How to determine the invoicing time in Vietnam? If the invoicing time is different from the time of digital signing, when is the time of tax declaration?
How to determine the invoicing time in Vietnam?
According to Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP stipulating the rules for issuance, management and use of invoices and records as follows:
Rules for issuance, management and use of invoices and records
1. When selling goods or providing services, the seller shall issue and send invoices to buyers (including goods/services used for sales promotion, advertising or as samples, goods/services gifted, donated, exchanged or used as salary payment to employees and internal use (except goods which are internally rotated in production process), and goods rented, lent or returned). Such invoices shall have adequate contents written according to the provisions in Article 10 hereof, except e-invoices which must follow the standard format prescribed by tax authorities as prescribed in Article 12 hereof.
At the same time, based on Clauses 2 and 4, Article 9 of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP stipulating the invoicing time in Vietnam as follows:
Invoicing time
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2. Invoices for provision of services shall be issued upon completion of the provision of services, whether the payment of the invoiced amount is made or not. In case a service is provided with payments collected in advanced or during the provision of that service, an invoice shall be issued when each payment is collected (excluding payments of deposited amounts or advance payments which are made to ensure the execution of contracts for provision of accounting, audit, financial consulting or taxation services; valuation services; technical survey and design services; supervision consulting services; investment construction project formulation services).
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4. Invoicing time in some specific cases:
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g) For retailers, and foods and drinks trading establishments that sell foods and drinks directly to consumers through their stores but all business operations are recorded at their head offices (the head office directly enters into contracts for sale of goods/provision of services; each store shall issue sales invoices to clients through its POS cash register in the name of the head office), POS cash registers are connected to computers but incapable of transmitting data to tax authorities, bills are printed out and presented to clients who do not request for e-invoices and data thereof is stored on the system, at the end of a business day, the business establishment shall, based on bill data, issue e-invoices for goods or foods and drinks sold during the day, and send them to clients if requested.
Besides, according to the provisions of Clause 8, Clause 9, Article 10 of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP, the contents of invoices are as follows:
Contents of invoices
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8. The issuance date of the invoice shall comply with the provisions in Article 9 hereof and be written in "ngày, tháng, năm” (day/month/year) format of the calendar year.
9. The date of the digital signature on an e-invoice is the date on which the seller or buyer adds his/her digital signature to that e-invoice and expressed in "ngày, tháng, năm” (day/month/year) format of the calendar year. If the date of a digital signature on an issued e-invoice is different from the issuance date of the e-invoice, the tax declaration date shall be the issuance date of that e-invoice.
Official Dispatch No. 7362/CTTPHCM-TTHT in 2022 guides as follows:
Pursuant to the above provisions and the Company's presentation, the time of issuing an e-invoice is the time when the ownership or the right to use the goods is transferred, the time of completion of the provision of services, whether the payment of the invoiced amount is made or not according to the provisions of Article 9 of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP. The e-invoices must have all the contents as prescribed in Article 10 of Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP.
How to determine the invoicing time in Vietnam? If the invoicing time is different from the time of digital signing, when is the time of tax declaration? (Image from the Internet)
If the invoicing time is different from the time of digital signing, when is the time of tax declaration?
According to Article 8 of Circular No. 219/2013/TT-BTC on the time for calculating VAT in Vietnam as follows:
Time for calculating VAT in Vietnam
1. For goods sale, VAT shall be calculated when the ownership or the right to use goods is transferred to the buyer, whether the payment is made or not.
2. For service provision, VAT shall be calculated when service provision is completed or when the invoice for service provision is made, whether the payment is made or not.
In Official Dispatch No. 7362/CTTPHCM-TTHT in 2022, Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department guides as follows:
Based on the above provisions and the Company's presentation, if the invoicing time is different from the time of digital signing, the time of tax declaration is the invoicing time, in accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of Circular No. 219/2013/TT-BTC.
Will the company be penalized if the company issues invoices at the wrong time?
Pursuant to Article 24 of Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP stipulating as follows:
Penalties for violations against regulations on issuance of invoices upon sale of goods or provision of services
1. Cautions shall be given as a form of penalty imposed for the following violations:
a) Issuing invoices at the wrong time, but not to the extent of causing any deferred fulfillment of tax obligations, under any mitigating circumstance;
b) Issuing a continuous series of invoices in ascending numerical order by exercising disagreeing invoicing authorizations (i.e. exercising authorizations to issue greater numbered invoices and not exercising authorizations to issue less numbered invoices) although entities or individuals have managed to cancel invoice books containing less numbered invoices after discovery of such situation;
c) Issuing wrong types of invoice that have already handed to buyers or been used for completion of tax declaration procedures although sellers and buyers have discovered the issuance of the wrong types of invoice and replaced them with the correct ones before competent authority’s issuance of their decisions to conduct tax inspection and examination at the defaulting taxpayer’s offices or premises, and this situation does not affect the determination of tax obligations.
2. Fines ranging from VND 500,000 to VND 1,500,000 shall be imposed for one of the following violations:
a) Failing to issue general invoices in accordance with laws on invoices for sale of goods or provision of services;
b) Failing to invoice promotional, advertising or sample goods or services; goods and services used as gifts, donations, presents, swaps or employee’s payment-in-kind wages, except for internally circulated or consumed goods for further production purposes.
3. Fines ranging from VND 3,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed for any act of issuing invoices at the wrong time, but not to the extent of causing any deferred payment of tax obligations, except as prescribed in point a of clause 1 of this Article.
4. Fines ranging from VND 4,000,000 to VND 8,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following violations:
a) Issuing invoices at the wrong time in breach of laws on invoices for sale of goods or provision of services, except as provided in point a of clause 1 and 3 of this Article;
b) Issuing invoices without conforming to the statutory ascending numerical sequence, except when the penalty in the form of caution prescribed in point b of clause 1 of this Article is imposed;
c) Issuing invoices with the invoicing dates coming ahead of the dates of purchase of invoices from tax authorities;
d) Issuing invoices not conforming to classifications prescribed in laws on invoices for sale of goods and provision of services if these invoices have already been handed to buyers or used for the completion of tax declaration procedures, except in the case of imposition of the penalty in the form of caution as provided in point c of clause 1 of this Article;
dd) Issuing e-invoices when having not yet receiving notices of consent from tax authorities or before the dates of consent to using e-invoices with/without tax authority’s codes from supervisory tax authorities;
e) Issuing invoices for sale of goods and provision of services during the period of temporary business closure, except when issuing invoices to clients for the purpose of implementing contracts signed before the date of notification of such temporary business closure;
g) Issuing e-invoices by using cash registers without network connection or transfer of electronic data to tax authorities.
5. Fines ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for any act of failing to issue invoices upon sale of goods or provision of services to buyers as required by laws, except the acts prescribed in point b of clause 2 of this Article.
6. Remedies: Compelling the issuance of invoices according to regulations with respect to the acts specified in point d of clause 4 and 5 of this Article upon buyer's request.
In Official Dispatch No. 7362/CTTPHCM-TTHT in 2022, Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department guides as follows:
In case the Company issues invoices at the wrong time, it will be penalized for violations against regulations on issuance of invoices upon sale of goods or provision of services as prescribed in Article 24 of Decree No. 125/2020/ND-CP.
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