Guidance on the Timing of Issuing Electronic Invoices in Special Cases

1. Invoice Issuance Time for Special Cases

According to Article 7 of Decree 119/2018/ND-CP, the time for issuing invoices is stipulated as follows:

- The time of issuing an electronic invoice for selling goods is the time of transferring ownership/usage rights of the goods to the buyer, regardless of whether payment has been made.

- The time of issuing an electronic invoice for providing services is the time of service completion regardless of whether payment has been made.

- In case of multiple deliveries or handing over in stages, each delivery or handover must have an invoice issued for the corresponding amount and value of goods or services delivered.

Apart from the three issuance times mentioned above, Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular 68/2019/TT-BTC provides detailed guidance on the specific times of invoice issuance for some special cases as follows:

- For activities such as providing electricity, water, telecommunications services, broadcasting, IT services sold on a regular basis, the time of issuing invoices shall not exceed 7 consecutive days from the date of recording the electricity or water consumption on the meter or the end of the conventional period (based on the quantity of goods, services, and agreement between service providers and buyers) for telecommunications, broadcasting, and IT services.

- In the case of construction or installation, the time of issuing invoices is upon inspection, handover of the work items, or complete volume of construction, installation, regardless of whether payment has been made.

- For real estate business organizations, constructing infrastructure, houses for sale or transfer, the time of issuing invoices will be upon receiving payment or according to the payment agreement in the contract for cases where ownership, usage rights have not been transferred. In cases where ownership, usage rights have been transferred, the invoice must be issued at the time of transfer, regardless of whether payment has been made.

- The time of issuing electronic invoices for purchasing air transport services through the website and e-commerce systems follows international practices and should not exceed 5 days from the date the air transport service documentation is issued on the website and e-commerce system.

- For exploration, search, extraction of crude oil, condensate, and natural gas, associated gas, coal gas, the invoice issuance time is based on the provisions of Clauses 1 and 3, Article 7 of Decree 119/2018/ND-CP.

2. Requirements for Electronic Invoice Format

Article 5 of Circular 68/2019/TT-BTC stipulates that businesses providing goods and services that transmit data to tax authorities directly must meet the following requirements:

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

- Use Web Service or Message Queue (MQ) with encryption as the connection method.

- Use the SOAP protocol for data packaging and transmission.

Note: Electronic invoices must fully and accurately display the contents of electronic invoices on electronic means to ensure the buyer does not misunderstand.

More details can be found in Circular 68/2019/TT-BTC, effective from November 14, 2019.

Ngoc Duy

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