When are taxpayers in Vietnam not required to provide physical tax payment documents?

When are taxpayers in Vietnam not required to provide physical tax payment documents?

Under Point e, Clause 7, Article 8 of the Law on Tax Administration 2019 which regulates e-transactions in taxation:

E-transactions in taxation

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7. Tax authorities organizing electronic information systems shall have the responsibility to:

a) Provide guidelines, assist taxpayers, providers of e-transaction services in taxation, banks and relevant organizations in carrying out e-transactions in taxation;

b) Develop, manage, operate the electronic tax information receipt and processing system, ensuring security, safety, confidentiality and continuation;

c) Develop information sharing systems, provide information on amount of tax paid to the state budget, on electronic tax payments by taxpayers to relevant agencies, organizations, individuals so as to process administrative procedures for taxpayers as prescribed by law;

d) Update, manage, provide information on registration of electronic tax transactions of taxpayers; verify e-transactions between taxpayers collecting organizations so as to implement administration of tax and of revenues of the state budget;

dd) Process administrative tax procedures electronically;

e) In case electronic documents of taxpayers are already available in databases of tax authorities, tax authorities and tax officials shall use such data and must not request taxpayers to submit physical tax dossiers or tax payment documents.

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Thus, taxpayers in Vietnam are not required to provide physical tax payment documents if such documents are already available in databases of tax authorities, tax authorities and tax officials shall use such data.

When are taxpayers in Vietnam not required to provide physical tax payment documents? (Image from the Internet)

What is an electronic document in Vietnam?

According to Clause 2, Article 3 of Circular 19/2021/TT-BTC guiding electronic transactions in the field of taxation issued by the Minister of Finance, it is stated as follows:

Definitions

For the purposes of this Circular, the terms below shall be construed as follows:

1. “e-tax transactions” refer to transactions conducted by organizations and individuals by electronic means within the scope of this Circular.

2. “e-document” refers to information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic means when a taxpayer, tax authority or another organization or individual concerned conducts an e-tax transaction.

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Therefore, an electronic document refers to information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic means when a taxpayer, tax authority or another organization or individual concerned conducts an e-tax transaction.

How many types of electronic documents are there in Vietnam?

According to Article 6 of Circular 19/2021/TT-BTC, the types of electronic documents in electronic tax transactions are as follows:

[1] Electronic tax dossier ,including:

- Tapplications for taxpayer registration;

- Tax declaration dossiers; confirmations of fulfillment of tax obligations;

- Tracing of tax payment information;

- Procedures for offsetting overpaid tax, late payment interest and fines;

- Applications for tax refund; applications for tax exemption, applications for tax reduction; applications for late payment interest exemption; applications for late payment interest cancellation;

- Applications for tax debt freezing; applications for cancellation of tax, late payment interest and fine debt; applications for extension of tax payment deadline; applications for payment of tax debt by installments, and other electronic applications and documents prescribed in the Law on Tax Administration and legal documents elaborating the Law on Tax Administration.

[2] E-state budget payment document: the state budget payment document prescribed in Decree No. 11/2020/ND-CP in electronic form, if tax is electronically paid using the service of a bank or IPSP, the state budget payment document which is the bank’s or IPSP’s transaction document must contain all information on the sample state budget payment document.

[3] Notifications, decisions and other documents of tax authorities in electronic form.

[4] Electronic documents according to this clause must be e-signed as prescribed in Article 7 of Circular 19/2021/TT-BTC.

If an e-tax dossier contains attached documents in paper form, they must be converted into e-documents as prescribed by the Law on Electronic Transactions 2023, Decree 165/2018/ND-CP.

Thus, there are basically 4 types of electronic documents, each comprising several sub-documents.