an invoice shall be the date of payment or the date as agreed in the contractual payment agreement.

d.2) In case the ownership or use right has been transferred: The time of creating an invoice shall comply with Clause 1 of this Article.

dd) The time of creating an invoice for cases of organizing to trade and purchase air transport services via websites and e-commerce systems shall comply with international practices, within 05 consecutive days from the date the air transport service vouchers generated on the websites and e-commerce systems.

e) For activities of searching, surveying, exploiting and processing crude oil The time of creating an invoice for sale of crude oil, condensate and products made from crude oil (including activities of underwriting in accordance with the Government’s commitment) shall be the time when the buyer and seller define the official selling prices, regardless the payment is made or not.

For activities of selling natural gas, associated gas and coal gas that is transmitted by gas pipelines to the buyer, the time of creating an invoice shall be the time when the buyer and seller define the gas volume delivered every month, within 07 consecutive days from the date when the seller sends the notice of gas volume delivered every month.

In case where there are any differences in the invoicing time in the Government’s underwriting agreements and commitments, regulations specified in such underwrite agreements and commitments shall be complied with.

g) For retail commercial establishments, food and beverage establishments under the model of a system of stores selling directly to consumers, but the accounting of all business activities is carried out at the head office (the head office where the contract for buying and selling goods and services is signed; invoices for selling goods and services by each store to be issued through the POS cash register system of each store in the name of the head office), the cash register system connected to the computer has not met the conditions for connecting and transferring data with the tax agency, customers shall receive the printed receipt for every transaction of selling goods, providing food and beverage, the data of such receipts is achieved in the system and the customers do not wish to receive e-invoices, at the end of the day, the business establishment shall base on information from the receipts to synthesize and create e-invoices for goods sale, food and beverage provision transactions during the day. In case customers require e-invoices, the business establishment shall issue e-invoices for customers.

h) For activities of selling electricity of electricity generation companies, the time of creating an e-invoice shall be determined on a basis of the time of checking payment data among power system operation units and the electricity market, power generation units and power buyers in accordance with the Ministry of Industry and Trade's regulations or power purchase contracts guided and approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, but no later than the last day of the time limit for tax declaration and payment, for the month when the tax obligations generates according to the law on tax. For activities of selling electricity of electricity generation companies involved in the Government’s underwriting commitment about the payment time, the time of creating an e-invoice shall be in accordance with the Government’s underwriting, the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s guidance and approvals, and power purchase contracts signed between the electricity buyer and seller.

i) The time of creating an e-invoice for the case of selling petrol and oil at retail stores shall be the time of ending the petrol and oil selling by each selling time. The seller shall ensure the e-invoices to be stored sufficiently for the sale of petrol and oil to customers, who are business and non-business individuals according to regulations, and to be accessed at the request of competent agencies.

k) For the cases of providing air transport services and insurance services through agents, the time of creating an invoice shall be the time of completion the data checking between parties, but not later than the 10^th of the month preceding the arising month.

l) In case of providing banking, security, insurance services, and service of money transferring via electronic wallet, service of stop supplying and re-supplying electricity for customers who are non-business individuals (or business individuals) but do not require invoices, at the end of the day or month, the unit issuing invoices shall base on the detailed information of each transaction in a day or month in its data management system. The unit providing services must take responsibility for the accuracy of transaction information and providing the detailed summary of the provided service at request of the functional agency. In case the customer requires invoice according to each transaction, the unit providing service must issue an invoice to customer.

m) For passenger transportation business by taxi, using cash register system in accordance with law provisions:

- At the end of the trip, an enterprise or cooperative conducting passenger transportation business by taxi, that uses cash register system shall send the trip information to customers and the tax agency according to the data format prescribed by the tax agency. Information includes: Name of the transport business units; license plate numbers, the trip distance (km) and total amount paid by customers.

- In case the customer requires an e-invoice, he/she must update or send full information (such as name, address and tax identification number) to the software or the unit providing services. Based on the information sent or updated by customers, an enterprise or cooperative conducting passenger transportation business by taxi, using cash register system shall send the trip invoices to customers, at the same time, transmit the invoice data to the tax agency in accordance with Article 22 of this Decree.

n) For health establishment providing medical examination and treatment services,  that uses software to manage medical examination and treatment and manage hospital fees, each medical examination and treatment transaction and provide screening and testing services, and prints receipts (for collecting hospital fees or medical examination and testing costs), and store them in the information technology system, if the customer (a person coming for medical examination and treatment) does not require invoices, at the end of the day, the health establishment shall base on medical examination and treatment information and information from receipts to summarize and create e-invoices for medical services conducted in a day; if the customer requires e-invoices, such health establishment must create e-invoices and deliver them to the customer.

o) For non-stop electronic road toll collection, the date of creating an e-invoice shall be the date when the vehicle passes through the toll booth. In case where the customer using the non-stop electronic road toll collection service has one or more vehicles using that service for many times in a month, the service provider may periodically create e-invoices, the  date of creating e-invoices no later than the last day of the month when the road toll collection service arises. The invoice content shall detail each turn of the vehicle through the toll booth (including: The time when the vehicle passes through the station, the price of the road toll of each turn).

Article 10. Contents of an invoice

1. Invoice title, symbol, and form symbol. To be specific:

a) Invoice title means the title of each type of invoice specified in Article 8 of this Decree that is shown on each invoice, such as: VAT INVOICES, VAT INVOICES CUM TAX REFUND DECLARATIONS; VAT INVOICES CUM BILLS, SALES INVOICES, PUBLIC ASSET SALES INVOICES; STAMPS, TICKETS, CARDS AND NATIONAL RESERVE COMMODITY SALES INVOICE.

b) Invoice form symbol and invoice symbol shall comply with the Ministry of Finance’s guidance.

2. The title of invoice sheet applied to invoices printed on order by tax agencies shall comply with the Ministry of Finance’s guidance.

3. Invoice number

a) Invoice number means the serial number shown on an invoice when the seller creates the invoice. The invoice number contains a maximum of 8 Arabic numerals, starting from 1 on January 01 or when the invoice is put into use and ending at 99 999 999 on December 31. Invoices are made in a continuous order from small numbers to large numbers with the same invoice symbol and invoice form symbol. For invoices printed on order by tax agencies, the invoice number shall be pre-printed on the invoice, and the invoice buyer shall be entitled to use them until running out from the time of purchase.

For a business organization that has many sale establishments or many establishments concurrently using the same form of e-invoices with the same code by the mode of random access from a system of creating e-invoices, invoices shall be made in a continuous order from small numbers to large numbers according to the time when the seller signs digital signatures and electronic signatures on invoices.

b) In case the invoice number is not made according to the above-mentioned principle, the electronic invoicing system shall ensure the principle of chronological increase in order that the invoice number contains a maximum of 8 numerals and is made and used only once.

4. Name, address and tax identification number of the seller

The invoice shall show the name, address and tax identification number of the seller in accordance with the name, address and tax identification number stated in the enterprise registration certificate, branch operation registration certificate, business household registration certificate, tax registration certificate, tax identification number notice, investment registration certificate, and cooperative registration certificate.

5. Name, address and tax identification number of the buyer

a) If the buyer is a business establishment that has a tax identification number, the buyer's name, address and tax identification number shown on the invoice shall be stated in the enterprise registration certificate, branch operation registration certificate, business household registration certificate, tax registration certificate, tax identification number notice, investment registration certificate, or cooperative registration certificate.

In case the buyer's name and address are too long, some common nouns may be written on the invoice briefly, such as: “Ward” to “W”, “District” to “D”, “City” to “C”, “Vietnam” becomes “VN” or “Joint stock” means “JS”, “Limited Liability” becomes “LIMITED”, “industrial park” becomes “IP”, “production” becomes “P”, “Branch” becomes “B”, etc. but must ensure that the number of houses, name of street, wards, communes, districts, cities, the exact name and address of the enterprise must be determined and consistent with business registration, and tax registration of the enterprise.

b) If the buyer does not have a tax identification number, the invoice shall not show the buyer’s tax identification number. In case of selling specific goods or providing specific services to individual consumers specified in Clause 14 of this Article, the invoice shall not show the buyer’s name and address. In case of selling goods or providing services to foreign customers to Vietnam, the address of the buyer shall be replaced by the number of the passport or immigration documents and the nationality of the foreign customer.

6. Name, unit, quantity and unit price of goods and services; amount of money without value-added tax, value-added tax rate, total amount of value-added tax on each tax rate, total amount of value-added tax and total payment with value-added tax.

a) Name, unit, quantity, unit price of goods and services

- Names of goods and services: The names of goods and services shall be written in Vietnamese on the invoice. In case of selling goods of various categories, the goods names shall include details of each category (for example: Samsung phones, Nokia phones, etc.). In case goods are subject to registration of use right or ownership right, the invoice shall show the specific codes and symbols of the goods according to law provision. For example: Chassis number and engine number of automobiles or motorbikes; address, type, length, width, number of floors of houses, etc.

In case additional foreign words are needed, foreign words shall be put in parentheses () or immediately below Vietnamese lines and have a font size smaller than Vietnamese ones. In case goods and services are transacted with provisions on codes of goods and services, the names and codes of goods and services shall be written on the invoice.

- Unit: The seller shall base on the nature and characteristics of the goods to determine the unit of the goods shown on the invoice in line with units of measurement (for example: ton, hundredweight, oats, kg, g, mg, or tael, slice, piece, can, box, bag, package, tube, m3, m2, m, etc.). For services, the item “unit” is not required on the invoice; it is determined as times of service provision and the contents of services.

- Quantity of goods or services: The seller shall record the quantity in Arabic numerals in terms of the above units. For specific types of goods and services such as electricity, water, telecommunications, information technology services, television services, postal services, banking, security and insurance services that are sold in a certain period, the invoice shall show the period of the goods and services. For services provided on a periodic basis, the list can be used to list goods and services sold together with invoices; the list is kept with the invoice to serve the inspection and comparison of the competent agencies.

An invoice must clearly state the phrase “attached to the list No. ..., date ... month ... year”. The list must show the seller's name, tax identification number and address; names of goods and services, quantity, unit price, amount of money of sold goods and services, name and signature of the person who made the list. In case the seller pays value-added tax according to the withholding method, the list must contain the criteria “value-added tax” and “amount of value-added tax”. The total payment is exactly the same amount as stated on the VAT invoice. Sold goods and services shall be written on the list according to the order of sale within the day. The list must clearly state the phrase “attached to the invoice No. ..., date ... month ... year”.

- Unit price of goods or services: The seller shall record the unit price of goods or services according to the above-mentioned unit. In case goods and services use the list to list sold goods and services together with the invoice, the unit price is not required on the invoice.

b) Value-added tax rate: The value-added tax rate shown on the invoice is the value-added tax rate corresponding to each type of goods or service in accordance with the law on value-added tax.

c) Amount of money without value-added tax, total amount of value-added tax on each tax rate, total amount of value-added tax and total payment with value-added tax shall be displayed in Vietnam dong and in Arabic numerals, except for cases in which goods are traded in foreign currencies and the revenue shall not be converted to Vietnam dong, the currencies shall be kept as the same.

d) The total amount of payment on the invoice shall be expressed in Vietnam dong, in Arabic numerals and in Vietnamese language, except for the cases in which goods are traded in foreign currencies and the revenue shall not be converted to Vietnam dong, the total amount of payment shall be expressed in original currencies and in the corresponding foreign languages.

dd) In case the business establishments apply trade discount for customers or sales promotion in accordance with law provisions, the trade discount and promotion shall be clearly shown on invoices. The determination of the prices subject to value-added tax (the amount without value-added tax) in case of applying trade discount to customers or sales promotion shall comply with the law provisions on value-added tax.

e) If the air transport enterprise uses the ticketing system established according to international practices, the service charges will be collected on the air transport documents (system administration fee, transport document exchange fee and other charges) and airport service charges collected by air transport companies (such as passenger service fees, security screening fee and other fees) indicated on the invoice are the prices including value-added tax. Aviation enterprises are allowed to round the number to thousands for collected amounts on transport documents according to regulations of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

7. Signatures of sellers and buyers. To be specifically:

a) For an invoice printed on order by the tax agency, it is required to have the seller's signature and seal (if any), and the buyer's signature (if any).

b) For an e-invoice:

In case the seller is an enterprise or organization, the digital signature shown on the e-invoice must be the digital signature of such enterprise or organization. In case the seller is an individual, the digital signature of such individual or the authorized person shall be used.

In case an e-invoice is not required to have the digital signature of the seller and the buyer, the provisions in Clause 14 of this Article shall be complied with.

8. The time of creating invoices shall comply with Article 9 of this Decree and shall be displayed in the format of day, month and year of the calendar year.

