When is an authenticated e-invoice issued separately in Vietnam?

What is an e-invoice?

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 3 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, regulations on e-invoices are stipulated as follows:

An e-invoice is an invoice with or without a tax authority code, presented in e-data form, created via e-means by an organization or individual selling goods or providing services to record information as per the legal requirements on accounting and taxation. This includes invoices generated from cash registers connected to transfer e-data to the tax authority, in which:

- An authenticated e-invoice is one where the tax authority assigns a code before the organization or individual selling goods or providing services sends it to the purchaser.

+ The tax authority code on the e-invoice includes the transaction number, a unique sequence generated by the tax authority's system, and a sequence of characters encrypted by the tax authority based on the seller's information on the invoice.

- An e-invoice without a tax authority code is an invoice sent by the organization selling goods or providing services to the purchaser without the tax authority's code.

When is an authenticated e-invoice issued separately in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

When is an authenticated e-invoice issued separately in Vietnam?

According to point a.1, Clause 2, Article 13 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, specific regulations on issuing authenticated e-invoices separately are as follows:

- Households and individuals engaged in business as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 91 of Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14 who do not meet the conditions to use authenticated e-invoices but need invoices for handing them to customers;

- Organizations not engaged in business but having sales or service provision transactions;

- Enterprises after dissolution, bankruptcy, or having terminated tax code validity with the need for liquidation of assets requiring invoices to be handed to purchasers;

- Enterprises, economic organizations, households, and business individuals subject to VAT payment under the direct method in the following cases:

+ Ceasing business activities without completing procedures to terminate tax code validity but needing asset liquidation invoices for handing to purchasers;

+ Temporarily ceasing business activities needing invoices for customers to fulfill contracts signed before the tax authority announced business suspension;

+ Subject to tax authority coercion by temporarily ceasing the use of invoices.

What are cases where an authenticated e-invoice separately provided as a VAT invoice in Vietnam?

Pursuant to point a.2, Clause 2, Article 13 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, the specific provisions for issuing an authenticated e-invoice separately as a VAT invoice are as follows:

- Enterprises, economic organizations, or other organizations subject to VAT payment under the deduction method in the following cases:

+ Ceasing business activities without completing termination procedures for tax code validity but requiring invoice issuance for asset liquidation to hand over to purchasers;

+ Temporarily suspending business activities with the need for invoices to deliver to customers to perform contracts signed prior to the tax authority notifying the business suspension;

+ Subject to tax authority coercion by stopping invoice usage.

- Non-taxable entities using the deduction method such as organizations or state agencies with auctions where the winning bid price is the selling price inclusive of VAT, which is clearly declared in auction dossiers approved by competent authorities, are granted VAT invoices for delivery to purchasers.

How is the e-invoice format regulated?

As stipulated in Article 12 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP, regulations on the format of e-invoices are as follows:

[1] The e-invoice format is a technical standard specifying the data type and data length of information fields serving the transmission, storage, and display of e-invoices. The e-invoice format uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language), created to share e-data among IT systems.

[2] The e-invoice format consists of two components: the component containing the e-invoice business data and the component containing digital signature data. For invoices with a tax authority code, there is an additional component containing data related to the tax authority code.

[3] The General Department of Taxation builds and publishes components containing e-invoice business data, digital signature data components, and provides a tool to display the contents of e-invoices according to regulations.

[4] An organization or enterprise selling goods or providing services, when transmitting e-invoice data to tax authorities directly, must meet the following requirements:

- Connect to the General Department of Taxation through a dedicated leased line or MPLS VPN Layer 3 channel, including 1 primary and 1 backup transmission channel, with each having a minimum bandwidth of 5 Mbps.

- Use Web Services or Message Queue (MQ) with encryption as a method for connection.

- Use the SOAP protocol to package and transmit data.

[5] An e-invoice must be displayed fully and accurately to ensure there is no misunderstanding, enabling the purchaser to read it electronically.