Are gas stations in Vietnam required to issue e-invoices upon completion of each sale?

Are gas stations in Vietnam required to issue e-invoices upon completion of each sale?

Pursuant to point i, clause 4, Article 9 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP regulating the timing of issuing e-invoices for the sale of gasoline, as follows:

Timing of Invoice Issuance

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4. The timing of invoice issuance for certain specific cases is as follows:

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i) The timing of issuing the e-invoice for gasoline sales at retail outlets to customers is the time when the gasoline sale is completed upon completion of each sale. The seller must ensure full retention of the e-invoices for gasoline sales to individuals, whether they are non-business individuals or business individuals, and ensure accessibility in case the competent authority requests.

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In addition, clause 1, Article 4 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP stipulates the principles for invoice creation as follows:

Principles for Preparation, Management, and Use of Invoices and Documents

1. When selling goods or providing services, the seller must issue an invoice to deliver to the buyer (including cases where goods or services are used for promotions, advertising, or samples; goods or services used for gifting, exchange, or salary alternatives for employees, and for internal consumption (except for internal circulation goods for continued production process); shipments under forms of lending, borrowing, or goods returns) and must fully record contents as stipulated in Article 10 of this Decree; in case of using e-invoices, the format must conform to the standardized data format of the tax authority as prescribed in Article 12 of this Decree.

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Based on the aforementioned regulations, it can be seen that the timing for issuing e-invoices for gas stations is upon the completion of each gasoline sale. The seller is obliged to ensure the full retention of e-invoices for gasoline sales to individual customers and ensure they can be accessed when required by the competent authority.

Thus, gas stations are mandated to issue e-invoices to customers upon completion of each sale after the completion of the gasoline sale.

Are gas stations in Vietnam required to issue e-invoices upon completion of each sale? (Image from the Internet)

Vietnam: Do e-invoices for gasoline sales include the buyer's TIN?

According to the provisions at point c, clause 14, Article 10 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP regarding invoice content as follows:

Contents of the Invoice

5. Name, address, and TIN of the buyer

a) If the buyer is a business entity with a TIN, the name, address, and TIN of the buyer must be recorded on the invoice in accordance with the enterprise registration certificate, branch operation registration certificate, business household registration certificate, taxpayer registration, TIN notification, investment registration certificate, or cooperative registration certificate.

In cases where the name or address of the buyer is too long, the seller is allowed to abbreviate a number of common nouns on the invoice, such as "Phuong" to "P"; "Quan" to "Q", "Thanh pho" to "TP", "Viet Nam" to "VN" or "Co phan" to "CP", "Trach nhiem Huu han" to "TNHH", "khu cong nghiep" to "KCN", "san xuat" to "SX", "Chi nhanh" to "CN", but must ensure full house number, street name, ward, district, city details to accurately determine the business name, address in compliance with the business registration and taxpayer registration of the enterprise.

b) If the buyer does not have a TIN, then the invoice is not required to show the buyer's TIN. In some specific cases of selling goods or providing services to individual consumers as regulated in clause 14 of this Article, the invoice does not need to display the name or address of the buyer. If goods or services are sold to foreign customers visiting Vietnam, the buyer's address details may be replaced with passport or immigration document information and nationality of the foreign customer.

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14. In some cases, e-invoices are not required to have all contents

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c) For e-invoices for sales at supermarkets or commercial centers to non-business individuals, the required invoice contents do not need to include buyer's name, address, or TIN.

For e-invoices for gasoline sales to non-business individual customers, it is not necessary to include the invoice name, form number code, invoice code, invoice number; buyer's name, address, TIN, buyer's electronic signature; seller’s digital signature or electronic signature, value-added tax rate.

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Therefore, for e-invoices selling gasoline, it is not necessary to have the buyer's TIN if the buyer does not have a TIN or the buyer is a non-business individual. However, for business entities with a TIN, the invoice must display the buyer's TIN.

What is the penalty for gas stations failing to issue e-invoices upon completion of each sale in Vietnam?

Based on clause 5, Article 24 of Decree 125/2020/ND-CP, regulations are as follows:

Penalties for Violations Regarding Invoice Issuance in Sales of Goods and Services

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5. A monetary penalty ranging from 10,000,000 VND to 20,000,000 VND will be imposed for failing to issue invoices when selling goods or providing services to customers as regulated, except for violations specified in point b, clause 2 of this Article.

6. Remedy measures: Required issuance of invoices according to regulations for acts specified at point d, clause 4, clause 5 of this Article when the buyer requests.

Therefore, should a gas station fail to issue e-invoices upon completion of each sale to a customer, it will be subjected to a monetary fine ranging from 10,000,000 VND to 20,000,000 VND, and additionally, the station must take remedial action by issuing invoices according to regulations.

Note: The above-mentioned penalty is applicable to organizations, whereas for individuals, the penalty is half of that for organizations (based on clause 5, Article 5, and clause 4, Article 7 of Decree 125/2020/ND-CP).

Additionally, based on point c, clause 1, Article 17 of Decree 125/2020/ND-CP, failing to issue invoices when selling goods or providing services, except where the taxpayer has declared tax on the value of goods and services sold or supplied in the corresponding tax period; issuing incorrect invoices for the quantity or value of goods or services to report lower tax amounts and discovered after the tax declaration filing deadline if concluded by the Tax Authority as tax evasion will result in a penalty ranging from 1 to 3 times the evaded tax amount depending on specific cases. This is the penalty for individuals, while for organizations (such as gas stations), the penalty is double that for individuals, meaning organizations will face a penalty ranging from 2 to 6 times the evaded tax amount depending on specific circumstances.