9. The time of digital signing on an e-invoice shall be the time when the seller or buyer uses the digital signature to sign the e-invoice displayed in the format of day, month and year of the calendar year. If the created e-invoice has a time of digital signing on an invoice other than the time of creating an invoice, the time of tax declaration shall be the time of creating the invoice.

10. For e-invoices with the tax agency’s code, the tax agency’s code shall comply with Clause 2, Article 3 of this Decree.

11. Fees and charges belonging to the state budget, trade discounts and promotions (if any) shall comply with Point e, Clause 6 of this Article and other relevant contents (if any).

12. Name and tax identification number of the invoice-printing organizations, for invoice printed on order by tax agencies.

13. The words, numbers and currency shown on invoices

a) The words displayed on the invoice shall be Vietnamese. In case additional foreign words are needed, foreign words shall be put in parentheses () or immediately below Vietnamese lines and have a font size smaller than Vietnamese ones.

In case the words on the invoice is in Vietnamese without diacritical marks, the unmarked words shall not lead to misunderstanding of the contents of the invoice.

b) The numbers displayed on the invoice shall be the Arabic numerals: 0, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. The sellers may select: To use a dot (.) after the thousand, million, billion, thousand billion, million billion, or quintillion; to use a comma (,) after the unit row digit, if there is a numeral after the unit row digit, or use the natural number separator as a comma (,) after the thousand, million, billion, trillion, million billion, or quintillion and use a dot (.) after the unit number on the accounting document.

c) The currency in the invoice is Vietnam dong with the national currency sign as “đ”.

- In case of economic and financial operations arising in foreign currencies according to the provisions of law provisions on foreign exchange, the unit price, the total amount, the total amount of value-added tax on each tax rate, total amount of value-added tax and total payment shall be displayed in the foreign currency, the currency specified in the foreign currency. The seller shall also show exchange rate between the foreign currency with Vietnam dong on the invoice according to the exchange rates specified in the Law on Tax Administration and its guiding documents.

- Currency Code according to international standards (for example: 13,800.25 USD - Thirteen thousand eight hundred US dollars and twenty-five cents, for example: 5,000.50 EUR - Five thousand euros and fifty cents).

- In case goods are sold in foreign currencies in accordance with law provisions on foreign exchange and tax is paid in foreign currencies, the total amount of payment shown in the invoice shall displayed in the foreign currency instead of Vietnam dong.

14. The cases in which invoices shall not necessarily contain all the contents

a) The e-invoice shall not necessarily display the electronic signature of the buyer (including the case of e-invoicing for selling goods or providing services to customers in foreign countries). In case the buyer is a business establishment and the buyer and seller agree upon the buyer's satisfaction of the technical conditions for making digital and electronic signatures on an e-invoice created by the seller, the e-invoice shall have digital or electronic signatures of the seller and the buyer under agreement between the two parties.

b) For e-invoices issued by tax agencies upon each generation, the digital signatures of the seller and the buyer are not required.

c) Electronic sales invoices at supermarkets or shopping malls whose buyers are non-business individuals shall not necessarily contain the names, addresses and tax identification numbers of the buyers.

E-invoices of petrol and oil sold to non-business individuals shall not necessarily display invoice title, invoice form symbol, invoice symbol and number of invoice; name, address, tax identification number of the buyer, electronic signature of the buyer; digital signature or electronic signature of the seller, and value-added tax rate.

d) E-invoices that are stamps, tickets or cards shall not necessarily display electronic signatures of the sellers (except for stamps, tickets and cards which are e-invoices with code issued by tax agencies), buyer’s items (name, address, and tax identification number), tax amount, and value-added tax rate. Electronic stamps, tickets and cards with printed denominations shall not necessarily display the unit, quantity and unit price.

dd) E-documents of air transport services generated via websites and e-commerce systems in accordance with international practices for non-business individual buyers, which are determined as e-invoices, shall not necessarily display invoice symbols, invoice form symbols, serial number of the invoice, value-added tax rates, tax identification numbers, buyers’ addresses, and digital signatures of the sellers.

In case a business organization or a non-business organization buys air transport services, e-documents of air transport services shall be generated via websites and e-commerce systems in accordance with international practices for individuals of business and non-business organizations and not be determined as e-invoices. Enterprises providing air transport services shall make e-invoices with all the prescribed contents and deliver them to organizations having an individual using air transport services.

e) Invoices of construction and installation services or residential building for sale with contract payment schedules shall not necessarily display the unit, quantity and unit price.

g) An ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slip shall show information of the internal transport order, the consignee, the stock keeper, the location of source warehouses, the deliver location, and means of transport. To be specific: The buyer's name representing the consignee, the buyer's address representing the warehouse location of the goods; the seller's name representing the stock keeper, the seller's address representing the place of source warehouse and means of transport; tax amount, tax rate, total payment amount shall not be shown on such ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slip.

An ex-warehousing-cum-consignment slip shall show information such as economic contract, shipper and means of transport; location of source warehouse; location of the destination warehouse, name of goods, unit, quantity, unit price and amount of money. To be specific: Number, date of the economic contract signed between an organization and individual; name of the shipper, transport contract (if any), address of the seller that represents the location of source warehouse.

h) Invoices of Interline payment between airlines created according to the regulations of the International Air Transport Association shall not necessarily display the following criteria: Invoice symbol, invoice form symbol; name, addresses and tax identification numbers of the buyers; digital signatures of the buyers; unit, quantity and unit price.

i) Invoice issued by an air transport enterprise to its agents means an invoice issued according to the report which has been compared between two parties, and the summarization list. Unit price is not required on such invoice.

k) Invoices of construction, installation, production, provision of national defense and security enterprises’ products and services for national defense and security activities in accordance with the Government’s regulations shall not necessarily display the unit; quantity; unit price; and the content of provision of goods and services under contract signed by both parties in the “goods and service’s name” items.

15. Other contents on invoices

Apart from contents as guided in Clause 1 to Clause 13 of this Article, enterprises, organizations, business households and individuals may create additional information about their logos or identification symbols, to represent the sellers’ trademarks, brands or representative images. Depending on the characteristics and nature of transactions and management requirements, the invoice may show information about the sales contract, shipping orders, customer code and other information.

16. Contents of the public asset sales invoice shall comply with the guidance on creating public asset sales invoices provided in Form No. 08/TSC-HD attached to the Government’s Decree No. 151/2017/ND-CP dated December 26, 2017 on detailing a number of articles of the Law on Management and Use of Public Property.

Article 11. An invoice that is created by a POS cash register with network connection for transmission of data to the tax agency

An invoice that is created by a POS cash register with network connection for transmission of electronic data to the tax agency must abide by the following principles:

1. It must be recognizable as an invoice printed out from a POS cash register with network connection for transmission of electronic data to the tax agency;

2. Digital signature on that invoice is not required;

3. The amount of money paid for a goods or service shown on the invoice (or a copy of the invoice or the information search result on the invoice in the Portal of the General Department of Taxation) which is created by a POS cash register may be regarded as an expense that is supported by a legal invoice or document upon determination of tax obligations.

Section 2

PROVISIONS ON E-INVOICES

Article 12. Format of e-invoices

1. E-invoice format is a technical standard that defines the data type and data length of information fields for transmission, receipt, storage and display of e-invoices. XML format (XML stands for “Extensible Markup Language” that is created for the purpose of sharing electronic data among information technology systems) shall be used for e-invoice format.

2. The e-invoice format consists of two components: the component containing professional data of e-invoice and the component containing data of digital signature. E-invoice with the tax agency’s code shall include additional components containing data related to the tax agency’s code.

3. The General Department of Taxation shall formulate and publicize the components containing professional data of e-invoice, the components containing data of digital signature as well as provide tools to display the contents of e-invoices according to the provisions of this Decree.

4. Organizations and enterprises selling goods or providing services, upon directly transmitting e-invoice data to tax agencies, shall meet the following requirements:

a) Being connected with General Department of Taxation via leased lines or MPLS VPN Layer 3, including 01 main transmission line and 01 alternative transmission line. Each transmission line shall have a minimum bandwidth of 05 Mbps.

b) Using encrypted Web Service or Message Queue (MQ) as connection method.

c) Using SOAP protocol to encapsulate and transmit data.

5. The contents of e-invoices shall be displayed fully and accurately to avoid misunderstandings and the buyers can read them via electronic devices.

Article 13. Application of e-invoices for selling goods or providing services

1. Subjects of application of e-invoices shall comply with Article 91 of the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14, particularly in cases of high tax risks, regulations of the Minister of Finance shall be complied with.

2. Regulations on the issuance and declaration of tax obligations in case the tax agency issues e-invoices with the tax agency’s code for each time are prescribed as follows:

a) Type of invoice issued by each for each time

a.1) E-invoices with the tax agency's code issued for each time are sales invoices in the following cases:

- Business households and individuals specified in Clause 4, Article 91 of the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14 that fail to meet conditions for using e-invoices with the tax agency's code but require invoices to be delivered to the customers;

- Non-business organizations with goods and service provision transactions;

- Dissolved or bankrupted enterprises with invalidated tax identification numbers and arising liquidation of assets which require invoices to be delivered to the buyers;

- Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals that directly pay value-added tax in the following cases:

+ Stopping business operation but not yet completing procedures for invalidation of tax identification numbers with arising liquidation of assets which require invoices to be delivered to buyers;

+ Suspending business operation but requiring invoices for customers to perform the contracts signed before the date of operation suspension as notified by the tax agencies;

+ Being compelled to suspend the use of invoices by tax agencies.

a.2) E-invoices with the tax agency's code issued for each time are VAT invoices in the following cases:

- Enterprises, economic organizations and other organizations that are liable to pay value-added tax by withholding method in the following cases:

+ Stopping business operation but not yet completing procedures for invalidation of tax identification numbers with arising liquidation of assets which require invoices to be delivered to buyers;

+ Suspending business operation but requiring invoices for customers to perform the contracts signed before the date of operation suspension as notified by the tax agencies;

+ Being compelled to suspend the use of invoices by tax agencies.

- For state organizations and agencies with property auction that are not liable to pay value-added tax by withholding method, in case the winning price is the selling price with value-added tax clearly stated in auction dossiers approved by competent agencies, VAT invoices shall be issued to the buyers.

b) Enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households and individuals that are granted e-invoices with the tax agency’s code for each time shall send written requests for issuance of e-invoices with the tax agencies’ codes (according to Form No. 06/DN-PSDT provided in the Appendix IA attached to this Decree) to the tax agencies and access the electronic invoicing system of the tax agencies to create e-invoices.

After the enterprises, organizations or individuals have fully declared and paid value-added tax, personal income tax, enterprise income tax and other taxes and charges (if any) in accordance with law provisions, immediately in the working day, the tax agencies shall issue the tax agencies’ codes on the e- invoices created by enterprises, organizations or individuals.

Enterprises, business organizations, other organizations, business households or individuals shall be solely responsible for the accuracy of the information on e-invoices with the tax agency's code for each time.

c) Determining the tax agency that issues the e-invoice with the tax agency’s code for each time.

c.1) For organizations and enterprises: The tax agency that manages the area where the organization or enterprise carry out tax registration or the place where the organization’s headquartered locates or the place stated in the establishment decision or the place where goods sale and service provision transaction arises.

c.2) For business households and individuals:

- For business households and individuals that have fixed business locations: Business households and individuals shall submit an application for issuance of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code for each time at the Tax Branches in the places where business households and individuals conduct the business activities.

- For business households and individuals that do not have a fixed business location: Business households and individuals shall submit an application for issuance of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code for each time at the Tax Branches in the place where the individuals reside or the place where households and individuals register their business.

3. Provisions on application of e-invoices, ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slips and ex-warehousing-cum-consignment slips for some specific cases under management requirements are prescribed as follows:

a) In case of import of goods under entrustment, if the business establishment entrusted to import goods has paid value-added tax at the import stage, the e-invoice shall be used for delivering goods to the entrusting business establishment.

If the value-added tax is not paid at the import stage, when issuing and delivering the entrusted import goods, the business establishment entrusted to import goods shall make an ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slip as specified as the document for goods circulation on the market.

b) In case of entrusting to export goods:

- When issuing and delivering goods to the entrusted establishment, the establishment which has goods for entrusted export shall use ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slips.

- When the goods have been actually exported and certified by the customs agency, based on the collated documents and certifications of quantity and value of actually exported goods of the business establishments entrusted for export, the entrusting establishment shall create VAT e-invoices for value-added tax payment, refund declaration or electronic sales invoices. Establishments entrusted for export shall issue VAT e-invoices or electronic sales invoices to foreign customers.

c) Business establishments that make value-added tax declaration and payment, and have exported goods and services (including establishments processing export goods) shall use VAT e-invoices when exporting goods or services.

