When shall the Tax Department in Vietnam refuse to issue form number of e-invoices?

What are the conditions for an authenticated e-invoice in Vietnam?

For an authenticated e-invoice (tax authority), it must comply with the regulations stipulated in point a, clause 2, Article 17 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP:

- The invoice must contain complete information;

- The invoice must be in the correct format;

- The invoice must be registered correctly;

- It must not fall under the cases where the use of a coded invoice is suspended by the tax authority.

The Tax General Department's invoice coding system automatically issues invoice codes and sends the results back to the sender.

When shall the Tax Department in Vietnam refuse to issue form number of e-invoices? (Image from Internet)

When shall the Tax Department in Vietnam refuse to issue form number of e-invoices? 

Several common errors when issuing e-invoices may lead to the tax authority refusing to issue form number of the invoice, such as:

(1) Incorrect tax identification number format

The tax identification number is a series of numbers consisting of 10 or 13 digits and other characters granted by the tax authority to individuals or entities undertaking taxpayer registration before commencing production, business activities, or upon arising obligations to the state budget.

To be specific: per clause 1, Article 5 of Circular 105/2020/TT-BTC, the tax identification number structure is as follows:

N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8N9N10 - N11N12N13

Where:

- The first two digits N1N2 are the district number of the tax identification number.

- Seven digits N3N4N5N6N7N8N9 are determined according to a specified structure, varying from 0000001 to 9999999.

- Digit N10 is the check digit.

- Three digits N11N12N13 are serial numbers from 001 to 999.

- The hyphen (-) is the character used to separate the first 10 digits group and the last 3 digits group.

(2) Phone number exceeding 20 characters

Organizations, individuals selling goods, or providing services should recheck the phone number registered with the tax authorities to ensure it conforms to the 10-digit format (there might be a previously registered phone number with 11 digits). The phone number should be entered accurately and in the correct format.

(2) Buyer's name field left blank

This issue arises when issuing invoices for retail customers or units without a tax identification number, necessitating the entry of the buyer's name.

Additionally, it can occur if the buyer's name does not match the taxpayer registration information or contains spelling errors.

(3) Buyer's email address is incorrect

An email address structure consists of two parts: [Email name]@[Domain name]

(4) The recipient's bank account number exceeding 30 characters

Bank account numbers can vary greatly, typically ranging from 6 to 15 characters (it can include numbers or a combination of numbers and letters). However, when entering the account number into the Tax General Department's invoice coding system, it must not exceed 30 characters.

(5) Incorrect invoice issuance date format

The issuance date of the first invoice must be later than the date on which the tax authority approved the electronic invoice registration declaration.

(5) Missing information on the value of goods, services, or tax rate information

Organizations, individuals selling goods, or providing services should recheck whether the values of goods, services are accurate to the actual value, and ensure all tax rates have been filled completely and accurately according to the conformable for each item.

Additionally, an e-invoice may be refused a code due to errors in the Tax General Department's invoice coding system or faults in the electronic invoicing software of the service provider authorized by the Tax General Department to supply electronic invoicing services.

Shall the e-invoices refused to issue form number of e-invoices by tax departments be canceled?

According to the regulation stated in clause 1, Article 19 of Decree 123/2020/ND-CP regarding the handling of incorrect invoices as follows:

Handling of incorrect invoices

1. If the seller discovers the electronic invoice that has been coded by the tax authority and has not been sent to the buyer with errors, the seller must notify the tax authority using Form 04/SS-HDDT, Appendix IA, issued together with this Decree, to cancel the coded electronic invoice with errors and issue a new electronic invoice, digitally sign it and send it to the tax authority for new invoice coding to replace the issued invoice to be sent to the buyer. The tax authority will cancel the coded electronic invoice with errors saved in the tax authority's system.

...

Currently, Decree 123/2020/ND-CP only provides for the cancellation of coded electronic invoices (already coded by the tax authority) with errors and does not stipulate the cancellation of e-invoices refused coding by the tax authority.

As for e-invoices refused coding, they hold no value, thus there is no need to cancel the invoice refused coding when a new invoice is issued.