What is an e-invoice service provider in Vietnam?

What are the criteria for e-invoice service providers in Vietnam?

Based on Clauses 1 and 2, Article 10 of Circular 78/2021/TT-BTC, the criteria for e-invoice service providers are as follows:

* Criteria for organizations providing e-invoice solutions with and without tax authority codes for sellers and buyers

Regarding the entity:

- It is an organization operating in the field of information technology, established in accordance with Vietnamese law;

- Information about e-invoice services is publicly available on the organization's website;

Regarding personnel: There must be at least 5 personnel with a university degree in information technology;

Regarding technology: It must have technical infrastructure, information technology equipment, and software systems that meet the following requirements:

- Provide solutions for creating, processing, storing e-invoice data with tax authority codes and e-invoices without codes for sellers and buyers according to the provisions of law on e-invoices and other relevant legal provisions;

- Have solutions to receive, transmit e-invoice data with service users; solutions for transmitting, receiving e-invoice data with the tax authority through organizations receiving, transmitting, storing e-invoice data. The process of receiving, transmitting data must be logged to serve reconciliation work;

- Have solutions for backing up, recovering, securing e-invoice data;

- Have documentation of successful technical testing results for the data transmission and reception solutions with the organization providing services to receive, transmit, store e-invoice data.

* Criteria for organizations providing services for receiving, transmitting, storing e-invoice data

Regarding the entity:

- It is an organization established in accordance with Vietnamese law, with at least 5 years of operation in the field of information technology;

- Information about e-invoice services is publicly available on the organization's website;

Regarding finances: It must have a deposit in a legally operating bank in Vietnam or a bank guarantee issued by a legally operating bank in Vietnam with a value of no less than VND 5 billion to address potential risks and compensate for damages that may occur during service provision;

Regarding personnel: There must be at least 20 personnel with a university degree in information technology;

Regarding technology: It must have technical infrastructure, information technology equipment, and software systems that meet the following requirements:

- Provide solutions for creating, processing, storing e-invoice data with tax authority codes as stipulated by law on e-invoices and other relevant legal provisions;

- Have solutions for connecting, receiving, transmitting, storing e-invoice data with organizations providing e-invoice solutions with tax authority codes and without codes for sellers and buyers; solutions for connecting, receiving, transmitting, saving e-invoice data with the tax authority. The process of receiving, transmitting data must be logged to serve reconciliation work;

- The technical infrastructure system providing e-invoice services must be operated in a main data center environment and a backup data center. The backup center must be at least 20km away from the main data center and ready to operate if the main system fails;

- The system must be able to detect, alert, prevent unauthorized access, and network attacks to ensure the security and integrity of data exchanged among participating parties;

- Have a data backup and recovery system;

- Connect with the General Department of Taxation through a private leased line or MPLS VPN Layer 3 or equivalent, including 1 main transmission channel and 2 backup transmission channels. Each transmission channel must have a minimum bandwidth of 20 Mbps; use Web Service or Queue with encryption as a method to connect; and use the SOAP/TCP protocol to package and transmit data.

What is an e-invoice service provider in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

What is an e-invoice service provider in Vietnam?

Based on Clause 12, Article 3 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, it is regulated as follows:

Interpretation of terms

In this Decree, the following terms are understood as follows:

...

10. Cancellation of invoices or documents means rendering the invoice or document unusable.

11. Destruction of invoices or documents:

a) Destruction of e-invoices or documents means making e-invoices or documents no longer exist in an information system, inaccessible and unreferenced with respect to information contained in the e-invoices or documents.

b) Destruction of printed invoices by the tax authority, destruction of printed documents, or self-printed means using methods such as burning, cutting, shredding, or other means to ensure that information and data on these invoices or documents cannot be reused.

12. An e-invoice service provider is one that offers solutions for the creation, connection, receipt, transmission, receipt, storage, and processing of data from e-invoices with the tax authority code and without the tax authority code. This includes organizations providing e-invoice solutions with tax authority codes and without such codes for sellers and buyers; organizations connecting receipt, transmission, storage of e-invoice data with the tax authority.

Thus, it is evident that an e-invoice service provider is an organization offering solutions for the creation, connection, receipt, transmission, receipt, storage, processing of data from e-invoices with the tax authority code and without the tax authority code.

What are regulations on the provision of e-invoice services in Vietnam?

The provision of e-invoice services is regulated under Article 14 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP as follows:

- In the case of using e-invoices with a tax authority code, no service fee shall be charged for 12 months from the start of using e-invoices, including:

+ Small and medium enterprises, cooperatives, households, and individual businesses located in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, and areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions.

++ These areas follow the list of investment incentive areas issued with Decree 118/2015/ND-CP (replaced by the list of investment incentive areas stipulated in Appendix III issued with Decree 31/2021/ND-CP).

+ Other small and medium enterprises as suggested by provincial or municipal People's Committees submitted to the Ministry of Finance, excluding enterprises operating in economic zones, industrial zones, high-tech zones.

++ The General Department of Taxation executes or authorizes an organization to provide e-invoice services without a service fee for the mentioned entities.

- Enterprises, economic organizations, households, and individual businesses not falling under Clause 1, Article 14 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, when using e-invoices with tax authority codes or e-invoices without tax authority codes through an e-invoice service provider, are required to pay the service fee according to the contract signed between the parties.