When conducting goods issue and transport to the border gates or to the place where export procedures are carried out, the establishments shall use the ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slip as specified as a document for goods circulation on the market. After completing the procedures for exporting goods, the establishments shall create VAT invoices for the exported goods.

d) Business organizations that declare and pay value-added tax by withholding of goods transfer to dependent accounting establishments such as branches and stores in other localities (provinces and centrally-run cities) to sell or transfer between branches and dependent units or  issue goods to other business establishment acting as sale agents selling goods at fixed prices to enjoy commissions, based on the method of business organization and accounting, the business establishments may choose one of two ways to use invoices and documents as follows:

- Using VAT e-invoices as grounds for payment and declaration of value-added tax at each independent unit and stage;

- Using ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slips or ex-warehousing-cum-consignment slips as prescribed for goods issued to agents.

Dependent accounting establishments, branches, stores and establishments acting as sales agents must create invoices in accordance with regulations when selling goods, and deliver them to the buyers, at the same time, make a list of sold goods and send it to the establishment having transferred goods or the establishment having consigned goods (hereinafter referred to as the consignee), so that the consignee can make VAT invoices for actual sold goods that are consigned to the dependent accounting establishments, branches, stores or sale agents.

If the establishment has a large quantity and revenues of sold goods, the list may be made every 05 days or 10 days. If the sold goods have different value-added tax rates, they shall be stated in separate lists according to each group of tax rates.

Dependent accounting establishments, branches, stores and establishments acting as sales agents shall declare and pay value-added tax on the goods sold for buyers and the input value-added tax shall be declared and withheld according to the VAT invoices issued by the consignor.

In case dependent units of agricultural, forestry and fishery business establishments have registered and made value-added tax declaration and payment by withholding method, while purchasing agricultural, forestry and fishery goods with the aim of transferring or selling to the headquarters of the business establishments, such dependent units shall use ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slips instead of VAT e-invoices for the transfer or sale of such goods.

dd) Organizations and individuals shall use ex-warehousing-cum-internal transportation slips as prescribed when discharging mobile goods; and  create e-invoices as prescribed when selling mobile goods.

e) Organizations or individuals conducting business activities in Vietnam that contribute their assets as capital to establish enterprises shall not make invoices but use documents of capital contribution certificates, asset delivery and receipt minutes, property valuation minutes enclosed with dossiers on asset origins.

g) In case of transfer of assets among dependent accounting member units in an organization; transfer of assets on division, splitting, consolidation, merger or transformation of the enterprises, the organization having the transferred assets shall have property transfer orders enclosed with dossiers on asset origins without making invoices.

h) In case of transfer of assets among independent accounting units or among member units with sufficient legal status, the organization having transferred assets must create e-invoices as for selling goods.

4. In addition to cases specified in Clause 3 of this Article, the Ministry of Finance shall provide guidance on the application of e-invoices for other cases according to management requirements; provide guidance on the use of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code created by POS cash registers with network connection for transmission of electronic data to the tax agency.

Article 14. Provision of e-invoice services

1. Cases of using an e-invoice with the tax agency's code that are exempted from 12 month use, from the time of using e-invoice, including:

a) Small- and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives, and business households and individuals that operate in localities with difficult socio-economic conditions or extremely difficult socio-economic conditions. Localities with difficult socio-economic conditions or extremely difficult socio-economic conditions are specified in the List of geographical areas eligible for investment incentives issued together with the Government’s Decree No. 118/2015/ND-CP dated November 12, 2015, on detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Investment Law and amending, supplementing documents or replacing documents (if any).

b) Other small- and medium-sized enterprises that are proposed by the People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities, and submitted to the Ministry of Finance, except those operating in economic zones, industrial parks or hi-tech zones;

The General Department of Taxation shall provide or entrust e-invoice service providers to provide e-invoices with the tax agency’s code free of charge for above-mentioned subjects.

2. Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals other than those specified in Clause 1 of this Article must pay service charges under contracts signed by both parties when using e-invoices with the tax agency’s code or using e-invoices without the tax agency’s code via e-invoice service providers.

Article 15. Registration and change of registration contents of e-invoices

1. Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals other than those have to stop using invoices as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 16 of this Decree, shall register for use of e-invoices (including registering for electronic sales invoice of public assets and national reserve commodities) through e-invoice service providers.

In case of using e-invoices with the tax agency's code free of charge, such enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals may register for using e-invoices via the Portal of the General Department of Taxation or e-invoice service providers entrusted to provide services of e-invoice with the tax agency’s code free of charge by the General Department of Taxation.

In case where an enterprise is an organization connecting and transmitting e-invoice data directly to the tax agency, it shall register for using e-invoices via the Portal of the General Department of Taxation.

The registration contents shall comply with the Form No. 01/DKTD-HDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree.

The Portal of the General Department of Taxation shall send an electronic notice on receiving the registration for use of e-invoices through e-invoice service providers if an enterprise, economic organization, business household or individual registers for using e-invoices through an e-invoice service provider.

The Portal of the General Department of Taxation shall directly send an electronic notice on receiving the registration for use of e-invoices (which is made according to the Form No. 01/TB-TNDT provided in Appendix IB) to the enterprise, economic organization, other organization, business household or individual via the e-mail address registered with the tax agency, in case such enterprise, economic organization, other organization, business household or individual directly register for using e-invoices on the Portal of the General Department of Taxation.

2. Within 01 working day, after receiving the registration for use of e-invoices, the tax agency shall be responsible for sending an electronic notice (which is made according to the Form No. 01/TB-DKDT provided in Appendix IB attached to this Decree) through the e-invoice service provider or directly send the electronic notice to the enterprise, economic organization, other organization, business household or individual, on the e-invoice registration approval or refusal.

In case an enterprise or economic organization registers to directly transmit e-invoice data to the tax agency in accordance with Point b1, Clause 3, Article 22 of this Decree and the tax agency has issued a notice on approval of e-invoice registration (according to the Form No. 01/TB-DKDT provided in Appendix IB), but such enterprise or economic organization fails to cooperate with the General Department of Taxation in term of technical infrastructure structure, connection testing and data transmission, within 05 working days, after the notice made according to the Form No. 01/TB-DKDT provided in Appendix IB is sent by the tax agency, such organization must prepare sufficient conditions on technical infrastructure and notify the General Department of Taxation for cooperation. The implementation period is 10 working days, from the date on which the General Department of Taxation receives the enterprise or organization’s proposal. In case the connection testing and data transmission is successful, the enterprise or organization shall directly transmit e-invoice data to the tax agency in accordance with Article 22 of this Decree. After 05 working days from the date on which the tax agency sends the notice made according to the Form No. 01/TB-DKDT provided in Appendix IB, if the enterprise or organization fails to notify the General Department of Taxation to cooperate in connecting or the connection testing and data transmission is unsuccessful, such enterprise or organization shall change the registration for use of e-invoices (according to the Form No. 01/DKTD-HDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree), and transmit data through the organization connecting, receiving, transmitting and storing e-invoice data to the tax agency.

3. From the time when the tax agency approves the registration for use of e-invoices in accordance with this Decree, the enterprise, economic organization, other organization, business household or individual must stop using e-invoices which have been already announced to be issued in accordance with previous regulations, destroy unused paper invoices which have been already announced to be issued (if any). The order and procedures for destruction shall comply with Article 27 of this Decree.

4. In case of changing information registered for use of e-invoices in Clause 1 of this Article, enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households and individuals shall change information and send them back to the tax agency according to the Form No. 01/DKTD-HDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree via the Portal of General Department of Taxation or through an e-invoice service provider, except for the case of stop using e-invoices as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 16 of this Decree. The Portal of General Department of Taxation shall receive the form of registration for information change, and the tax agency shall comply with Clause 2 of this Article.

5. On a monthly basis, the direct tax administration agency shall review those who use e-invoices with the tax agency's code free of charge, and send a notice made according to the Form No. 01/TB-KTT provided in Appendix IB attached to this Decree to such them to notify of the change to e-invoices with the tax agency’s code through the e-invoice service providers, and change the usage information of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code in accordance with Clause 4 of this Article.

6. For cases of applying e-invoices without the tax agency’s code, the direct tax administration agency shall periodically review to issue a notice according to the Form No. 01/TB-KTT provided in Appendix IB attached to this Decree to those required to change to e-invoices with the tax agency’s code to register for use of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code in accordance with this Article.

Article 16. Suspension of use of e-invoices

1. The following enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households and individuals shall have to suspend the use of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code and e-invoices without the tax agency’s code:

a) Enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households or individuals have their tax identification numbers invalidated;

b) Enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households or individuals fall into the cases in which the tax agency verifies and notifies that they are not operating at the registered addresses;

c) Enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households or individuals inform their business suspension to a competent state agency;

d) Enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households or individuals receive the tax agency’s notice of suspension of use of e-invoices for the purpose of enforcement of payment of tax debts owed;

dd) Acts of using e-invoices with the tax agency’s code to sell smuggled goods, prohibited goods, counterfeit goods, and goods infringing intellectual property rights, which are detected and notified to the tax agency by functional agencies;

e) Acts of creating e-invoices with tax the tax agency’s code for the purpose of fake selling goods or fake providing services to appropriate money of organizations and individuals, which are detected and notified by functional agencies to the tax agencies;

g) The cases in which the business registration agency or competent state agency requests enterprises to suspend their conditional business lines when the enterprises do not meet business conditions as specified in the laws.

Based on the inspection and examination results, if the tax agency determines that enterprises are set up for the purpose of trading, using unlawful e-invoices or unlawfully using e-invoices to evade tax, the tax agency shall issue a decision on suspending the use of e-invoices, such enterprises shall be handled in accordance with law provisions.

2. Procedures for suspension of use of e-invoices are prescribed as follows:

a) The direct tax administration agency shall send a notice to the tax payers specified at Points dd, e and g, Clause 1 of this Article and request them to explain or provide additional information and documents related to the use of e-invoices.

b) The tax payers shall explain or provide additional information and documents within 02 working days from the date on which the notice is issued by the tax agency. The tax payer may directly explain at the tax agency or provide additional information and documents in writing.

c) The tax payers shall continue to use e-invoices or provide additional explanation. To be specific:

c.1) In case the tax payers have explained or provided sufficient information and documents, and proved their use of e-invoices in accordance with the law provisions, they shall continue to use e-invoices.

c.2) In case the tax payers have explained or provided sufficient information and documents, but cannot prove their use of e-invoices in accordance with the law provisions, the tax agency shall continue to notify and request them to provide additional information and documents. The time limit for additional provision is 02 working days, from the date on which the tax agency issue the notice.

d) Past the time limit as prescribed in the notice, but the tax payers fail to explain or provide additional information and documents, the tax agency shall issue a notice and request them to suspend the use of use of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code or suspend the use of e-invoices without the tax agency’s code, and handle them as prescribed.

3. Enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households and individuals specified in Clause 1 of this Article shall be entitled to continue using e-invoices after notifying the tax agency of their continued business or the recovery of tax identification number by the tax agency, the tax agency shall issue the decision to terminate the enforcement of administrative decisions on tax administration by suspending use of invoices or when notified by the functional agencies.

4. In case enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households and individuals that are in the period of business suspension, but need e-invoices to be delivered to buyers for the performance of contracts signed before the date of business suspension, they shall use e-invoices issued for each time in accordance with Clause 2, Article 13 of this Decree.

Article 17. Creation of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code

1. Creation of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code

a) If enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households and individuals referred to in Clause 1, Article 14 of this Decree wish to access the Portal of the General Department of Taxation to create e-invoices, they can use their log-in accounts granted after they complete their registration to:

- Create goods sale or service provision e-invoices.

- Provide digital signatures on created e-invoices and send such e-invoices to the tax agency for grant of e-invoice codes.

b) Enterprises, economic organizations, other organizations, business households and individuals using e-invoices with the tax agency's code through e-invoice service providers shall access such e-invoice service providers’ websites or use the electronic invoicing software of the units to:

- Create goods sale or service provision e-invoices.

- Provide digital signatures on the created e-invoices and send such e-invoices to the tax agency for grant of e-invoice codes.

2. Grant of e-invoice codes

a) E-invoices of which codes are granted by the tax agency must meet the following requirements:

- Their contents must be the same as those prescribed in Article 10 of this Decree.

- The format of the e-invoices is the same as the format prescribed in Article 12 of this Decree.

- The information shown on the e-invoices is the same as the registration information specified in Article 15 of this Decree.

- These e-invoices are not subject to the tax agency’s decision on suspension of use of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code as prescribed Clause 1, Article 16 of this Decree.

b) The code granting system of the General Department of Taxation automatically grants the e-invoice code and informs the code grant results to senders.

3. Enterprises, economic or other organizations, or business households or individuals that sell goods or provide services shall be responsible for sending e-invoices with the tax agency’s code to buyers. E-invoice sending and receiving methods shall be agreed between the seller and buyer according to the law on e-transactions.

Article 18. Creation of e-invoices without the tax agency’s code

1. Enterprises and economic organizations may use e-invoices without the tax agency’s code for goods sale or service provision after receiving a notice of acceptance from the tax agency.

