Vietnam: Some new regulations related to electronic documents

Clause 3 Article 1 of Circular No. 66/2019/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam amends and supplements Clause 3 Article 7 of Circular No. 110/2015/TT-BTC regulating electronic documents. Specifically, new regulations are as follows:

- Electronic records mentioned in Circular No. 66/2019/TT-BTC shall be considered as physical documents.

- Electronic records will be considered originals if one of the following methods specified in Article 5 of Decree No. 165/2018/ND-CP dated December 24, 2018 of Vietnam’s Government on e-transactions in financial operations is adopted.

- Electronic records shall be amended as prescribed in Article 8 of Decree No. 165/2018/ND-CP.

- Electronic records shall be converted to physical records and vice versa as prescribed in the Law on E-Transactions and Decree No. 165/2018/ND-CP.

Circular No. 110/2015/TT-BTC specifies that electronic documents include:

- Electronic tax documents include: taxpayer registration documents, tax declaration documents, tax refund documents, other electronic tax documents and tax reports prescribed by the Law on Tax administration and its instructional documents.

- Electronic tax invoices: electronic receipts or invoices for payment to the state budget prescribed by state budget, unless tax is paid electronically through banks.

- Other electronic documents and notifications of tax authorities and taxpayers.

Notably, these electronic documents must bear the digital signature as prescribed in Article 6 of Circular No. 110/2015/TT-BTC.

Relevant provisions can be found in Circular No. 66/2019/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, which takes effect from November 05, 2019.

Thu Ba

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