2. Enterprises and economic organizations using software to create e-invoices for goods sale or service provision shall put their digital signatures on e-invoices and send them to buyers by electronic means according to the arrangement between the seller and buyer according to the law on e-transactions.

Article 19. Handling of e-invoices containing errors

1. In case the seller discovers that an e-invoice granted with the tax agency’s code which has not been sent to the buyer contains errors, the seller shall notify the tax agency using the Form No. 04/SS-HDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree of the cancellation of the e-invoice with the tax agency’s code which has been created and contains errors, and prepare a new e-invoice with a digital signature for sending to the tax agency for grant of a new e-invoice code in replacement of the previous one for sending to the buyer. The tax agency shall cancel the e-invoices with erroneously issued codes saved on the tax agency’s systems.

2. In case errors of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code or e-invoices without the tax agency’s code are detected by the buyer or seller after being sent to the buyer, they shall be handled as follows:

a) In case the name and address of the buyer is erroneous, but the tax identification number and other contents are genuine, the seller shall notify the buyer of the errors and such e-invoices shall not be replaced. The seller shall notify the tax agency of the erroneous e-invoices according to the Form No. 04/SS-HDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree, except for the cases the e-invoice data of above-mentioned erroneous e-invoices without the tax agency's code has not been sent to the tax agency.

b) In case the tax identification number, the amount of money, the tax rate and the amount of tax displayed on the e-invoice are erroneous or the goods on the invoice are not in accordance with the specifications and quality, one of the following ways to use the e-invoice shall be chosen as follows:

b1) The seller shall create an e-invoice to correct the erroneous e-invoice that has been issued. In case the seller and the buyer have an agreement about making a written agreement before creating an e-invoice correcting the erroneous e-invoice, the seller and the buyer shall make a written agreement specifying the erroneousness and the seller shall create a new e-invoice correcting the erroneous invoice.

A new e-invoice that corrects the erroneously created e-invoice shall contain the lines "This invoice corrects the invoice Form ... symbol … No. ... date ... month ... Year”.

b2) The seller shall create a replacement new e-invoice for the erroneous e-invoice, except for the case the seller and the buyer have an agreement about making a written agreement before creating a new replacement e-invoice for the erroneously created e-invoice, the seller and the buyer shall make a written agreement specifying the erroneousness and the seller shall create a new replacement e-invoice for the erroneous e-invoice.

A new e-invoice that replaces the erroneously created e-invoice shall contain the lines "This invoice replaces the invoice Form ... symbol … No. ... date ... month ... year”.

The seller shall sign the digital signature on the new e-invoice that corrects or replaces the erroneously created e-invoice, and send it to the buyer (in case of using e-invoices without the tax agency's code), or send it to the tax agency for issuing code for the new e-invoice for the buyer (in case of using e-invoices with the tax agency’s code).

c) For aviation, the e-invoice for exchange or refund of air transport document shall be considered a correction e-invoice without the information “Increase/decrease amendment for invoice Form ... symbol … No. ... date ... month ... year”. Air transport enterprises may issue their e-invoices for the cases of refund or exchange of transport documents issued by their agents.

3. In case, the tax agency discovers that e-invoices with the tax agency’s code or e-invoices without the tax agency's code which have been created contain errors, it shall notify sellers using the Form No. 01/TB-RSDT provided in Appendix IB attached to this Decree in order for sellers to check these errors.

The sellers shall base on the time limit for notifying stated in the Form No. 01/TB-RSDT provided in Appendix IB, to notify the tax agency according to the Form No. 04/SSS-HDDT in Appendix IA attached to this Decree of inspection of erroneously created e-invoices.

Past the time limit for notifying stated in the Form No. 01/TB-RSDT provided in Appendix IB, if the sellers fail to notify the tax agency, such tax agency shall continue to send the second notice to the sellers, using the Form No. 01/TB-RSDT provided in Appendix IB. Past the time limit for the second notice as stated in the Form No. 01/TB-RSDT provided in Appendix IB, if the sellers fail to notify, the tax agency shall consider to inspect the use of e-invoices.

4. Within 01 working day, the tax agency shall notify of the handling receipt and result, using the Form No. 01/TB-HDSS provided in Appendix IB attached to this Decree. Canceled e-invoices shall not be valid for use but they shall be stored for reference.

Article 20. Handling of problems for e-invoices with the tax agency’s code

1. When using e-invoices with the tax agency’s code, if goods sellers or service providers face any problem preventing them from using these e-invoices with the tax agency's code, they shall notify it to the tax agency for support. Pending the handling of a problem, if goods sellers or service providers wish to use e-invoices with the tax agency’s code, they shall contact the tax agency for use of such e-invoices.

2. In case the code granting system of the tax agency encounters problems, the General Department of Taxation shall apply technical solutions and use backup systems instead. The General Department of Taxation shall notify about the problems on its Portal. The General Department of Taxation shall choose some e-invoice service providers with sufficient conditions and authorize them to issue e-invoice codes in case the tax agency’s system encounters problem.

Pending the handling of a problem, the tax agency shall sell its printed-on-order invoices to some organizations and individuals. After troubleshooting the code granting system of the tax agency, the tax agency shall notify organizations and individuals to continue using e-invoices with the tax agency's code. Within 02 working days from the time limit stated in the tax agency’s notice, organizations and individuals shall send the report of the use of paper invoices purchased from the tax agency according to the Form No. BC26/HDG provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree.

3. In case there are problems with the technical infrastructure system of the e-invoice service providers, such provider shall notify the sellers and ask the General Department of Taxation for timely support. The e-invoice service provider must solve the problem as quickly as possible and take measures to support the sellers to make e-invoices to send the tax agency for code granting in the shortest time.

4. In case the General Department of Taxation's Portal fails to receive data of e-invoices without codes due to technical problems, the General Department of Taxation shall be responsible for notifying on its Portal. In this situation, the organizations and enterprises and the e-invoice service providers temporarily shall not transfer the data of e-invoices without codes to the tax agency.

Within 02 working days after the General Department of Taxation issues a notice that the Portal of the General Department of Taxation resumes its operation, the organizations or enterprises providing e-invoice services shall transfer e-invoice data to the tax agency. The transfer of e-invoice data after receiving the notice that the Portal of General Department of Taxation encounters a technical problem shall not be considered as delayed transfer.

Article 21. Responsibilities of goods sellers and service providers using e-invoices with the tax agency’s code

1. To manage names and passwords of the accounts granted by the tax agency.

2. To create goods sale or service provision e-invoices for sending to the tax agency for grant of e-invoice codes and bear legal liability for the legality and accuracy of these e-invoices.

3. To send e-invoices with the tax agency’s code to buyers immediately after receiving them.

Article 22. Responsibilities of goods sellers and service providers using e-invoices without the tax agency’s code

1. To manage names and passwords of the accounts granted by the tax agency.

2. To create goods sale or service provision e-invoices for sending to the buyers, tax agencies and e-invoice service providers, and bear legal liability for the legality and accuracy of these created e-invoices.

3. To transmit data of the created e-invoices without the tax agency’s code to the tax agency through the Portal of the General Department of Taxation (directly or via e-invoice service providers).

a) Methods and time for transferring e-invoice data

a.1) Method of transferring e-invoice data as in the Summary of e-invoice data (made according to the Form No. 01/TH-HDDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree) at the same time of submitting value-added tax declaration dossiers in the following cases:

- Providing services in the fields of post and telecommunications, insurance, banking and finance, air transport and securities.

- Selling goods of electricity and clean water with information on customer codes or tax identification numbers of consumers.

The sellers shall make the Summary of e-invoice data of goods and services arising in the month or quarter (from the first day of the month or quarter to the last day of the month or quarter) using the Form No. 01/TH-HDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree, and send them to the tax agency at the same time of submitting the value-added tax declarations according to the Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14 and its guiding documents.

In case of arising a large number of e-invoices, the summary shall be split up according to the standardized data format of the tax agency in order to ensure the requirement of receiving data of the transmission line.

For e-invoices sent together with the summary, the sellers shall send cancellation or correction information directly in the summary of the next periods without sending a notice of erroneous e-invoices according to the Form No. 04/SS-HDDT provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree to the tax agency.

E-invoices created for total turnover of non-business individual buyers arising in a day or month in accordance with the detailed list, the sellers shall only send e-invoice data (excluding the detailed list) to the tax agency.

Particularly, in case of selling petrol and oil to customers, the sellers shall sum up daily the data of all petrol and oil sales invoices for each category and display it on the summary of e-invoice data and transfer such summary immediately in a day.

a.2) Method of transferring full contents of invoice shall apply to the cases of selling goods or providing services which are not specified at Point a of this Clause.

The sellers, after filling all the contents on the invoices, shall send them to the buyers and the tax agencies at the same time.

b) Enterprises and economic organizations shall transfer the e-invoice data to the tax agency with data format as specified in Article 12 of this Decree and instructions of the General Department of Taxation directly (in case of meeting the data connection standards) or via an e-invoice service provider.

b.1) Direct transfer

- Enterprises and economic organizations using large quantities of invoices and having information technology systems meeting the requirements on standardized data format and the provisions of Clause 4, Article 12 of this Decree and wishing to directly transfer e-invoice data to the tax agency shall send a written document enclosed with documents proving their conditions to the General Department of Taxation.

- In case of parent-subsidiary enterprises or economic organizations with centralized management systems of invoice data at the parent companies and wishing to transfer all e-invoice data at the parent companies, including data of subsidiaries, to the tax agency via the Portal of the General Department of Taxation, they shall send the list of subsidiaries to the General Department of Taxation together with the request for making technical connections.

b.2) Transfer via an e-invoice service provider

Enterprises and economic organizations not falling into the case mentioned at Point a of this Clause shall sign service contracts with e-invoice service providers for the transfer of e-invoice data to the tax agency. Based on the signed contracts, enterprises and economic organizations shall be responsible for transferring their e-invoice data to e-invoice service providers and then such e-invoice service providers shall transfer such data to the tax agency.

4. To store, and ensure the integrity of, all e-invoices; to comply with the regulations on assurance of safety and security for the electronic data system.

5. To comply with the inspection, examination and checking conducted by tax agencies and competent agencies in accordance with laws.

Section 3

INVOICES PRINTED ON ORDER BY TAX AGENCIES

Article 23. Application of invoices printed on order by tax agencies

Tax Departments of provinces and centrally-run cities (hereinafter referred to as provincial-level Tax Departments) shall place an order to print invoices selling for the following subjects:

1. Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals specified in Clause 1, Article 14 of this Decree, that fail to conduct transactions with tax agencies by electronic means, fail to have an information technology infrastructure or an accounting software system or an electronic invoicing software for the use of e-invoices and transmission of e-invoice data to buyers and to tax agencies.

Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals have been purchased invoices from tax agencies for a period of maximum of 12 months, and at the same time, such tax agencies are changing into using e-invoices. When changing into using e-invoices, enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals shall register for using e-invoices with the tax agency’s code or e-invoices without the tax agency’s code (in case of meeting all conditions in accordance with Article 15 of this Decree.

2. Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals conducting business when the invoice code granting information technology infrastructure system encounters problems in accordance with Clause 2, Article 20 of this Decree.

Article 24. Provisions on sale of invoices printed on order by tax agencies

1. Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals eligible to be sold invoices by tax agencies must send a written request for buying invoices (made according to the Form No. 02/DN-HDG provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree) to tax agencies when buying invoices and attach the following documents:

a) The invoice buyer (a person whose name is stated in the written request or a person authorized by an enterprise, business organization, business household or other person in writing in accordance with law provisions) must produce his/her valid identity card or citizen identification card as prescribed by law;

b) Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals that buy invoices for the first time must have a written commitment (made according to the Form No. 02/CK-HDG provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree) on the production and business location in accordance with the enterprise registration certificate, branch operation registration certificate, business household registration certificate, tax registration certificate, tax identification number notice, investment registration certificate, and cooperative registration certificate, or a decision on establishment of the competent agency;

c) Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals that buy invoices issued by the tax agency must be liable for writing or stamping the name, address and tax identification number on the second sheet of each invoice number before bringing such invoices out of the tax agency.

2. The tax agency shall sell invoices to enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals on a monthly basis.

The quantity of invoices sold for the first time to the enterprises, economic organizations, business households or individuals must not exceed a book of 50 numbers for each type of invoice.  When invoices bought for the first time are used up before the month ends, the tax agency shall, based on the quantity of used invoices, decide on the quantity of invoices to be sold for the next time.

For the next invoice purchase, after inspecting the use of invoices, tax declaration and payment and application for purchase of invoices, the tax agency shall sell invoices to enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals within the day. The quantity of invoices to be sold to a enterprise, economic organization, business household or individual for a month must not exceed the quantity of invoices used in the previous month.

Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals eligible for buying invoices issued by the tax agency that shift to use e-invoices shall cease the use of invoices bought from the tax agency from the first date of using e-invoices in accordance with Article 15 of this Decree.

If a business household or individual does not wish to use invoice books but needs invoices, the tax agency shall e-invoice for each time according to Clause 2, Article 13 of this Decree.

3. Invoices printed on order by the provincial-level Tax Department shall be publicized on the Portal of the General Department of Taxation, and before selling for the first time, the provincial-level Tax Department must make a invoice issuance notice according to the Form No. 02/PH-HDG provided in Appendix IB to this Decree, and the specimen invoice on the Portal of the General Department of Taxation.

An invoice issuance notice contains: the name of the provincial-level Tax Department that issued such invoice, tax identification number, address and telephone number, types of invoice to be issued (name and symbol of invoice, invoice form symbol, date of use commencement, quantity of invoices to be issued (from number... to number...)), name and tax identification number of the invoice printing enterprise (for invoices printed on order), date of making the issuance notice, name and signature of the at-law representative and seal of the unit.

Specimen invoice is an invoice printed with correct and full items of an invoice sheet to be handed to a buyer which has a number consisting of a series of zeros and is printed or sealed with the word “specimen”.

An invoice issuance notice including specimen invoice must be clearly listed at establishments of the provincial-level Tax Department during the using time of such invoice.

In case of a change in the notified contents or the specimen invoice, the provincial-level Tax Department shall carry out new issuance notification procedures in accordance with this Article.

4. Paper invoices printed on order of the provincial-level Tax Department shall be sold at prices on the principle that prices can offset actual expenses, not for profit purposes. The Director of the provincial-level Tax Department shall, based on the above-mentioned principle, decide and list the invoice selling prices, tax agencies at all levels may not collect any amount of money in addition to the listed price. All units of the provincial-level Tax Department shall sell or distribute invoices of the same type issued by the provincial-level Tax Department.

Article 25. Disposal of invoices no longer in use that are bought from tax agencies

1. Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals that obtain tax agencies’ approval of cessation to use their tax identification numbers shall suspend the use of unused invoices.

2. The direct tax administration agencies shall notify the termination of validity of invoices not yet created and currently used by enterprises, economic organizations, business households or individuals that fails to conduct business activities at the registered business locations or arbitrarily cease business activities.

3. In case of shifting to use e-invoices, enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals that are approved to use e-invoices by tax agencies must destroy invoices bought from tax agencies under Article 27 of this Decree before using e-invoices.

Article 26. Handling of e-invoices bought from tax agencies

1. When detecting errors in a created invoice which is not yet handed to the buyer, the seller shall cross out all the invoice sheets and keep the number of the created invoice that contains errors.

2. In case where the created invoice contains errors in the buyer's name and address, but the buyer’s tax identification number is correct, both parties shall make a correction minutes without creating a correction invoice.

3. When errors are detected in a created invoice which has been handed to the buyer but the goods or service has not been delivered or provided to the buyer or the seller and buyer have not declared taxes, such invoice must be voided. The seller and buyer shall make a minutes of withdrawal of all sheets of the created invoice that contains errors. The minutes of withdrawal must clearly states the reason for such withdrawal. The seller shall cross out all sheets of the invoice, keep the number of the erroneous invoice and create a new invoice under regulations.

4. When errors are detected in a created invoice which has been handed to the buyer, the goods or service has been delivered or provided to the buyer, and the seller and buyer have declared taxes, the seller shall create an invoice to correct those errors. This invoice must indicate the adjustment (increase or decrease) of the quantity of goods, selling price, value-added tax rate, value-added tax amount for invoice No…, symbol… Based on the correction invoice, the seller and buyer shall declare adjustments to the purchase and sale turnover, and output and input taxes. A correction invoice must not contain negative numbers (-).

In case the seller and buyer have an agreement on making a minutes specifying errors before the correction invoice is created by the seller, both parties shall specify such errors, and the seller shall create a correction invoice.

Article 27. Destruction of invoices printed on order by tax agencies

1. Invoices no longer in use of enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals must be destroyed. The time limit for destruction of invoices is at least 30 days, after notifying the tax agency.

Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals that keep invoices with expired validity as notified by the tax agency (except for the notice due to the enforcement of tax debt coercive measure) shall destroy these invoices within 10 days after the tax agency notify their expired validity or after finding lost invoices;

Invoices created by accounting units shall be destroyed in accordance with the accounting law.

Invoices which are not yet created but serve as material evidence of legal cases may not be destroyed but shall be handled in accordance with law provisions.

2. The destruction of invoices by enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals is prescribed as follows:

a) Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals shall make a list of invoices to be destroyed.

b) Enterprises and business organizations shall form an invoice destruction council which must consist of representatives of the leaders and accounting divisions of their organizations. When destroying invoices, business households or individuals are not required to form an invoice destruction council.

c) Invoice destruction council members shall sign the invoice destruction minutes and take responsibility before law for any errors.

d) An invoice destruction dossier comprises:

- The decision to form the invoice destruction council, except for business households and individuals;

- The list of invoices to be destroyed, specifying the invoice title, invoice form symbol, invoice symbol, quantity of invoices to be destroyed (from number… to number…, or the specific numbers of invoices to be destroyed if those invoices have non-consecutive serial numbers);

- The invoice destruction minutes;

- The invoice destruction notice, which specifies the type, symbol and quantity of invoices to be destroyed, from number… to number…, reason for destruction, date and hour of destruction, destruction method (made according to the Form No. 02/HUY-HDG provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree).

Invoice destruction dossiers shall be kept at enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals using those invoices.  Particularly, an invoice destruction notice shall be made in 02 copies, one for filing and the other to be sent to the direct tax administration agency within 05 days after invoices are destroyed.

3. Destruction of invoices by tax agencies

a) Tax agencies shall destroy invoices printed on order by provincial-level Tax Departments of which issuance notices have been made, but which have been neither sold nor distributed and are no longer used.

b) The General Department of Taxation shall provide the process of destruction of invoices printed on order by provincial-level Tax Departments.

Article 28. Handling of lost, burnt and damaged invoices printed on order by tax agencies

1. When detecting loss, burning or damage of created or unused invoices, enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals shall report such loss, burning or damage to the direct tax administration agency (according to the Form No. BC21/HDG provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree) within 05 days after such loss, burning or damage. If the last day (the 05^th day) of this time limit falls on a public holiday as prescribed by law, it may be counted as the subsequent day of that holiday.

2. When a seller has created an invoice for sale of goods or provision of services under regulations but later the seller or buyer has the second sheet of that invoice lost, burnt or damaged, the seller and buyer shall make a record of the incident, clearly stating the month in which the seller declared and paid taxes using the invoice’s first sheet. The record must contain the signature and full name of the representative at law (or authorized person) and seal (if any). The seller shall copy the first sheet of the invoice, have it signed by its representative at law and append a seal to it before handing it to the buyer. The buyer may use the copied invoice bearing the seller’s certification and seal (if any) enclosed with the record of loss, burning or damage of the invoice’s second sheet for accounting and tax declaration.  The seller and buyer shall take responsibility for the truthfulness of the loss, burning or damage of invoices

In case the loss, burning or damage of the used second sheet involves a third party (for example: the third party is the one transporting goods or delivering the invoice), the seller or buyer that hires the third party shall have its responsibility determined and handled under regulations.

Article 29. Report on the use of invoices printed on order by tax agencies and the list of invoices used during the period

1. Quarterly, enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals buying invoices from tax agencies shall be responsible for submitting reports on use of invoices and the list of used invoices during the period to the direct tax administration agencies.

Quarterly reports on use of invoices must be sent no later than last day of the first month of the quarter preceding the quarter arising the use of invoices. Such reports shall be made according to the Form No. BC26/HDG provided in Appendix IA attached to this Decree.

In case no invoice is used during the period, enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals shall submit reports on use of invoices, clearly stating the quantity of invoices is zero (= 0), without sending the list of invoices used during the period. If enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals have used all invoices during the previous and reported the quantity of remaining invoices is zero (0), they shall not be required to submit reports on use of invoices for the period of not buying or using invoices.

2. Enterprises, economic organizations, business households and individuals selling goods or providing services shall be responsible for submitting reports on use of invoices and lists of invoices used during the period upon their split-up, separation, merger, dissolution, bankruptcy or ownership transfer or upon assignment, sale, contracting or lease of state enterprises, within the time limit for submission of tax finalization dossiers

3. An enterprise, economic organization, business household or individual that relocates the business location to another locality not managed by the current direct tax administration agency shall submit a report on use of invoices and the list of invoices used during the period to the tax agency of the locality from which it/he/she moves.

 Chapter III

PROVISIONS ON DOCUMENTS

Section 1
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 30. Type of documents

1. Documents in the fields of tax, charge and fee administration of tax agencies:

a) Personal income tax withholding documents;

b) Receipts include:

b.1) Tax, charge and fee collection receipts without face value;

b.2) Tax, charge and fee collection receipts with face value;

b.3) Tax, charge and fee collection receipts.

2. If there arises demands for other receipts in the course of tax, charge and fee administration according to the Law on Tax Administration, the Minister of Finance shall take responsibility for providing regulations on those receipts and guiding the implementation of such regulations.

Article 31. Document creation time

At the time of personal income tax withholding or tax, charge, fee collection, personal income tax-withholding organizations, tax-, charge- and fee-collecting organizations must create documents, receipts and hand them to persons having incomes subject to tax withholding or taxpayers of taxes, fees and charges.

Article 32. Document contents

1. A tax withholding document must contain the following contents:

a) Title of the tax withholding document, symbol of tax withholding document form, symbol and serial number of the tax withholding document;

b) Payer’s name, address and tax identification number;

c) Taxpayer’s name, address and tax identification number (if the taxpayer has a tax identification number);

d) Nationality (if the taxpayer does not hold Vietnamese nationality);

dd) Income, time of income payment, total taxable income, tax amounts withheld; received income;

e) Date, month and year of tax-withholding document creation;

g) Full name, signature of income payer.

The signature on electronic tax withholding documents is electronic signature.

2. Receipts

a) Receipt type: Tax, charge and fee collection receipt without face value; tax, charge and fee collection receipt with face value; tax, charge and fee collection receipt.

b) Symbol of receipt form and symbol of receipt.

Symbol of receipt form indicates the receipt type, the number of sheets and the serial number of a form of a receipt type (a single type of receipt may have different forms).

Symbol of receipt is a sign identifying receipts by letters in Vietnamese alphabet, together with the 02 last numerals of the year.

For printed-on-order receipts, the 02 last numerals indicate the one of the printing year. For self-printed receipts and e-receipts, the 02 last numerals indicate the one of the year when such receipts are put into use as stated in the receipt issuance notice or the one of the year when such receipts are printed out.

c) Number of receipt is the serial number on tax, charge, fee collection receipts. Number of receipt is indicated in Arabic numerals and includes 7 digits in maximum. For printed-on-order and self-printed receipts, the first number of a receipt must be 0000001. For e-receipts, the first number of a receipt must be 1 on January 01 or on the date when such receipt is put into use and the last number must be on December 31 of the same year.

d) Number of receipt sheets (applicable for printed-on-order and self-printed receipts) is the number of sheets sharing the same number of the receipt. Each receipt has 02 or more sheets or parts, including:

- The first sheet (part): to be kept by the collecting organization;

- The second sheet (part): to be handed to the tax, charge or fee payer;

The third and subsequent sheets are named after their specific use purpose to serve management work in accordance with law.

dd) Name and tax identification number of the tax-, charge- or fee- collecting organization.

e) Name of the tax, charge or fee type and the tax, charge or fee amount in figures and in words.

g) Date, month, year of receipt creation.

h) Signature of collector. The signature on e-receipts is electronic signature.

i) Name and tax identification number of the receipt-printing organization (in case of printing on order).

k) Receipts shall be written in Vietnamese. For a receipt to be presented in a foreign language, foreign language words shall be put in brackets “( )” to the right of or below the Vietnamese words with a font size smaller than that of the Vietnamese words.

Figures written on a receipt must be natural numerals: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

The currency written on a receipt must be Vietnam dong. When other receivables belonging to the state budget is prescribed by law to be collected in a foreign currency, it may be collected in foreign currency or in Vietnam dong converted from such foreign currency at the exchange rate prescribed in Clause 4, Article 3 of the Government’s Decree No. 120/2016/ND-CP dated August 23, 2016, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Charges and Fees.

When the number of types of charges or fees is greater than the number of lines in a receipt, a statement of charges or fees may be enclosed with the receipt. Such statement may be presented by the charge- or fee-collecting organization itself as suitable to the characteristics of each type of charge or fee.  The statement must have the phrase “enclosed with receipt No…., date (date…, month…, year…)”.

For an e-receipt, if a charge- or fee-collecting organization wishes to change a number of content items in such receipt to suit reality, before making such change, it shall send a written request to the Ministry of Finance (the General Department of Taxation) for consideration and guidance.

In addition to the compulsory contents specified in this Clause, charge- and fee-collecting organizations may create other information, including also lawful logo and decorative or advertising image, which must neither hide nor blur the compulsory contents in the receipt. The font size of such additional information must not be larger than that of the compulsory contents in the receipt.

3. E-receipt display forms shall be according to Clause 10, Article 4 of the Government’s Decree No. 11/2020/ND-CP dated January 20, 2020 prescribing administrative procedures for State Treasury operations and written guidance on the implementation.

Section 2

PROVISIONS ON E-DOCUMENTS

Article 33. E-document format

1. E-receipt format:

Receipt types as prescribed at Point b, Clause 1, Article 30 of this Decree shall have the following formats:

a) Extensible Markup Language (XML) shall be used for e-receipt format (XML is created for the purpose of sharing electronic data among information technology systems);

b) E-receipt format consists of two components: the component containing professional data of e-receipt and the component containing data of digital signature;

c) The General Department of Taxation shall formulate and publicize the components containing professional data of e-receipt, the components containing data of digital signature as well as provide tools to display the contents of e-receipts in accordance with this Decree.

2. Personal income tax withholding e-document format:

When using documents prescribed at Point a, Clause 1, Article 30 of this Decree in electronic form, personal income tax-withholding organizations must formulate a software system by themselves for using e-documents to ensure compulsory contents as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 32 of this Decree.

3. E-documents, e-receipts must be displayed fully and exactly all contents of documents in order that users can fully read them by electronic devices to avoid misinterpretation.

Article 34. Registration for use of e-receipts

1. Before using e-receipts as prescribed at Point b, Clause 1, Article 30, charge- and fee-collecting organizations shall register for use of e-receipts on the Portal of the General Department of Taxation.

The registration shall be made according to Form No. 01/DK-BL in Appendix IA to this Decree.

The Portal of the General Department of Taxation shall receive registrations for e-receipt use of charge- and fee-collecting organizations and send written notices in Form No. 01/TB-TNDK in Appendix IB to this Decree to confirm such submission.

2. Within 01 working day after receipt of a registration for e-invoice use of any of subjects prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, the tax agency shall send it a written notice of acceptance of the registration (if the registration for use of e-receipts is valid and doesn’t have any shortcomings) or refusal of the registration (if the registration for use of e-invoices is not eligible to be accepted or has shortcomings). Such notice shall be made according to Form No. 01/TB-DKDT in Appendix IB to this Decree.

3. From the date on which e-receipts are used according to this Decree, organizations prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article shall destroy unused paper receipts, documents (if any) in accordance with regulations.

4. In case of a change in information provided to register the use of e-receipts as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, organizations that collect charges and fees belonging the state budget shall make such change and re-send their registration information, using Form No. 01/DK-BL in Appendix IA to this Decree to the tax agencies via the Portal of the General Department of Taxation.

Section 3

PROVISIONS ON PRINTED-ON-ORDER AND SELF-PRINTED PAPER RECEIPTS

Article 35. Principles of receipt creation

1. Provincial-level Tax Departments shall create receipts in the form of printed-on-order receipts without face value. Those receipts shall be sold to charge- and fee-collecting organizations at prices that can offset printing and issuance expenses.

2. If using printed-on-order receipts, a charge- or fee-collecting organization may choose and sign a contract on printing charge or fee collection receipts with a printing organization capable of invoice printing according to regulations.

3. If using self-printed receipts, a charge- or fee-collecting organization must satisfy all the following conditions:

a) Having an equipment system (computers and printers) for printing and creating receipts upon charge or fee collection.

b) Being an accounting unit under the Law on Accounting and having a receipt creation software ensuring that the receipt data are transferred to the accounting software (or database) for declaration under regulations.

The receipt creation system must ensure the following principles:

b.1) Receipts are numbered automatically. Each sheet of a receipt can be printed out only once; a sheet printed out from the second time on must be marked as copy.

b.2) The applied software for receipt printing must satisfy the security requirement by authorization to users. Unauthorized persons cannot interfere to change the database in the applied software.

If wishing to buy software from receipt creation software suppliers, charge- and fee-collecting organizations shall select suppliers capable of supplying software in accordance with regulations.

b.3) Self-printed receipts which have not yet been created shall be stored in the computer system under confidentiality regulations.

b.4) Self-printed receipts which have been created shall be stored in the computer system under confidentiality regulations. It must be ensured that the receipt details can be accessed to, extracted and printed out for reference when necessary.

Article 36. Printed-on-order and self-printed receipt issuance notices

1. Before using printed-on-order and self-printed receipts, a charge- or fee-collecting organization shall make a receipt issuance notice and send it to its direct tax administration agency. The receipt issuance notice shall be sent to the tax agency by using electronic methods.

2. Receipt issuance of tax agencies

Receipt issuance notices must be made for receipts printed on orders placed by provincial-level Tax Departments before their first-time sale. A receipt issuance notice must be sent to all other provincial-level Tax Departments nationwide within 10 working days after it is made and before receipts are sold. The numbers of a receipt symbol must be not identical.

A provincial-level Tax Department that has posted a receipt issuance notice on the General Department of Taxation’s website shall not be required to send such notice to other provincial-level Tax Departments.

In cases of a change in the notified contents, such provincial-level Tax Department shall carry out new issuance notification procedures under above guidance.

3. A receipt issuance notice must contain the following details:

a) The title of the legal document defining the functions, tasks and powers to perform state management work with a charge or fee;

b) The name, tax identification number and address of the charge- or fee-collecting organization or agency authorized to collect charges and fees, or agency authorized to create charge or fee collection receipts;

c) Used receipt types (enclosed with specimen receipts). Specimen receipt is a receipt printed with full, accurate items of a sheet (part) of a receipt (for handing over to the charge or fee payer) which has the receipt number consisting of a series of zeros (0) and bears a printed or stamped “specimen” mark;

d) The date of use commencement;

dd) The name, tax identification number and address of the receipt-printing organization (for printed-on-order receipts); the name and tax identification number (if any) of the receipt creation software supplier (for self-printed receipts);

e) The date of making the issuance notice; name and signature of the at-law representative and seal of the charge- or fee-collecting organization.

When the form and contents (both compulsory and optional contents) of a receipt change wholly or partially, the charge- or fee-collecting organization shall send a new issuance notice under the guidance in this Clause, except the case specified at Point d, Clause 3 of this Article.

The receipt issuance notice shall be made according to Form No. 02/PH-BLG in Appendix IA to this Decree.

4. The order and procedures for issuance of receipts:

a) A receipt issuance notice and a specimen receipt shall be sent to the direct tax administration agency at least 05 days before a business organization commences using receipts. Receipt issuance notices and specimen receipts shall be posted up at charge- and fee-collecting organizations and organizations authorized or assigned to collect charges and fees throughout the use duration of such receipts;

b) Within 03 working days after receiving a receipt issuance notice from a charge- or fee-collecting organization, if finding that such notice does not contain sufficient details as required, a tax agency shall notify such in writing to that charge- or fee-collecting organization. The charge- or fee-collecting organization shall take responsibility for making a new notice with appropriate modifications in accordance with regulations;

c) For the second issuance on, charge- and fee-collecting organizations are not required to enclose specimen receipts with receipt issuance notices, if there is no change in the content and format of receipts notified to the tax agencies;

d) For the unused quantity of issued receipts which are preprinted with the charge- or fee-collecting organization’s name and address, in case the charge- or fee collecting organization changes its name or address but not its tax identification number and its direct tax administration agency, if it wishes to continue using the unused receipts already issued on order, it shall append a mark showing its new name and address next to the preprinted name and address and send a notice of modification of the receipt issuance notice to its direct tax administration agency, using Form No. 02/DCPH-BLG in Appendix IA to this Decree.

In case a charge- or fee-collecting organization changes its business location, resulting in the change in the direct tax administration agency, if such organization wishes to continue using the unused receipts already issued, it shall submit a report on the use of receipts to the tax agency of the locality from which it moves and shall append a mark showing its new address on such receipts, and send a list of the unused receipts in Form No. 02/BK-BLG in Appendix IA to this Decree and a notice of modification of the receipt issuance notice to the tax agency of the locality to which it moves (specifying the number of unused receipts already issued and to be used).  If the organization does not wish to use the unused receipts already issued, it shall destroy such receipts and notify the destruction result to the tax agency of the locality from which it moves and make a new receipt issuance notice to the tax agency of the locality to which it moves.

Article 37. Provisions on receipt creation and authorization for creating receipts

1. Receipt creation

A receipt must correctly reflect the arising economic operation. Receipts shall be created with consecutive numbers in ascending order.

Contents of a created receipt must be uniform in all sheets of the same number. If making an error, the collector may not tear the receipt from its counterfoil; if he/she has done so, the erroneous receipt shall be retained. A charge- or fee-collecting organization shall append its seal on the upper left corner of each receipt’s second sheet (for handing to payers of other receivables belonging the state budget).

2. Receipts created in accordance with Clause 1 of this Article are valid for payment, accounting and financial finalization.

Those created not in accordance with Clause 1 of this Article are not valid for payment, accounting or financial finalization.

3. Authorization for creating receipts

a) A charge- or fee-collecting organization may authorize a third party to create receipts. Such authorization must be made in writing and notified to the tax agencies directly managing the authorizing party and authorized party in Form No. 02/UN-BLG in Appendix IA to this Decree at least 03 days before the authorized party creates a receipt;

b) An authorization document must contain sufficient information on receipts to be created under authorization (form, type, symbol and quantity of receipts (from number … to number …)); authorization purpose and duration; mode of delivery or computer installation of receipts (for self-printed receipts); and method of payment for receipts created under authorization;

c) The authorizing party shall make an authorization notice, containing sufficient information on receipts to be created under authorization, authorization purpose and duration according to the signed authorization document with the name, signature and seal (if any) of the representative of the authorizing party, and send it to the tax agency. Such notice shall also be posted up at the offices of the charge- or fee-collecting organization and the authorized organization;

d) A receipt to be created under authorization must still bear the name of the charge- or fee-collecting organization (the authorizing party) and its seal on the upper left corner of each receipt (such seal is not required for a receipt printed from the printing device of the authorized party);

dd) A charge- or fee-collecting organization with many attached units that directly collect fees or with different authorized establishments, which distributes receipts printed on order with the same symbol to each establishment, shall open a book to monitor the quantity of receipts distributed to each attached unit or authorized establishment. Attached units or authorized establishments shall use receipts with serial numbers in ascending order and within the quantities distributed to them;

e) The authorizing and authorized parties shall make periodic reports on use of receipts created under authorization. The authorizing party shall submit reports on use of receipts to the direct tax administration agency as guided in this Decree (including receipts used by the authorized party). The authorized party is not required to notify the issuance of receipts and report on use of such receipts to the tax agency;

g) When the authorization duration expires or the authorization terminates ahead of time, the two parties shall make a written statement thereon and notify such expiration or termination to the tax agency and post up the statement at the places of charge and fee collection.

Article 38. Report on the use of printed-on-order and self-printed receipts

1. Charge- and fee-collecting organizations shall submit reports on use of receipts on a quarterly basis.

The deadlines for submission of quarterly reports on receipt use is the last day of the first month of the quarter following the quarter using the receipt.

2. A report on the use of receipts shall be sent to the direct tax administration agency, specifying the name of a unit and its tax identification number (if any), address; receipt type; symbol of receipt form and symbol of receipt; number of receipts at the beginning of the period, number of receipts bought in the period; number of receipts used, erased, lost and canceled in the period; and number of unused receipts at the end of the period. In case no receipt is used in the period, the number of used receipts written in the report on use of receipt is zero (= 0).  In case receipts of the previous period have been used up, the number of unused receipts written in the report on the previous period’s use of receipt is zero (= 0), there is no charge and fee collection receipt issuance notice and no receipt used in the period, submission of a report on the use of receipts is not required.

A charge- or fee-collecting organization that authorizes a third party to create receipts is also required to report on the use of receipts.

A report on the use of receipts shall be made in Form No. BC26/BLDT or Form No. BC26/BLG in Appendix IA to this Decree.

3. Charge- and fee-collecting organizations shall submit reports on the use of receipts upon their dissolution, division, splitting, merger or ownership transfer within the time limit for submission of charge and fee finalization dossiers.

Article 39. Destruction of receipts

1. Cases of destruction of receipts

- Receipts printed on order which are printed incorrectly, identically or superfluously shall be destroyed before liquidating contract on printing charge or fee collection receipts.

- Accounting units’ created receipts shall be destroyed in accordance with the accounting law.

- Charge- and fee-collecting organizations’ unused receipts already issued shall be destroyed, if such organizations do not wish to use them.

- Receipts which are not used but serve as exhibits in a legal case may not be destroyed but shall be handled in accordance with law.

2. Receipts regarded as destroyed

- Destroying printed-on-order and self-printed receipts is the act of burning, cutting, shredding or other destruction methods, ensuring that information and figures in destroyed receipts will not be able to be reused.

-  An e-receipts is regarded as destroyed when it no longer exists on the system, is made inaccessible and its information cannot be referenced.

Unless otherwise decided by competent state agencies, an e-receipt whose storage life expires according to the accounting law may be destroyed. The destruction of e-receipts must avoid causing any impact on the integrity of undestroyed e-receipts and the normal operation of the information system.

3. Order and procedures for destruction of receipts

a) The time limit for destruction of receipts is 30 days after such destruction is notified to the direct tax administration agency.

For invalid receipts according to a tax agency’s notice, a charge- or fee-collecting organization shall destroy them and issue a notice of the destruction to the tax agency with the following details:  name, tax identification number (if any), address of charge- or fee-collecting organization; receipt destruction method, date and hour of destruction, receipt type, symbol of receipt form, symbol of receipt, from number … to number …, and quantity of destroyed receipts. The time limit for destruction of receipts is 10 days after the invalid receipts are notified by the tax agency.

b) A charge- and fee-collecting organization shall make a list of receipts to be destroyed, specifying the following contents: The title of the receipt, symbol of the receipt form, symbol of the receipt, and quantity of receipts to be destroyed (from number … to number …, or the numbers of receipts if these numbers are not consecutive).

c) A charge- or fee-collecting organization must establish a receipt destruction council. The receipt destruction council must consist of representatives of the management and accounting unit of the organization collecting other receivables belonging the state budget.

d) Receipt destruction council members shall all sign the receipt destruction minutes and take responsibility before law for any errors.

dd) A receipt destruction dossier must comprise the decision on establishment of the receipt destruction council; the list of receipts to be destroyed; the receipt destruction minutes; and the receipt destruction result notice.

Receipt destruction dossiers shall be kept at charge- and fee-collecting organizations. Particularly, a receipt destruction result notice shall be made in 02 copies in Form No. 02/HUY-BLG in Appendix IA to this Decree, one for filing and the other for sending to the direct tax administration agency within 05 days after the date of receipt destruction. A receipt destruction notice must specify the type, symbol and quantity of destroyed receipts from number … to number …, reason for destruction, date and hour of destruction, and destruction method.

e) Tax agencies shall destroy receipts printed on orders placed by provincial-level Tax Departments of which issuance notices have been made, but which have not been sold and are no longer used. The General Departments of Taxation shall take responsibility for issuing regulations on the process of destruction of receipts printed on orders placed by provincial-level Tax Departments.

Article 40. Handling of lost, burnt and damaged receipts for printed-on-order and self-printed receipts

1. Within 05 working days after detecting loss, burning or damage of a created or unused receipt, a charge- and fee-collecting organization shall report it to the direct tax administration agency,  specifying the name of the organization or individual losing, burning or damaging the receipt; tax identification number and address; the basis for making the loss, burning or damage record; the receipt type; the symbol of receipt form; the symbol of receipt; from number…to number…; the quantity; and receipt sheets.  Should the last (fifth) day of this time limit fall on a public holiday, the last day of the time limit will be the subsequent day of that holiday.

The report on receipt loss, burning or damage shall be made according to Form No. BC21/BLG in Appendix IA to this Decree.

2. If a tax, charge or fee payer loses, burns or damages a document or receipt, he/she may use the copy of the receipt sheet kept at the tax-, charge- or fee-collecting organization, which bears the charge- or fee-collecting organization’s certification and seal (if any) enclosed with the minutes of the receipt loss, burning or damage, as a document for payment and financial finalization. The charge- or fee-collecting organizations and charge or fee payers shall take responsibility for the truthfulness of the loss, burning or damage of receipts.

Chapter IV

ESTABLISHMENT AND SEARCH OF INFORMATION ABOUT INVOICES, DOCUMENTS

Section 1

ESTABLISHMENT OF INFORMATION ABOUT INVOICES, DOCUMENTS

Article 41. General principles

1. Information system of invoices and documents must be established and uniformly managed from the central to local levels; comply with information technology standards and technical regulations.

2. The database of invoices and documents shall ensure timely service for tax administration and other state governance; meet socio-economic development requirements; ensure safety, confidentiality and national security.

3. Information and data on invoices, documents shall be collected, updated, maintained, exploited and used regularly; ensuring accuracy, honesty and objectivity.

4. The establishment, management, exploitation, use and update of invoice and document database shall be scientific, ensure accuracy, objectivity and timeliness.

5. The invoice and document database shall be established, connected and shared in an electronic environment for convenient and efficient management, exploitation, provision and use of information and data.

6. The information and data of invoices and documents shall be exploited and used for the right purposes and shall comply with law provisions.

7. The database of invoices and documents shall be connected and exchanged with the information systems and databases of the concerned ministries, branches and localities.

Article 42. Building of information technology technical infrastructure and software systems serving the management, operation and exploitation of the e-invoice and e-document information system

1. E-invoice and e-document information technology technical infrastructure is a combination of computing equipment (servers, workstations), transmission systems, network-connected devices, network security and database safety devices (or software), storage devices, peripherals and auxiliary equipment, intranets.

2. Software system for managing, operating and exploiting the e-invoice and e-document information system shall include operating systems, database management systems and application software.

Article 43. Establishment, collection, processing and management of the invoice and receipt information system

1. Establishment the invoice and receipt information system

a) Invoice and document database is a collection of invoice and document information data arranged and organized for access, exploitation, management and update via electronic devices.

b) The invoice and document database managed by tax agencies shall be established by the General Department of Taxation, the State Treasury in coordination with relevant units in accordance with the Vietnam e-government framework, including the following contents: registration for use of information; notice of invoice and document cancellation, information about e-invoices which sellers are responsible for sending to the tax agencies; information on tax declaration related to invoices, documents.

2. Collection and update of information about invoices, receipts

Information about invoices, documents is collected from the information that sellers, users are responsible for sending to the tax agencies, information from other agencies related to e-invoices, e-documents and information obtained from tax administration activities of tax agencies.

3. Processing of information about invoices, documents

The General Department of Taxation shall be responsible for processing information and data before integrating and storing them into national databases to ensure the rationality and consistency. Processing of information and data means:

a) Examining and evaluating the compliance with regulations and procedures in collecting information and data;

b) Checking and evaluating the legal basis and the reliability of information and data;

c) Summarizing, arranging and classifying information and data in accordance with the specified contents;

d) For information and data updated from the specialized database, the specialized database management agencies shall be responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the information and data.

4. Management of the system of information about invoices, receipts

The General Department of Taxation shall be responsible for managing the invoice and document information system as follows:

a) Establishing, managing, operating and exploiting the invoice and document information system and providing necessary public services on e-invoices and e-documents;

b) Integrating survey results with data and information related to invoices and documents provided by relevant ministries, branches and agencies;

c) Instructing, inspecting and supervising the management and exploitation of invoice and document information system at local tax agencies;

d) Elaborating and promulgating regulations on decentralization of access to invoice and document information system; managing the connection, sharing and provision of data with databases of ministries, branches, central and local agencies;

dd) Assuming the prime responsibility for, and cooperating with relevant units in, developing software for the invoice and document information system.

Section 2

SEARCH, PROVISION AND USE OF E-INVOICE INFORMATION

Article 44. Principles of search and use of e-invoice information

1. The acts of searching, provision and use of e-invoice information shall be for implementation of procedures of tax, payment via banks, and other administrative procedures; verification of the lawfulness of goods circulated on the market.

2. Searching, provision of e-invoice information must be complete, accurate, timely and right about subjects.

3. Use of provided e-invoice information must be for the right purposes and serve information users’ professional operations according to their functions and tasks; concurrently comply with regulations on State secrets protection.

Article 45. Search of e-invoice information for inspection of goods currently circulated on the market

1. When inspecting goods currently circulated on the market, if e-invoices are used, competent state agencies or persons shall access the Portal of the General Department of Taxation to search information about e-invoices to serve their management requirements and do not demand paper invoices. Related agencies shall take responsibility for using device for accessing and searching e-invoice data.

2. When any failure to search invoice data on the Internet due to force majeure events like breakdowns or natural disasters occurs, competent state agencies or persons who are implementing the inspection shall send messages for searching information about e-invoices.

Article 46. Subjects of provision of information and use of information about e-invoices

1. The General Department of Taxation shall be the e-invoice information provider, for proposals of central state administration agencies and organizations. Provincial-level Tax Departments and Tax Branches shall provide information, for proposals of state management agencies and organization at the same level.

2.  Information users include:

a) Enterprises, economic organizations and business households and individuals that are sellers of goods or providers of services; organizations and individuals that buy goods or services;

b) State management agencies that use e-invoice information for implementation of administrative procedures in accordance with law, verification of the lawfulness of goods circulated on the market;

c) Credit institutions that wish to use e-invoice information for implementation of tax procedures and payment procedures via banks;

d) E-invoice service providers.

dd) Organizations that use e-document information for personal income tax withholding.

Article 47. Methods of exploitation and use of e-invoice information on the Portal

1. Information users being enterprises, economic organizations and business households and individuals that are sellers of goods or providers of services; organizations and individuals that buy goods or services shall access the Portal of the General Department of Taxation to search e-invoice information according to the contents of e-invoices.

2. Information users being state management agencies, credit institutions, e-invoice service providers that have signed regulations on exchange of information or contracts must implement registration and shall be granted permissions of accessing, connecting and using e-invoice information by the General Department of Taxation, with the following regulations:

a) Using valid digital signatures in accordance with law;

b) Encrypting transmission lines;

c) Ensuring information security in accordance with law;

d) Complying technical requirements announced by the General Department of Taxation, including: Information item, data format, connection method and information exchange frequency.

Information users defined in Clause 2 of this Article shall take responsibilities for assigning the focal point in charge of registration of using e-invoice information (hereinafter referred to as registration focal point) and notify the General Department of Taxation in writing.

Article 48. Announcement and search of information about e-invoices

1. E-invoice information provided on the Portal shall be contents of e-invoices prescribed in Article 10 of this Decree and the status of e-invoices.

2. Provided e-invoice information shall be in format of e-text and e-data with the digital signature of the General Department of Taxation or messages provided by the General Department of Taxation to information users being state management agencies via their telephone numbers officially announced in writing to the General Department of Taxation.

3. E-invoices information shall be displayed on the enterprise's system in the order of e-invoice contents as prescribed in Article 10 of this Decree.

Article 49. Registration, supplementation and termination of e-invoice information use

1. Registration, supplementation of to-be-provided e-invoice information contents

a) The registration focal point of information users shall send 01 original written request for registration or supplementation of to-be-provided e-invoice information contents, using Form No. 01/CCTT-DK in Appendix II to this Decree.

b) Within 02 working days after receiving the written request, the General Department of Taxation shall implement registration or supplementation of to-be-provided e-invoice information contents and notify the registration focal point of information users of results in writing, using Form No.  01/CCTT-NT in Appendix II to this Decree. In cases of failure to accept such registration or supplementation, it shall clearly state the reason.

2. Procedures for registration of a new account for accessing the Portal (hereinafter referred to as account) or extension of validity period or revocation of a granted account:

a) The registration focal point of information users shall send 01 original written request for registration of a new account or extension of validity period or revocation of a granted account, made according to Form No. 01/CCTT-DK in Appendix II to this Decree;

b) Within 02 working days after receiving the written request, the General Department of Taxation shall grant a new account or extend the validity period or revoke the granted account and notify in writing the registration focal point of information users. In cases of failure to accept the registration of a new account or extension of validity period of a granted account, it shall clearly state the reason.

New account information shall be notified to each account registering individual via an email or a message sent from an email address or telephone number officially announced by the General Department of Taxation.

c) In cases of first-time registration or extension of validity period, the validity period of an account to access the Portal shall be 24 months or shall be proposed by the information user but must not exceed 24 months from the date the General Department of Taxation sends a notice of the result of first-time registration or extension of validity period to the information user’s registration focal point.

30 days before an account expires, the General Department of Taxation shall notify in writing the information user’s  registration focal point that the validity period of an account is about to expire. The notification shall be implemented via an email or a message sent from an email address or telephone number officially announced by the General Department of Taxation.

3. Registration of use, extension of validity period, or invalidation of the messaging function of a mobile phone number:

a) The registration focal point of an inspection agency shall send 01 original written request for use registration, extension of validity period, or invalidation of the messaging function of a mobile phone number, made according to Form No. 01/CCTT-NT in Appendix II to this Decree;

b) Within 02 working days after receiving the written request, the General Department of Taxation shall effect the use registration, extension of validity period, or invalidation of the messaging function of a mobile phone number, and notify in writing the result to the inspection agency’s registration focal point. In cases of failure to accept the use registration or the extension of validity period, it shall clearly state the reason.

c) In cases of first-time registration or extension of validity period, the validity period of the messaging function of a mobile phone number shall be 24 months or shall be proposed by the information user but must not exceed 24 months from the date the General Department of Taxation sends a notice of the result of first-time registration or extension of validity period to the information user’s registration focal point.

30 days before the messaging function of a mobile phone number expires, the General Department of Taxation shall notify in writing the information user’s registration focal point that the validity period of the messaging function of such mobile phone is about to expire. The notification shall be implemented via an email or a message sent from an email address or telephone number officially announced by the General Department of Taxation.

4. Registration of connection or disconnection of the information user’s system to the Portal for e-invoice information use.

a) The registration focal point of information users shall send 01 original written request for connection or disconnection with the Portal, using Form No. 01/CCTT-KN in Appendix II to this Decree;

b) Within 03 working days after receiving the written request, the General Department of Taxation shall notify in writing the information user’s registration focal point of acceptance or rejection of such request; in cases of rejection, it shall clearly state the reason;

c) In cases of acceptance of system connection: Within 10 working days after sending a notice, the General Department of Taxation shall assign a survey team to the place where the information user’s information system is installed to inspect the satisfaction of the requirements.

- If the survey team’s conclusion record shows that the information user’s information system satisfies the requirements, within 10 working days, the General Department of Taxation shall notify in writing the information user of the information system’s satisfaction of the conditions for connection and coordinate with the information user in connecting systems to provide e-invoice and e-document information;

- If the survey team’s conclusion record shows that the information user’s information system fails to satisfy the requirements, within 10 working days, the General Department of Taxation shall notify in writing the information user of the information system’s failure to satisfy the conditions for connection to the Portal.

d) In cases of acceptance of system disconnection: from the date of sending a notice, the General Department of Taxation shall coordinate with the information user in effecting the disconnection of systems.

Article 50. Termination of methods of e-invoice information provision and use

1. The General Department of Taxation shall revoke a granted account for accessing the Portal or invalidate the massaging function of a mobile phone number in the following cases:

a) Upon request of the information user’s registration focal point;

b) The validity period has expired;

c) The account for accessing the Portal or mobile phone number has not been used for searching information for a period of 06 consecutive months;

d) It is detected that e-invoice information is used at variance with the purposes, doesn't serve information users’ professional operations according to their functions and tasks, don't comply with regulations on State secrets protection.

2. The General Department of Taxation shall effect the disconnection to an information user’s system in the following cases:

a) Upon request of the information user’s registration focal point;

b) It is detected that e-invoice information is used at variance with the purposes, doesn't serve information users’ professional operations according to their functions and tasks, don't comply with regulations on State secrets protection.

3. At least 05 working days before the time of official termination of methods of information user’s e-invoice information provision and use (except for cases of written request of the information user’s registration focal point), the General Department of Taxation shall notify in writing the information user’s registration focal point of the termination of methods of e-invoice and e document information provision and use and clearly state its reason.

Article 51. Time limit for provision of e-invoice information

Within 05 minutes after receiving a request, the Portal shall send to the information user concerned a reply on:

1. E-invoice information

Reason for non-provision of information, in cases of system breakdown or unavailability of requested e-invoice information.

2. For cases of requiring provision of information with big data, time limit for provision of e-invoice information shall be announced by the General Department of Taxation.

Article 52. Responsibilities of the General Departments of Taxation

1. To establish, deploy, and manage the operation of, the Portal, specifically as follows:

a) To ensure convenient access of organizations and individuals, user-friendly tools for searching information and data, right results in conformity with to-be-searched contents;

b) To provide information and data under formats prescribed by standards, technical regulations in order that information and data may be easily downloaded, quickly shown and printed by popular electronic devices;

c) To ensure the uninterrupted and stable operation of systems and information safety;

d) To assume the prime responsibility for providing system use instructions and operation assistance.

2. To manage the registration for use of e-invoice and e-document information by information users.

3. To deploy and announce email addresses and telephone numbers serving the provision of e-invoice and e-document information.

4. To establish and announce technical requirements for connection to the e-invoice Portal.

5. In cases of suspension of e-invoice information provision, the General Department of Taxation shall notify information users. Such notification must state the time expected to restore the provision of information.

Article 53. Responsibilities of information users

1. Their use of e-invoice information must be for the right purposes and serve information users’ professional operations according to their functions and tasks; comply with regulations on State secrets protection.

2. To furnish adequate technical equipment and facilities for the search, connection and use of e-invoice information.

3. To register for the right to access, exploitation and use of e-invoice information.

4. To manage and ensure confidentiality of information on accounts for access to the Portal and telephone numbers receiving e-invoice and e-document information search messages granted by the General Department of Taxation.

5. To establish, deploy, and operate an e-invoice information receipt system.

Article 54. Implementation expenses

Expenses for search, provision and use of e-invoice information of the state management agencies prescribed in this Decree shall be allocated from the state budget based on annual expense estimates approved for agencies and units in accordance with law.

Chapter V

RIGHTS, OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS IN INVOICE AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT AND USE

Article 55. Rights and obligations of sellers of goods or providers of services

1. Sellers of goods or providers of services may:

a) Create e-invoices without the tax agency’s code for use if meeting requirements prescribed in Clause 2, Article 91 of the Law No. 38/2019/QH14 on Tax Administration;

b) Use e-invoices with the tax agency’s code if being in cases and subjects prescribed in Clauses 1, 3 and 4, Article 91 of the Law No. 38/2019/QH14 on Tax Administration;

c) Use invoices printed on orders placed by the tax agency as prescribed in Article 24 of this Decree;

d) Use lawful invoices for their business activities;

dd) Initiate lawsuits against organizations or individuals that infringe upon the rights to create, issue and use lawful invoices.

2. Sellers of goods or providers of services are obliged to:

a) Create and hand invoices when selling goods or providing services to customers;

b) Manage invoice creation activities in accordance with this Decree;

c) Register use of e-invoices according to Article 15 of this Decree if using e-invoices and Transmission of electronic invoice data to tax agencies, for cases of using e-invoices without the tax agency’s code in accordance with Article 22 of this Decree;

d) Publicize methods of search and receipt of original files of the seller's e-invoices to the buyer of goods or services;

dd) Report on invoice use to the direct tax administration agency in cases of purchasing invoices issued by the tax agency, using Form No. BC26/HDG in Appendix IA to this Decree;

e) Send invoice data to the tax agency in cases of purchasing invoices issued by the tax agency, using Form No. 01/TH-HDDT in Appendix IA to this Decree at the same time of VAT declaration submission.

Article 56. Responsibilities of goods and service buyers

1. When buying goods or services, to request sellers to create and hand invoices.

2. To provide accurate information necessary for sellers to create invoices.

3. To sign invoice sheets fully filled in if parties have an agreement on the buyer's signature on the invoice.

4. To use invoices for proper purposes.

5. To provide information indicated in invoices to competent agencies upon request. In cases of using invoices printed on orders placed by tax agencies, to provide original invoices. In cases of using e-invoices, to comply with regulations on search, provision and use of e-invoice information.

Article 57. Responsibilities of tax agencies in e-invoice and e-document management

1. The General Department of Taxation shall:

a) Set up database of e-invoices, invoices printed on orders placed by tax agencies, e-documents for tax administration and state management work of other agencies of the State (public security, market surveillance, border guard and relevant agencies), for verification and checking of invoices of enterprises, organizations and individuals;

b) Publicize invoices and documents already issued, lost or no longer valid.

2. Provincial-level Tax Departments shall:

a) Manage the creation and issuance of invoices, documents by organizations and individuals in localities;

b) Order the printing of, and issue, invoices for sale to entities according to this Decree;

c) Inspect and examine the creation, issuance and use of invoices, documents in localities.

3. District-level Tax Departments shall:

a) Examine the use of invoices for goods sale and service provision; use of e-documents as decentralized;

b) Monitor and examine the destruction of invoices and documents as decentralized under the Finance Ministry's regulations.

Article 58. Responsibilities for e-invoice information and data sharing and connection

1. Enterprises and economic organizations carrying out production or business activities in the following sectors: electricity; petroleum; post and telecommunications; air transport, road transport, rail transport, sea transport, inland water transport; clean water; finance and credit; insurance; health; e- commerce; supermarket business; and trading, shall use e-invoices and provide e-invoice data in data format announced by the Ministry of Finance.

2. Credit institutions and institutions providing payment services shall provide the tax agency with electronic data about payment transactions through accounts of organizations and individuals at the written request of the tax agency, provision of clients’ information shall comply with law on banks.

3. Producers and importers of products liable to excise tax that are required to use stamps by law shall make connections of information about printing and use of stamps and electronic stamps with the tax administration agency. Information about printing and use of electronic stamps shall be used as a basis for the establishment and management of the e-invoice database. Entities using stamps shall pay stamp use and printing expenses in accordance with regulations of the Minister of Finance.

4. Organizations and units such as the Market Surveillance Agency, the General Department of Land Administration, the General Department of Geology and Minerals, public security, traffic and health agencies and other related agencies shall make connections to share data and information necessary for use within the fields under their management with the General Department of Taxation in order to set up the e-invoice database.

Chapter V
IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

Article 59. Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on July 01, 2022. To encourage agencies, organizations and individuals meeting the information technology infrastructure conditions in comply with the Decree’s regulations in e-invoices and e-documents before July 01, 2022.

2. The Government's Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP of May 14, 2010 prescribing invoices for goods sale and service provision, the Government's Decree No. 04/2014/ND-CP of January 17, 2014 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP prescribing invoices for goods sale and service provision, the Government’s Decree No. 119/2018/ND-CP of September 12, 2018 prescribing electronic invoices for goods sale and service provision shall continue to be effective until June 30, 2022.

3. To annul Clauses 2 and 4, Article 35 of the Government’s Decree No. 119/2018/ND-CP of September 12, 2018 prescribing electronic invoices, from October 01, 2020.

4. To annul Clause 12, Article 5 of the Government’s Decree No. 12/2015/ND-CP of January 12, 2015 detailing the implementation of the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Tax Laws and amending and supplementing a number of articles of the decrees on taxes.

5. Management and use of invoice for public property sale when handling public property (for paper invoices printed on orders placed by the Ministry of Finance) shall continue complying with the Government’s Decree No. 151/2017/ND-CP of December 26, 2017 detailing a number of the Law on management and use of public property.

6. Management and use of invoices for national reserve commodity sale when selling national reserve commodities (for paper invoices) shall continue complying with the Circular No. 16/2012/TT-BTC of February 08, 2012 of the Ministry of Finance. In cases of the tax agency’s notice to switch to use e-invoices for national reserve commodity sale, units shall implement the switch in accordance with regulations.

Article 60. Transitional provisions

1. Enterprises and economic organizations that have announced the issuance of printed-on-order invoices, self-printed invoices, e-invoices without the tax agency’s code or have registered the use of e-invoices with the tax agency’s code before the issuance date of this Decree may continue to use existing e-invoices from that issuance date of this Decree to the end of June 30, 2022 and implement invoice procedures in accordance with the Government’s Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP of May 14, 2010, and Decree No. 04/2014/ND-CP of January 17, 2014, on goods sale and service provision invoices.

During the period from the issuance date of this Decree to June 30, 2022, after receiving the tax agency’s notice to switch to use e-invoices according to this Decree or the Decree No. 119/2018/ND-CP of September 12, 2018, if the notified businesses fail to meet the information technology infrastructure conditions and continue to use the aforesaid invoices, they shall send their invoice data to the tax agency, using Form No. 03/DL-HDDT in Appendix IA to this Decree, at the same time of submitting their VAT declarations. The tax agency shall create data about invoices of these businesses in order to consolidate them into the invoice database and publish it on the Portal of the General Department of Taxation to serve the search of invoice data.

2. For businesses newly established during the period from the issuance date of this Decree to June 30, 2022, if the tax agency requires them to use e-invoices in accordance with this Decree, these businesses shall follow the tax agency’s instructions. If, due to its failure to meet the information technology infrastructure conditions, any business continues to use invoices under the Government’s Decree No. 51/2010/ND-CP of May 14, 2010, and Decree No. 04/2014/ND-CP of January 17, 2014, on goods sale and service provision invoices, that business shall follow what those businesses do under Clause 1 of this Article.

3. The Ministry of Finance shall detail this Article.

Article 61. Implementation responsibility

1. The Minister of Finance shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with provincial-level People’s Committees in, making information connections from POS cash registers in order to manage retail revenues of business households and individuals prescribed in this Decree.

2. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of government-attached agencies shall, within the ambit of their assigned functions and tasks, implement this Decree.

3. Chairpersons of People’s Committees of provinces and central affiliated cities shall direct agencies and units in their localities to implement this Decree./.
 

* All Appendices are not translated herein.